The Save our Millwall campaign response to South London Press
The Save our Millwall campaign would like to reply to the article, “Anti-sale campaign gets global backing”, which appeared in the South London Press on 21.02.14.
We would like to put the record straight, so that the readers of the South London Press can make up their own minds about who we are and our approach to trying to stopping the sale of public land to Renewal.
Save our Millwall was set-up by a Millwall supporter and the majority of the group are members of the Millwall Supporters Club; some of whom are also local community campaigners. We believe a serious campaign requires us to build a mass campaign that unites both Millwall supporters and the local community. Our on-line petition has drawn local and international support and has over 1,000 signatures.
We called a lobby of Lewisham Council for Wednesday 26th February to hand in our petition. We did not call a demonstration. We publicised the lobby by handing out over 3,000 flyers at the home game with Bolton. On that day we also collected 780 signatures for our petition. We invited Peter Garston, the Fan on the Board, to join us at the town hall so we could jointly hand in our petitions to have a bigger impact. Peter and the Defend our Den campaign have also been invited to our organising meetings so they could actually meet us and discuss their concerns. They would find we have the football club’s interests at heart.
While we welcome Peter Garston’s widening of the campaign to include other football league club’s, we are concerned that this strategy alone is failing to mobilise the thousands of Millwall supporters that live in Lewisham, neighbouring boroughs and beyond from getting involved in a campaign to get this decision reversed.
We are not naïve enough to believe that a petition or a meeting with the council alone will get the desired result we are seeking, but a growing campaign that will put increasing pressure on the council, the mayor and the councillors.
Millwall supporters are also renowned for saying what they think and we will tread on toes to protect the long term future of the club. Uncomfortable questions do need to be asked. Why did Millwall Football Club fail to tell its supporters in December that the land had been sold? Why did Lewisham Council decide to sell the land to a company operating from a mailing address? Is there a conflict of interest for both Jordana Malik, a director of Renewal, and the Mayor of Lewisham, Steve Bullock, who are both trustees of the self described charity the Surrey Canal Sports Foundation Limited who use the same address as one of Renewal’s businesses?
Our next step is a public meeting which will be held Tuesday 4th March at 7pm at The Talbot public house, 2 Tyrwhitt Road, Lewisham SE4 1QG and we invited Millwall supporters and the wider community to join us.
Follow us on Twitter @saveourmillwallContact us at
SaveOurMillwall@gmail.com
Text: 07806 545 279
http://www.saveourmillwall.
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