黑洞社区

Campaigners against the redevelopment of a former greyhound track in north-east London are threatening to take housing association L&Q to court if it does not retract allegations of aggressive and threatening behaviour made against them.

L&Q said its staff had received threatening messages and been subjected to aggressive and insulting behaviour. The alleged incident happened on 2 December at an event to discuss a 320-home scheme by Conran & Partners for the Walthamstow Stadium site.

All further planned meetings were postponed after L&Q said staff feared for their safety.

The housing association has already retracted the implication that local MPs Iain Duncan Smith and Stella Creasy were part of the 鈥渢hreatening鈥� campaign.

Duncan Smith expressed outrage at the suggestion and said L&Q had behaved disgracefully.

Duncan Smith, Creasy and a BBC television crew had been due to attend another, now cancelled, consultation event last Friday.

Ricky Holloway, one of the organisers of the Save our Stow campaign, said: 鈥淭o be honest we are very very surprised [at the allegation]. We will take action if they don鈥檛 retract it.鈥�
A lawyer acting on behalf of Save our Stow sent a letter to L&Q on Tuesday threatening defamation action, Holloway said.

Although L&Q claimed this week that it was in the process of reporting the behaviour to the police, a police spokesperson said no formal allegation had been received, although the association had sought advice.

A spokesperson for Duncan Smith called for L&Q to meet local businessman Bob Morton, who put in an offer for the site six months ago. He had wanted to keep the greyhound track and build housing around it. L&Q said Morton鈥檚 offer had undervalued the site.

Morton restated his offer this week and said L&Q had deliberately underplayed his original one, which he said was for 拢8-拢9m, not the 拢4m referred to in a L&Q press release.
L&Q was unavailable for comment as 黑洞社区 went to press.