A public meeting will be held at Dulwich Hamlet Football Club on February 20 to galvanize support for the stadium redevelopment campaign, writes Kirsty Purnell…
Meadow Residential, the developers behind the plans, have lodged a planning appeal against Southwark Council after the local authority failed to return a decision on the application within the thirteen weeks required under planning law.
The deadline for people to make their views known to the planning inspector is March 7.
Meadow’s initial plans, submitted to Southwark Council in April, were to pull down the current stadium and build 155 homes on the site and build a new stadium. Part of the stadium would be built on Green Dale Fields – protected land – which has led to local opposition to the plans.
The proposals met further opposition when Meadow claimed that meeting the council’s target of 35 per cent “affordable” homes was “unviable” for them. However, in January, Meadow announced that they would consider reviewing plans to meet the affordable housing target.
Dulwich Hamlet Supporters Trust, the organisers of Monday’s meeting, report that their members overwhelmingly back the redevelopment of the Champion Hill stadium. They state that the redevelopment of the site will allow the club to clear its debts and if plans are blocked, the future of the club will be put in “severe jeopardy.”
Members of the public are invited to take part in the meeting, which will be held at 7pm in the football club bar.