WALTHAMSTOW Stadium looks set to remain empty for at least another year, with conflicting information coming from the new owners.
In a letter to Walthamstow MP Neil Gerrard, owner London and Quadrant’s (L&Q) group director of development said it does not expect to submit a planning application for a housing development before next year.
But L&Q told the Guardian it still expects to seek permission for the development in the Autumn.
The housing association has refused requests to re-introduce racing on the site on a temporary basis by campaign group Save Our Stow (SoS), despite declaring it is “taking its time (in finalising plans) to ensure an appropriate solution is achieved”.
Mr Gerrard asked if L&Q was willing to discuss SoS’s bid to lease the site until the plans are formalised, or to buy it outright.
He said: “It is going to be at least another six or seven months before a planning application will be submitted - never mind work starting.
"(Is L&Q) prepared to sit down and talk to people who have a serious offer to make, or not? You would hope the answer would be yes.”
“It is obvious they won’t go ahead with the development for a while.”
An L&Q spokeswoman said: “Although we have had a number of discussions with SoS this has not resulted in a substantive offer from them.
“We therefore reiterate our position that we are not looking for offers to buy or lease the site and we are not prepared to enter into any further communication unless a substantiated, evidenced offer in the terms we have outlined has been received."
SoS campaigner Rick Holloway is annoyed that L&Q do not take the group’s £12.2million offer seriously and is worried the stadium could remain empty for years.
He said: “Why not lease it? I don’t know why they are against it. I don’t think they take us seriously but they should do because we won’t go away.
The council is refusing to release an independent planning review which examined the best use of the site.
SoS is planning a demonstration outside the Chingford Road stadium on Saturday, July 4, from 12pm.
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