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Millwall close to agreement with council over deal to stay at The Den


Millwall Football Club is close to reaching an agreement with its local authority, Lewisham, that would see the club stay in its south London home, the Guardian can reveal. The club is now working on its own plans to transform the stadium and the land around it.

There had been fears that Millwall would be forced out of Bermondsey by Lewisham’s attempt to compulsory purchase land around The Den. After a lengthy battle the council finally abandoned those plans under huge public pressure, although the threat remained that the process could be reignited to force the development through.

However, the Guardian understands that under the new Labour mayor of Lewisham, Damien Egan, club and council have enjoyed increasingly productive discussions.

Such a rapprochement had seemed impossible under the previous regime, which insisted the £2bn regeneration of “New Bermondsey” could only proceed with the hugely divisive CPO and seemed set on selling the land at an undisclosed price to an offshore-registered developer called Renewal, owned by a previous senior officer of Lewisham council.

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Under Egan’s leadership the council has shown a renewed will to accommodate its only professional league club and protect the work of the club’s successful community trust.

Plans are at an early stage, but under a proposed new arrangement Millwall would retain the land while also putting forward its own plans to transform the stadium footprint.

Should an agreement be reached to accommodate the needs of club, developer and council it will represent an astonishing turnaround to a saga that has been played out across high court hearings, newspaper revelations, a libel case and toxic social media exchanges between Lewisham councillors and members of the public.

Last week, Egan made a rare public appearance at The Den on a match day, greeting fans outside the ground in the company of club officials, a situation that would have been unthinkable during the rancourous final days of the previous mayor, Steve Bullock, and his deputy, Alan Smith.

Egan told the Guardian: “I am very grateful to Millwall FC and Renewal for joining me in what have been constructive and productive meetings over the past six months. There is still work to do, but I am pleased that we seem to be making progress towards our goal of bringing forward a development that has the support of our community.”

A spokesman for the Association of Millwall Supporters, a fan group that was at the heart of resisting the CPO plans, said: “We are very pleased that the new mayor Damien Egan has shown the leadership to have productive talks with both the club and Renewal. To have come this far so quickly suggests what was previously missing was a willingness to compromise and the expertise to make a plan work for everyone. We remain cautious, but are hopeful this could mean Millwall will be able to play a part in the development of its historical home and secure its future in south London.”