Sennen

Milk76 Here's another, equally likely scenario. Hadley play the long-game and evict Dulwich Hamlet at the end of next season. They then just sit on the land (which will rise in value) until the furore about the club's demise dies down, grease a few palms and get the covenant overturned. Everyone will be happier and richer, except of course the 1000 fans who regularly attend the football.

According to another poster on this thread, the council was happy to overturn the covenant 10 years ago. Why would it be any different now?

Milk76 Do you know who King's sold the ground to and at what price? Even after going into administration the previous owners would have walked away with millions.

BrandNewGuy I can't really disagree with the last part but the council were pretty quick in ruling out any dialogue with the Hadley Group. It's not really a conundrum because ultimately the football pitch will be developed, whether this happens in two years or five. All I'm interested in finding out is if the council has any inclination to help DHFC survive this because at the moment it doesn't seem so. My understanding is that this situation isn't really the clubs fault and that they were sold down the river by King's College a few years ago in what would seem to be an incredibly dodgy property deal.

Mikeb, I genuinely hope that there is someone more closely involved with the club who can give more insight on this than me. My interest is, as an ex-PE teacher who still coaches sport locally, about the loss of the club and the stadium. From the conversations I had at the last consultation I got the impression that the football side of the club is run properly and balances its books. The debt was run up by the mis-management (and I'm being pretty generous by using this phrase) of the associated facilities (bar, gym, car wash etc) by the previous owner who has previous with running down football clubs (Fisher). As crowds have tripled in the last 4 years, it would seem that the club is potentially more sustainable than ever. Also, staying on it's existing site is just not an option as this has been earmarked for property development by the owners.

The councils argument is that MOL is absolutely safeguarded from private development, to the point that it will let a football club that has been in the area for over 120 years disappear rather than even consider negotiating a compromise. Yet they openly admit that the private schools (who already own much of the Dulwich) can take MOL pretty much as they please. Find this pretty difficult to accept.

A post on another thread by a well-known Local Councillor claims that Southwark lets private schools routinely build on Metropolitan Open Land. More than a bit hypocritical if true.

James Barber, Could you elaborate on your dislike of Kingsdale and its lottery system? Also, you have never been a friend of Goodrich School. You shamelessly supported a management team that almost destroyed the school and have refused to acknowledge the amazing job the current Head has done to turn things around.

If that's the case then Southwark cannot possibly respond. I thought that Hadley had a concrete proposal for the redevelopment of Greendale.

BrandNewGuy I don't think anyone from Dulwich Hamlet sees Hadley as the saviour, which is why they are looking to Southwark Council to help remedy the situation. Unfortunately they seem to have no interest in entering into the slightest dialogue on the issue. This notion that the club can be saved just by denying immediate planning permission is beyond naive. We all know how property development issues are normally resolved in the end. .....

Pink Panther Now that the clubs debts have been paid off is it in a position where it can break even commercially or does it still need money injected by Hadley?

Hi James, Thanks for replying. Sports grounds get developed in this way pretty frequently so I wouldn't say it is highly unlikely that this wouldn't happen to Champion Hill. I also can't really comment on what happened 20yrs ago. However,the fact is that DHFC is in the hands of property developers, who generally like to develop property on the land on which they have the freehold. Do you think that they will just shrug their shoulders and walk away if they are denied planning permission? They'll let the premises fall into such disrepair that Sainsbury and local residents will beg the council to let housing get built on it. The housing will be worth much more money after Southwark have built a nice, new front garden for residents to enjoy.

Sdrs, thanks for that. However, once again the precarious situation Dulwich Hamlet FC is in isn't mentioned. Is this of any concern whatsoever to you? The proposed Greendale plans will virtually guarantee that their current ground will be developed into housing.

You mentioned earlier that if a 4G pitch was built it would be available for community use. Has this been put in writing? It would make a lot of difference to the local state schools who currently have to go cap in hand to the independent schools to gain any access to proper sporting facilities. Also, if this is about wildlife, why not just leave it as it is? Seems like a bit of a smokescreen.

I went to the second consultation and was very underwhelmed by the council's plans for the space. It seemed to me that they were just creating another large picnic area with an adventure playground (built less than 200m from another adventure playground). There was nothing in it that would appeal to anyone other than young families, dog walkers, bats, and hedgehogs. We already have plenty of open space locally for the above to enjoy. I was disappointed that there were no sport facilities included which could be used by local kids. I can only presume this was out of the fear of attracting teenagers to the area, which may scare the wildlife and mums. I'm not an expert on the Dulwich Hamlet FC situation as I watch and coach rugby, but my understanding is that if there is no compromise on the Greendale situation that,in all probability, the club will be extinct within two years (please correct me if I am wrong). I'm a bit surprised at how ill-informed our local councillor is about this situation. So the area would lose a famous old club and yet another sports facility would be lost to property development (and there is a lot more green space than sports grounds locally, discounting the private schools obviously). As someone who is actively involved in local sport, can I ask if Southwark Council has a stance on Dulwich Hamlet FC?