Plans to tear down a much-loved sports ground in New Eltham and replace it with 205 new homes have been rejected by Greenwich Council – but delighted neighbours have been warned that the developer is likely to appeal.
Greenwich’s planning board unanimously threw out the plans to bulldoze the STC Sports Club on Ivor Grove, along with its clubhouse, changing rooms, three football pitches and boxing clubs.
Nearly 500 objections were 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 from users of the adjacent bowls club, which had been promised a new clubhouse.
Council planning officers had recommended that the plans from Sigma Strategic Land were turned down, even though the company had amended its plans to include more social housing — of the 205 homes, 62 would be for social rent and 41 for shared ownership.
The site is metropolitan open land – a similar designation to the Green Belt – and Greenwich’s planning officers said that Sigma had not come up with a compelling enough case to build on the playing fields. City Hall had also objected on the same grounds, calling the plans “inappropriate development”.
Sigma had pledged to invest in playing fields in nearby Southwood Park, as well as Charlton Park and Bostall Heath on the other side of the borough, to compensate.
The meeting on Tuesday got off to a difficult start with not enough chairs provided for the 130 people who had gathered, with some having to raid a nearby meeting room to bring in their own chairs.
Then there were tetchy exchanges with residents because some of the microphones, including that of the planning chair Jeremy Fraser and those of his officers, were not working properly, for what proved to be an hour-long presentation on the plans. Half of the presentation was devoted to a detailed explanation of the reasons for refusal.
Pat Greenwell, a Conservative councillor for Mottingham, Coldharbour & New Eltham, backed the residents. She said: “The STC Sports Club is a friendly, family, social and sports club for all ages.
“I have very happy memories of my grandson Tom training there with Eltham Lions at the age of seven. He’s now 20 and still loves his football and gained so much confidence playing the game.
“ In 2024, the mayor Sadiq Khan gave a continued commitment to the protection of London’s metropolitan open land. He said it played a crucial role in the capital’s network of green infrastructure. This development cannot be allowed to go ahead.”
Greenwell branded Sigma’s plans to reprovide the pitches elsewhere in the borough as “unbelievable”.
Her colleague Charlie Davis added: “Approving this application would inevitably send a message that these protections are negotiable, inviting further speculative proposals and protected land elsewhere in Greenwich.
“This is not an abandoned site; it is an active sports ground. Once these pitches are built on, they are gone forever.”
Davis also accused Sigma of planning to secure planning permission so it could sell the site on to a developer who could then request a cut in the number of “affordable” homes.
Simon Trill, from the STC Development Action Group, said: “ The proposal would destroy three football pitches, which are in high demand. Nineteen teams, including juniors, have signed up to use STC as their home ground for next season. These pitches are patently not surplus to requirements, and their loss would be irrecoverable in the local area.”
Another neighbour, Laura Say, said: “There’s a boxing club, a social club, and when the pitches are free, neighbours walking, families with their pushchairs, and older residents who cross it every single day. The club itself is a really popular place where people celebrate weddings, birthdays and hold wakes. This is not neglected land. It’s not waiting to be rescued.
“It is living, used, and much loved as a community space.”
Say acknowledged that the clubhouse was not in a good condition, but added: “The freeholder has only ever granted short leases, which means there’s no ability to secure any grants that would help to repair them. This neglect has been engineered over several years, and it is now offered to you as the reason to build.”
Lesley Crook, of the King’s Bowls Club, which stands to get a new clubhouse, said the development would ““deliver much-needed new homes while also securing the long-term future of an important community facility”.
Philip Allin, of Sigma’s agent Boyer Planning, said the plans had “evolved over a considerable period of time”.
“We do acknowledge that the existing pitches are used by a number of different football clubs, but there are a number of factors that we believe should be taken into consideration,” he said. “The pitches are on private land and are not subject to any secured community access agreement, and therefore they are not available for use by the general public.”
He also said the ground did not feature in a council policy outlining where investment in new sports pitches should go.
Challenged by Labour councillor Olu Babatola to explain why the objectors were wrong, Allin said: “We’re not saying they’re wrong, but I’m setting out our case for why, having regard to the relevant planning considerations … the proposals in the round are in accordance with the development plan, and should be permitted.”
Fraser rebuked Allin for his comments that the public did not have a right to use the pitches. “I did not appreciate the inference in the agent’s suggestion that, as this is a private site, that they could decide not to have any football on these grounds,” he said. “I don’t appreciate that kind of threat at this committee.”
After the committee of Labour, Green and Conservative councillors unanimously rejected the scheme, Fraser warned that Sigma was likely to appeal.
Both the London mayor Sir Sadiq Khan and the new housing secretary, Angela Rayner, could also overturn Greenwich’s decision to reject the scheme, although City Hall’s objections signalled that it is unlikely that Khan would intervene.
“We understand the applicant may go elsewhere to question our decision,” he said. “So we’d hope that you, as a community, stay together to continue to be able to argue this. But we have. This isn’t the end.”
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