A north London residents' group last week failed in its attempt to halt Arsenal Football Club's ambitious plans to move to a new stadium. The club wants to build 2,300 homes – 30 per cent of them affordable – on an adjacent site
The High Court in London refused the Islington Stadium Communities Alliance's application for a judicial review of Islington council's decision to grant planning permission to the £300m project, because of insufficient evidence.

Commenting on the ruling, ISCA spokeswoman Alison Carmichael said that the football club's proposals included two 43 metre residential tower blocks, and these were reminiscent of some of the "undesirable" designs of the 1960s.

"Have you ever heard of a football club succeeding at building hundreds of homes?" she said."[Arsenal's] plans will only produce poor-quality housing with extremely suspect designs."

Carmichael added that to accommodate Arsenal's plans, 63 "perfectly viable" businesses would have to move.

A spokesman for Arsenal said: "[We have] taken particular care to appoint architects such as Piers Gough, with a track record of producing quality buildings and designs."

Source

Housing Today