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Little has "ever stood between" Chelsea Owner Roman Abramovich and realizing his "ambitions for the club," according to Magowan & Stone of the BBC. But plans for a reported £1B ($1.37B) new stadium are being "held up by one family" over its "right to light -- and the lack of it shining into" its home when the new Stamford Bridge is built. The Crosthwaites have lived in their west London cottage for 50 years and it is "so close to the Premier League club's ground that you could almost kick a football from their doorstep onto the pitch." The family took out an injunction in May over its belief the "towering" new 60,000-capacity stadium will "cast a permanent shadow" over parts of its home. The new stadium was granted planning permission one year ago and has been signed off by London Mayor Sadiq Khan, but Chelsea "called on the local council to intervene and take advantage of planning laws to stop the injunction effectively ending the planned development." Hammersmith & Fulham councilors are meeting on Monday to "decide what happens next." The dispute has already "put the brakes on the project's investment" and there is a "risk that Europe's most expensive stadium may not even get built." The club told the local council that work "cannot go ahead while there remains a risk the injunction could successfully stop the development." Chelsea's offer of legal advice worth £50,000 ($68,700) and "further compensation understood to be in the region of a six-figure sum could not persuade" the Crosthwaites to waive their "right to light" in their home (
BBC, 1/11).
