A bid to takeover Walthamstow Stadium and continue dog racing there has been launched.

A consortium of five people led by an Australian millionaire is offering the property companies who bought the stadium between £1 million and £2m more than they paid for the Chingford Road site.

If that plan does not work, the consortium is offering £250,000 a year to lease the 8.1 acre stadium, for up to five years.

The Guardian understands the Chandler family, which owns the track, netted £31.5m when it sold in May and the offer on the table is in the region of £33m.

Spokesman for the group, Rick Holloway, said: "The consortium believe in greyhound racing and they believe they can make an awful lot of money out of it.

"The Chandlers have sat on the track since the 1930s and lived off their name.

"When recessions came in they didn't go out and speculate, they just cut prize money.

"The stadium is completely over-staffed and needs to be streamlined "Greyhound racing is the number two sport in the country. If the stadium was run properly it could be very profitable."

The consortium is comprised of Richard Codd, and four more people who wish to remain anonymous at this stage.

The Guardian understands two of them are also millionaires and managing directors in the lucrative world of stock broking.

Now they are hoping the housebuilders, K W Linfoot, Yoo Capital and London and Quadrant Housing Trust will prefer to make quick profit rather than hold on to the site during the credit crunch.

The group is also uniting with others who feel strongly about The Stow, both industry insiders and local residents, to lobby the council.

Mr Holloway said they would fight future planning applications on the site "every step of the way".