The future of Sydney’s Allianz stadium has been left in the balance again after the community group fighting its demolition filed an appeal in the NSW supreme court and asked for an extension of the stay on the knockdown.

The group, Local Democracy Matters, lost its attempt to block the demolition of the stadium in the NSW land and environment court this week.

But in the NSW supreme court on Thursday it said it was appealing the decision. The court could begin hearing the matter on Monday.

Jason Lazarus, counsel for the community group, told the court it was asking for an extension of the injunction on demolition until 5 pm Monday.

In what has become a battle of strategy, the community group wants to delay the demolition until the state election on 23 March. Infrastructure NSW wants the knockdown to proceed immediately and opposed the extension of the current injunction beyond Friday to Monday.

Infrastructure NSW, which is responsible for the $730m knockdown and rebuild of the 30-year-old stadium, said the delays were costing $46,000 a day under its contract with Lend Lease and the balance of convenience lay with the government.

Justice Nicola Pain has reserved her decision on the stay overnight.

The future of the stadium is also dominating the state election campaign.

The opposition leader, Michael Daley, held a media doorstop outside the stadium this morning where trucks could be seen removing debris. The court orders allow soft demolition which includes removal of the seats and fittings.

Labor has said it will make the trust pay for the new stadium, rather than spend taxpayers’ dollars on it.

It has branded the project a waste of money that could instead be spent on hospitals and schools.

“We won’t get out of the way. There’s 16 days to go until the election. There’s no reason why this stadium should be demolished right now as it is,” Daley said.

“Only a government dripping with arrogance would proceed to knock down this stadium against the wishes of the people with 16 days to go,” he said.

The Premier, Gladys Berejiklian responded that she was “very, very concerned that the Leader of the Opposition has one policy at the next election and that is to cancel projects.”

“What does he have against the road projects he wants to cancel, the rail projectshe wants to cancel, the schools and hospitals he wants to cancel?” she said.

“We can’t afford to have New South Wales go backwards. For 16 years nothing got built in New South Wales. I don’t want to see that happen again.” she said.

The Greens are attempting to organise a community protest outside the stadium if the demolition goes ahead.

On Tuesday, in a fiery radio interview with the broadcaster Alan Jones, who also a ddirector of the trust, Daley said he would sack the trust board, including Jones, if he became premier.

He accused the trust of ripping out the sprinkler system “under the cover of darkness” in a bid to bolster the case for the redevelopment of the stadium.

The chair of the Trust, Tony Shepherd has disputed this, and pointed to the safety concerns about Allianz.