UK Edition
Chelsea step closer to building new £1 billion stadium as loophole used to overturn High Court
The billion pound development of Chelsea Football Club's new stadium moved a step closer on Monday night after the council sided with the club amid a row with neighbouring residents who complained the project would block their daylight.
The Premier League side has agreed a temporary lease on land following a full cabinet meeting on Monday evening of Hammersmith and Fulham Borough Council.
It overturns a High Court injunction, which was imposed when local resident Nicholas Crosthwaite, 69, and his family argued their right to light would be impaired by the redevelopment of the famous west London stadium. The move stalled the development of the 60,000 capacity arena.
However, the new agreement will now see the council use a loophole in Section 203 of the Housing and Planning Act to temporarily lease the land next to Stamford Bridge back to the club.
The Crosthwaite family, who have lived in 1-2 Stamford Cottages in Fulham, west London, for 50 years, are now entitled to compensation from the council.
Workmen can now begin the £1 billion development of Stamford Bridge, which is 122 years old and one of the oldest stadiums in the world.
Once what the councillors have agreed is enacted, only a judicial review can stop the work.
Abramovich's club have been locked in the dispute since March 2015 and Chelsea appointed a team of experts to push through the plans.
Many of Crosthwaite's neighbours on the street, where properties are sold for upwards of £1.18m, have already accepted offers of compensation.
The family, including parents Lucinda, 58, and Nicholas and their children Louis, 23, and Rose, 25, are understood to have already turned down a large sum from the club.
The 'right to light' law gives a landowner the right to receive sunlight through defined openings or gaps in buildings on his or her land.
Defending her family home, just a goal kick from the Chelsea pitch, Rose Crosthwaite said in legal documents: "My family have lived in Stamford Cottages for over 50 years and it is my home.
"It is acknowledged in the application that the sunlight and daylight will be seriously affected to five of our windows, namely living/family rooms and bedrooms by the walkway.
"It is deemed as having an unacceptable and harmful impact by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.
"This has been brought to the attention of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham officers by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea officers in their two formal letters of objection, the latest dated 19 December 2016.
"I would urge the committee to request the applicants to look again at the unsuitable sitting of the walkway so as to cause this harmful and unacceptable sense of enclosure."