The residents of West Ken and Gibbs Green have lost an application to have the CLSA between CapCo and LBHF signed. The story is below.
The residents are pursuing another High Court judicial review of the planning basis for the development. The council have issued a statement, having now signed the CLSA as soon as they heard the judgement, that went out of its way to warn Chelsea away from the EC development, even speaking on behalf of CapCo who everybody knows had more than one option in mind. Pre-judging any application the club might make seems a curious thing to do, especially since, in their response to the club's submission to the planning committee for the Seagrave Road development, the council said they would be willing to hear applications from Chelsea in future. We shall see. However, the residents have suffered a blow but not yet a fatal one. And there are those investigations still under way. And we still await the Mayor's opinion.
The development has been brutally criticised by many different parties, including the council's own commissioned independent design panel but the political dimensions are somewhat stacked against the residents and should this finally go ahead, we will be curious to hear how the council will come good on their hitherto empty promises over Stamford Bridge. We look forward to their alchemy of fitting a pint into a half pint pot. If they thwart Chelsea's deal with CapCo ultimately (and we suspect there is a warning in their statement to Roman Abramovich should he consider a buy out of the developer) we don't hold out much hope for anything but a return to their rigid position of the past. Why should they?
Still, given all we have learned in recent months, it is amazing that some fans should find them worth trusting on this issue.
Welcome to the Samsung Arena formerly known as Stamford Bridge. What a joke of a council.
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