PROTESTERS, residents, politicians, sports stars and even a few dogs all turned out in force today to get a close-up look at plans to turn Walthamstow Stadium into a housing development.

The controversial proposals, revealed earlier this morning by the Guardian, will see a total of 490 homes built across a variety of buildings at the historic site.

The first in a series of consultation events into the plans was opened today at the Holiday Inn hotel in Chingford Road, where dozens of campaigners made their feelings known to representatives from developers London and Quadrant (L&Q).

Rick Holloway, leader of the Save Our Stow (SOS) group, was one of a number of passionate speakers at a rally held outside the hotel.

SOS wants to buy the stadium and re-open it as a dog racing venue, but says that L&Q has snubbed all attempts at negotiating - a claim L&Q denies.

Mr Holloway told the crowd: “This fantastic turn-out just goes to show how much the Stow still means to people.

“We don’t want no slums built on the heritage of this borough.

“We know that the stadium is viable and it can reopen and provide lots of jobs for local people.”

Formal Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United footballer and Chingford resident Teddy Sheringham attracted the attention of the crowds when he came to view the plans.

He told the Guardian: “I came here because I wanted to wish good luck to the campaign.

“[The Stow] is an important part of the local area.”

Alan Pennington, 67, of Lamorna Close in Walthamstow, agreed.

He said: “I’ve been coming to the Stow for 50 years. My granddad took me, my dad took me, and then I took my own kids. It means so much to me, it’s more than a stadium.

“We need our amusements, we don’t want social housing here. If we need it they should put the homes somewhere else.”

Emma Johns, 36, of SOS, brought her pet greyhound Go Running Whip to view the plans.

She said: “He’s not impressed by the L&Q plans. He thinks that any plans to turn it into housing is the dogs.”

But not everyone agreed.

Chingford resident Christine Foster, 67, said: “I think that people that support the Stow are romanticising about it and seeing it as something it wasn’t. Personally I don’t think they’ve really looked in-depth at what’s going on.

“When the stadium was open there were a lot of problems with parking and noise.

“We need new homes and I think the plans look quite good.”

Alice Williams, spokeswoman for L&Q, said the company would take residents' views seriously, but acknowledged that the company would not substantially change its designs for the site whatever the outcome of the consultation was.

L&Q is expected to submit a planning application for the development within the coming weeks.

The company said it could not estimate when building work would begin if the application was successful, but did say that the site “represented an investment of around £100million”.

Rick Holloway added that he thought the seven-storey structure in the development would not get planning permission because it broke council guidelines on building heights in the area.

But Simon Baxter, senior land development manager at L&Q, said the plans had been drawn up in consultation with Waltham Forest Council's planning department.