Plans to build 205 new homes on a sports ground in New Eltham could be thrown out on the recommendation of Greenwich Council officers.
Sigma Strategic Land, a developer, has applied to build on three football pitches at the STC Sports Ground on Ivor Grove, and knock down changing rooms, a boxing club and a social club.
A bowls club would remain and be given a new pavilion, while the football pitches would be replaced by houses, maisonettes and four five-storey blocks of flats. A new access road would be built from Green Lane.
Nearly 500 objections have been received by the council, including one from the Eltham & Chislehurst MP Clive Efford and two from local Conservative councillors Charlie Davis and Pat Greenwell. There were 23 representations in support, including some from users of the bowls club.
Efford said in his objection that he feared approving building on the STC pitches would lead to other sports grounds in the area coming under threat, and the facilities attracted people from across London and Kent.
The site is metropolitan open land – a similar designation to the Green Belt – and Greenwich’s planning officers say that Sigma has not come up with a compelling enough case to build on the playing fields, which are also part of the South East London Green Chain of open spaces.
It is one of a number of sites in the New Eltham and Avery Hill area that once served as workplace sports grounds – in this case the Standard Telephones and Cables plant in Greenwich, part of which still trades today as Alcatel. A previous plan to build on the site was rejected as long ago as 1986.
While half the homes in the current plan would be “affordable” – 54 for social rent, 18 at the higher London Affordable Rent and 31 for shared ownership – and Greenwich is not meeting its housing targets – planners say this would not overcome the “substantial and fundamental harm” caused by losing the metropolitan open land.
“The proposed residential redevelopment would constitute inappropriate development on MOL and would result in the permanent urbanisation of land which is currently open and used for sport and recreation,” the officers say in a report that will go before the council’s planning board on July 21.
Sigma had proposed replacing the football pitches by investing in pitches at nearby Southwood Park, and across the other side of the borough at Charlton Park and Bostall Heath. But Sport England was among the objectors, citing growing demand for football in the borough, while the Football Foundation called the ground “strategically important” as it had hosted 240 fixtures over the 2024-25 season.
The developer had also claimed the land should be considered “grey belt” – a designation being introduced by the Labour government – but Greenwich planners said this only applied to the Green Belt and not metropolitan open land. With the exception of a tiny plot on the borough border next to the A20, there is no Green Belt in Greenwich, unlike neighbouring Bexley and Bromley.
It is rare for a development to go to a planning board with a recommendation that it be refused, and almost unheard-of for councillors to go against their planners and approve a scheme. The mayor of London could go above Greenwich’s heads – but City Hall has also called the scheme “inappropriate development”.
Sigma would then be left to appeal to a planning inspector. In 2015 Greenwich rejected plans to build housing on the old Gaelic Athletic Association ground between Avery Hill and Sidcup – but a planning inspector overturned this because the borough was not meeting its housing targets, an issue which remains today. Only part of that development – now known as Holland Gardens – was ever built.
While the old GAA ground had been out of use for more than 20 years, the STC ground is still popular with locals who have formed their own campaign group to stop the plans.
The plan to build on the STC ground is set to be the first to be heard by Greenwich’s planning board since the election. All its members but one – Labour councillor Olu Babatola – will be new to the committee, with Eltham Park councillor and former Southwark Council leader Jeremy Fraser taking the chair for the first time.
Plans for Secret Cinema to move into Greenwich Peninsula will also be heard, with planners recommending acceptance. There are 32 objections, with local Green Party councillor Claire Selby also voicing her disapproval on the grounds of congestion in and around North Greenwich bus and Tube stations.
The planning board meeting will take place on July 21.
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