Councillor Damien Egan, the Labour cabinet member responsible for housing, has withdrawn his backing for the controversial compulsory order (CPO) scheme to seize land from Millwall around the English League One football club’s home stadium.
Earlier this week, 45 of Lewisham’s 54 elected Labour councillors backed calls for the planned project to be submitted to an independent inquiry. Egan yesterday (Tuesday) announced that he could no longer support the scheme, due to doubts over development partner Renewal.
The Guardian newspaper said that given Egan’s long-term support of the plans, as well as his position as effectively the sponsor of the scheme, it is “extremely difficult” to see how the CPO can continue in its current form.
Barry Quirk, chief executive of the council, has already said that an independent review of the project will go ahead, which will come as a blow to Lewisham Mayor Sir Steve Bullock, a staunch supporter of the scheme.
Upon announcing his decision to withdraw support, Egan, who was a close ally of Bullock on the plans, said: “We should completely revisit the planning application that was made by Renewal in 2011 and go back to the drawing board.
“I don’t think it is acceptable that the public still have questions as to who the financial beneficiaries of the Renewal scheme are, I think this is information we should now be asking of all developers.”
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