THE Supporters Trust has submitted a new application to West Northamptonshire Council for Sixfields Stadium - together with ancillary land on the stadium's original community footprint - to be registered as an Asset of Community Value.
The existing ACV expired earlier this year and we believe that the land, owned by the local authority and Northampton Town FC, should be further safeguarded for future community benefit so far as is possible under existing legislation.
The Trust – like many other Supporters Trusts across the country seeking to protect sports stadia and land – is aiming to retain ACV status for the stadium, the West Stand car park and the NTFC land immediately behind the stadium’s East Stand, all part of the original footprint of land granted by the council for club and community use when the football club moved to Sixfields 30 years ago.
We believe that this area of land should be preserved as a club asset and developed in a way that directly benefits the football club and the communities the club serves.
In determining the scope of the ACV, we have been guided by more recent Supporters Trust ACV applications up and down the country, among them Bolton Wanderers, Sheffield Wednesday and Walsall.
The wider land, on the higher level to the north and on the lower level to the east of the stadium, owned by County Developments (Northampton) Ltd (CDNL) is also an asset of the club.
But we would support the sale of this land if it removes the club’s verifiable debt to the owners, likely to be in the region of £16 million.
Some will maintain that the land behind the East Stand has not been in community use since 2014.
That is true, as the land has been neglected in the aftermath of the stadium’s old athletics track and associated facilities moving to a new site in Moulton.
But what is also true is that Sixfields was built as a community stadium.
However, the leasehold land behind the East Stand was sold by the council to NTFC/CDNL earlier this year.
According to indicative plans submitted to the council there is now a clear prospect of warehousing or other private development, of no direct benefit to the club or community, going ahead on the land immediately behind the stand and we would resist any such move.
Any suggestion that the previous ACV application delayed the building of the East Stand or cost the club money is untrue.
No objections were raised when the previous application was approved early in 2019.
The club announced its bid for the land at Sixfields had been increased from £890,000 (which the council had said on 3 November 2021 it was minded to agree ‘in principle’) to £2.05 million on 28 February 2022, a week after a public meeting at which the Supporters Trust had backed the club’s plans for the stand and land.
This increased bid was made as a counter bid to Cilldara, who at that time were unknown to the Trust but had previously been involved in negotiations with the football club’s owners and the local authority for the acquisition of both Northampton Town FC and associated land.
On the same day, the club said in its announcement: “If there is ever any development on any part of the athletics track, NTFC will agree it can only be used for the benefit of NTFC or the community.”
A new ACV would be the best-ever 30th birthday present for Sixfields stadium and the communities it serves.
