Labour Lewisham in Humiliating Climb Down on New Bermondsey Development
Following weeks of intense pressure from all sides Labour-dominated Lewisham Council have finally decided to scrap the Millwall CPO. In a statement, Lewisham council’s elected mayor, Sir Steve Bullock, said that the CPO on Millwall’s land “should not proceed”, pulling the plug on the plan that could have threatened the club’s future existence in its historical south London home. You can find out more on this here: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/jan/25/millwall-cpo-scrapped-lewisham-mayor
Lewisham Conservatives welcome this and the announcement there will be an independent inquiry. However, we are concerned how independent this inquiry will be and what scope this review will cover.
Ross Archer, Chairman of Lewisham Deptford Conservatives, says “Finally the Labour-dominated Lewisham Council have listened to concerns from local residents, the fans, the club and all political sides including their own and have effectively given this scheme the red card.
However, there are still many unanswered questions relating to this whole scheme and the Council’s handling of it. We welcome the decision to hold an independent review, but are concerned by how independent this review will be.
We cannot have the Council marking their own homework. That is why the Council must ask the Department for Communities and Local Government to conduct this review and appoint their own inspectors.”
Attached is a letter to the Lewisham Mayor and Cabinet demanding they ask the Department for Communities and Local Government to conduct the inquiry.