Ex-Newcastle star Les Ferdinand backed the campaign to save the pitches

A MULTIMILLION-pound scheme to build 200 new homes has been scrapped after the council said that going ahead with it would put their finances at risk.

Plans to knock down Finsbury Leisure Centre, near Old Street, and replace it with a 20-storey block of flats, a new leisure centre and rooftop football pitches had been in the pipeline for more than two years.

Labour councillors had staunchly defended the scheme against criticism that young football teams would lose space to play in the overhaul. The campaign to keep the pitches as they are had even seen former Newcastle and QPR hero Les Ferdinand join the frontline, calling for a change of heart.

This week, in a dramatic U-turn, Town Hall leader Councillor Una O’Halloran – who had been a strong proponent of the plan in the face of the opposition during her time as housing chief – said she now wanted to make it her “legacy” to “protect the football pitches”.

She told the Tribune: “Every single bit of this has gone up, even since November: construction, economic costs, the costs to the HRA. Iwould not risk the finances of the council by just doing this one project. It’s the cost and the children, I’m not going to lie, the footballers. Look at that space. I’d love it to be a green open space, protect the pitches, have it be a really affordable space.”

The EC1 Voices and parents of children who play football at the pitches had argued that the loss of open space would be detrimental to the community. In November, EC1 Voices drafted in the Public Interest Law Centre (PILC), a firm which specialises in holding public bodies to account, to take up their case.

The Tribune can reveal that the legal firm sent a letter to the council just weeks before the decision to stop the scheme.

This challenge cited the fact that the council had withheld a Rights of Light report from the public, threatening the validity of their decision to appropriate the land for a new use, and leaving the gateway open to the possibility of a judicial review in the High Court

When asked whether a legal challenge was a consideration in cancelling the scheme, Cllr O’Halloran said: “No, 100 per cent not, no.”

Councillors were previously determined to continue with the scheme.

According to council documents from March 2024, multiple new-builds were cancelled in order to free up funds for the development at the leisure centre. More than £10million had already been plugged into the scheme, the council leader confirmed.

Town Hall leader Una O’Halloran – who was a proponent of the plan – said she now wanted to make it her ‘legacy’ to ‘protect the football pitches’

Asked whether the change of direction was embarrassing, Cllr O’Halloran said: “I’ll live with this. I made this decision to stop this.

“But I am committed to re-doing that leisure centre. The leisure centre will still have a proper face-lift, the pitches will be protected, the green space, and also work with the medical centre to do a neighbourhood hub.”

She added: “I wouldn’t say it’s a failure. We’re still building homes, we’re just not building homes in that space. We’ve built homes are Redbrick, We’ve built homes at King’s Square, when Osborne went bust at the Andover we finished it.”

Both of the schemes mentioned by Cllr O’Halloran were, according to the council’s website, completed more than three years ago, providing a total of just over 150 homes for social rent. The development at Andover Estate is yet to reach completion. No spades have broken new ground on a project that would provide family accommodation for more than three years, whilst there are currently more than 16,500 people on the social housing waiting list in Islington.

The emergency decision to stop the programme was made in secret, with councillors only told of the plans two days before it was set to be discussed at a cabinet meeting. The Tribune was later invited to the Town Hall to interview Cllr O’Halloran.

Councillor Phil Graham, an independent representing Bunhill, said he was “disgusted” by the plan to cancel the re-development.

He told the Tribune: “I am absolutely seething. I’m disgusted with the current Labour group, and the fact that they’ve cancelled another one of the building projects. It’s a disgrace. This is the third set of homes that have been cancelled in Bunhill in recent times.”

He added: “This just shows they are chasing votes instead of doing what’s right for the people of Islington. I’m really upset that once again people in Bunhill ward are being let down.”

When he was still a member of the Labour Party, Cllr Graham, alongside his ward colleagues, consistently defended the scheme even in the face of community opposition.

Six months ago, another ward reprsentative, Labour councillor Valerie Bossman-Quarshie had been firm in her support for the development. At the time, she told the Tribune that football was “not coming home”. She said: “We need to make sure that housing is the thing that’s coming home. When I visit schools and I see the next generation, how can I say to them, ‘when you get older there might not be housing for you because we didn’t do this development’?”

Cllr Bossman-Quarshie declined to comment on the withdrawal of the plans this week.

Finance chief Labour councillor Diarmaid Ward had said that “doing nothing is not an option” and described the scheme as a “once in a generation opportunity” to deliver much-needed homes. He did not respond to the Tribune’s request for comment this week.

Meanwhile, campaigners say they are “over the moon” at the decision to save the pitches.

Matthew Ingram, a director of EC1 Voices, said: “We are cock-a-hoop, we’re very pleased, very grateful. They’ve listened and they’ve done a brave thing because as we go down this path of development, it becomes harder and harder to back out.”

He added: “They’ve been very brave. For Una to make this move, it’s really strong leadership. I think that they have shown that they’ve listened and that they’re responding to their local community. That’s what politics is about, that’s how it works, how people express that they’re being listened to. That matters.”