The plan to evict Millwall from their land around The Den by compulsory purchase order (CPO) has been abandoned after months of fierce public pressure. In a statement Lewisham council’s elected mayor, Sir Steve Bullock, said that the CPO on Millwall’s land “should not proceed”, pulling the plug on the plan that could have threatened the club’s future existence in its historical south London home.

Residents threatened with eviction by the £1bn regeneration scheme will also be celebrating as a concerted campaign to expose the plans to detailed scrutiny has finally borne fruit.

Millwall and the battle over The Den: how the controversy has unfolded Read more

In a statement Bullock said: “I have always been clear that Millwall must be at the heart of the development and it is my view that these concerns need to be thoroughly addressed, the CPO should not proceed and that all parties concerned should enter discussions to identify an agreed way to achieve the regeneration of this area while resolving these concerns.”

Under the proposed scheme Lewisham council planned to seize Millwall’s land, evict the club’s prized community trust and sell the land on to an offshore-registered developer called Renewal. As first reported in the Guardian, Renewal was founded by two former Lewisham council officers, one of them the previous Labour mayor. The developers are ultimately owned and administered behind a veil of secrecy in the British Virgin Islands and the Isle of Man.

The CPO might have been passed last September but for the objections of the council’s own scrutiny committee, led tirelessly against huge internal pressure by the Labour councillor Alan Hall. The Association of Millwall Supporters group also campaigned relentlessly against the scheme, using social media with great skill and recruiting an impromptu investigation team to dig out the details.

Attempts to pass the CPO then ran aground again after the Guardian revealed the existence of a sales document appearing to suggest a part-owner of the developers had already been considering offering its interest for sale, a claim later dismissed by the council.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest How the Guardian first reported the story back in August 2016. Photograph: The Guardian

Finally, with the order due to be confirmed next month, the Guardian revealed that the charitable foundation at the heart of the scheme, of which Bullock is a director, had repeatedly made inaccurate claims about funding it said it had secured.

With the air turning toxic politically, previously supportive members of Lewisham’s Labour cabinet, most notably the housing member Damien Egan, began to execute a series of rapid U-turns. The end came with Bullock’s intervention on Wednesday as the mayor emerged to inflict the final blow to his own cabinet’s scheme, sparking celebrations for the club and its community for a triumph of collective action that was quickly dubbed VB Day, or victory in Bermondsey.

Willow Winston, a 72-year-old neighbour of Millwall, who was due to be evicted under the plans, has become something of a cause celebre and favourite aunt to the club’s fans during the CPO struggle. Winston was offered a paltry £58,000 for her flat by the developers, who then erected large signs in the area urging local residents to sell before they were evicted by the council.

“I am so happy this scheme has now been halted in light of these shocking recent revelations in the Guardian,” she said. “It makes a huge difference to me and to the whole community around here.

“ I’m happy for Millwall and for the community here who have had to live under this shadow for so long. I really hope we can all come together now. This kind of thing is happening in all kinds of places to so many people who feel powerless in the face of those who make these things happen.

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“The finger must now be pointed at everyone involved in this wretched scheme. My neighbours and I have really suffered. I can’t really say anything about mayor Bullock and his friends. I am glad it is not me who will be judging them.”

Bullock had been absent through the process owing to a conflict of interest having accepted a position as director of the Renewal-backed charity at the heart of the scheme, Surrey Canal Sports Foundation. He added: “I have served as a trustee of the Surrey Canal Sport Foundation for several years because I want to see excellent sports and youth facilities provided in the New Bermondsey area as well as new housing.”

The foundation, whose existence was crucial to the “public benefit” argument for development, has been at the heart of the inaccurate funding claims reported in the Guardian. The Charity Commission is assessing concerns about the foundation. Bullock told the Guardian that he would not be resigning as mayor. He is understood to be planning to review his position with the foundation once he has had a chance to study all the relevant information.

More encouraging in the longer term, Lewisham council now appears to be holding an olive branch out to Millwall, who have been excluded from the development until now but are desperate to play a part in a regeneration scheme in their own community.

In a statement Lewisham’s Labour cabinet wrote: “We have always been clear that Millwall needs to be at the heart of any development – we want the club’s future to be secure and the Millwall Community Trust must be able to continue its fantastic work in the local area.

“In the last few weeks, the new chief executive of Millwall football club, Steve Kavanagh, has identified new issues concerning the club, which the council is currently considering. Other issues have been raised in respect of the Surrey Canal Sports Foundation (SCSF). We are taking these issues seriously. The issues about the SCSF are now to be subject to an independent inquiry. The council is not now proceeding with any compulsory purchase order on New Bermondsey. Any decision that the council may take in the future will be a wholly new decision.”

The Liberal Democrat leader, Tim Farron, who has backed the Guardian’s opposition to the scheme while other leaders have remained silent, said: “This is welcome news. I am delighted for the fans and the community around Millwall FC that this decision has been taken. It is not, however, the end of the issue – there are serious questions about potential conflicts of interests and the manner in which decisions were seemingly taken.

“There must be proper answers to these questions. The council should not be allowed to sidestep them after they’ve been backed into a corner and forced to scrap their plans.”

Millwall responded to the news with this statement: “Millwall football club welcomes the two announcements today from the mayor of Lewisham and his cabinet members that the CPO process should not proceed. The CPO threat has been hanging over us, our community scheme and our local friends and neighbours for far too long. The mayor refers to it having started in February 2016, but that is incorrect. CPOs were agreed in principle by the cabinet in 2012, and the New Bermondsey CPO item first appeared on the council’s “Key Decisions” list in the summer of 2014 and remained there.

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“Today’s statements are not formal announcements by Lewisham council. They are expressions of views by the individuals concerned. We hope that they will become formal council policy, but until the council makes its position unambiguously clear, we cannot be sure. The mayor chose to become a member of the board of the Surrey Canal Sports Foundation and, as he has made clear, has no powers nor involvement in the CPO decision. Therefore, we call on the council as a matter of urgency to make a formal announcement and to confirm that the CPO process has not just been suspended but formally withdrawn, removing the threat that has hung over all involved since 2012.

“At the same time, we insist that Lewisham council proceeds with the independent investigation into all aspects of the process to date including, but not limited to, the Surrey Canal Sports Foundation and the claims about its funding that have been repeatedly made since 2014. It is essential to restore credibility and trust. This must be a recognisably independent review.

“Millwall FC has always supported the regeneration of this area and has offered to play its part. We make it clear that we remain ready to participate in a scheme in which we are, in the council’s words, at the heart of any proposed redevelopment and which will appropriately benefit the club, its community scheme and the people and businesses of Lewisham.”