League Championship side Millwall is "close to reaching an agreement" with its local authority, Lewisham, that would see the club stay in its south London home, according to Barney Ronay of the London GUARDIAN. 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." Under the new Labour mayor of Lewisham, Damien Egan, the club and council have "enjoyed increasingly productive discussions." Such a rapprochement seemed "impossible" under the previous regime, which insisted the £2B regeneration of "New Bermondsey" could proceed only 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 (GUARDIAN, 1/21).
