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Timeline of the East Stand and land debacle

26th Aug 2022

THE EAST STAND, NO DELIVER…

The timeline of the East Stand debacle…


•    2015

Northampton Borough Council (NBC) agreed to clear the massive debt from the football club and make David Bower (DB) and Kelvin Thomas (KT) the preferred bidder. 

The club was bought for £1 with some outstanding debts to clear. The council made this decision after DB & KT proved that they had the funds necessary and on the clear understanding that around £4 million would be ringfenced to complete the East Stand. 


•    2016

KT said that the work on the stand could not begin because of 'boundary issues' on the land behind the unfinished stand.


•    2017

DB & KT bought County Developments Northampton Ltd (CDNL) off the administrator for £170,000. 

This gave them control of the long leases on 21 acres of council-owned land to the north and east of Sixfields stadium.


They also quietly sold all their shares in the club’s holding company to a Chinese media company for £6.68 million, only ever announcing the sale of 60 per cent of their holding claiming that there would be a 'partnership' going forward with 5USports whereas three months after the initial announcement, in June 2017, the remaining 40 per cent was transferred to the Chinese. 

The position in November 2017 was that 5USports were the 100% shareholders of the club’s holding company, Northampton Town Ventures Ltd and - unannounced to supporters, sponsors, commercial partners and employees - the Chinese company had full control of the football club both at shareholder and board level.


•    2018

The shares sold to the Chinese were, in the words of KT, 're-acquired'. 

Based on the limited information available, the Trust considers that the shares were re-possessed legally under the conditions of the legal charge executed by 5USports in favour of Belle de Jour Ltd (a British Virgin Islands company), DB and KT.  

It is unlikely that any money was paid to the Chinese to take back the shares.


To our knowledge, two bids to buy the football club – one from a local consortium, one from a Buckinghamshire bidder – failed.

But it is clear that the owners have been trying to sell the club since at least 2017.


Following complaints from Bower and Thomas, the council’s cabinet tidied up the conflicting leases in June 2018.

KT had said prior to the meeting that this was the only thing holding up completing the East Stand.  When the document cancelling the lease, now known as the CDNL 'Running Track Lease', was presented, DB & KT declined to sign it.  

The club’s owners had and continue to have complete unfettered control over all the land behind the East Stand and there remains no valid reason for non-completion of the stand, as they said they would do when they took over in 2015.


•    2019

The club’s owners said that cash had needed to be found for unspecified and undisclosed hidden costs and that they would now seek a land deal with the council to enable the East Stand to be finished.


•    2020

Details of a joint venture arrangement with the council and CDNL, which would have seen the East Stand completed before any land was sold, were placed in the public domain.

The owners held talks with development company Cilldara who were interested in buying the club and CDNL, and with it the land. 

These talks, which took place over many months, also broke down.

 

•    2021

Northampton Borough Council was merged into a new unitary authority, West Northamptonshire Council. The leader of the new council, as before, is Councillor Jonathan Nunn (JN), with some of the NBC cabinet members also becoming cabinet members in the new council. 


A revised deal with CDNL to sell the land and see the stand completed was made public. 

This was no longer a joint venture arrangement and the council initially settled on an asking price for all the land of £890,000, an independent valuation.


Cilldara who it transpired had been involved in discussions with the former council for two years, made rival and higher bids for the land excluding the ACV registered Running Track Lease land.  

At a Zoom meeting held on 11 February 2022 between the political leaders of the council and the Trust’s representatives, JN announced for the first time the Cilldara offer and said that it was unexpected and had come 'out of the blue'.  

This was subsequently found to be inaccurate and had to be retracted by the JN following a press release from Cilldara and a critical news article in NN Journal.  

The deadline day for 'best and final' offers had been stipulated by WNC to be 17 January 2022, on which date Cilldara made an offer of £2,050,000 whereas at this date CDNL’s offer for all the land remained at £890,000. 

On 28 February 2022 Kelvin Thomas announced that a 'matching offer' of £2,050,000 had been submitted. It was not a matching offer since included was the price the Running Track Lease land.


•    2022

At a full council meeting held in public on 21 February, the Supporters Trust backed the CDNL bid since it was the Trust’s understanding that it would ensure completion of the stand.


Although it was not clear at the time, it was at this point that the goalposts were moved.

As part of the increased £2,050,000 CDNL offer it had quietly been agreed with the council that the pre-condition of stand completion first was dropped from the deal. 


With the council, for unexplained reasons, not adhering to its previously fixed deadline date of 17 January for best and final offers, Cilldara, on 4 March, further increased their offer for the land they were interested in to an unconditional £3 million plus 25% overage.  


WNC claim that the offer was considered but no evidence of this has been produced and the deciding cabinet meeting held on 8 March made no reference to it, meaning that the council's decision was founded on the previous offer of £2,050,000.


Extremely concerned that a deal might be done without the stand being completed and without any guarantee of investment for the club, the Trust invoked its legal rights in respect of the Asset of Community Value it holds on the land behind the East Stand. The Trust has until 3 September to bid to buy the land off the council.


Im the reply from JN to Trust correspondence, WNC confirmed they had dropped the 'stand first' condition from the deal.

The council has rejected the Trust’s view that personal guarantees should be obtained from DB & KT for the completion of the East Stand to an acceptable standard.  The obligation is to fall on NTFC not CDNL, not the owners.  

The council also disagrees with the Trust’s view that five years is far too long a period to allow for the completion of the stand. 

The protection for supporters will be the right (not the obligation) of the council to buy back the ACV land for £1 if the club (not the owners) fails to complete the stand within five years.  

On the ACV land, WNC say that for any offer from the Trust to be 'financially interesting' it would need to be of an amount that would reflect the potential loss of the overall CDNL deal that it would 'stymie'. 

As recently as November 2021, JN was promoting the acceptance of CDNL’s offer of £890,000 for all 21 acres of land.  It was only the bids of Cilldara that increased the potential sales price.


Cilldara has commenced High Court proceedings seeking a judicial review of the decision made by the council claiming that it was unlawful and irrational. 


If a judge agrees there is a case to be made for a judicial review this process is likely to take several months. The timescales cannot be predicted with any accuracy. 


If the judicial review finds that the council did not follow correct process then the bidding process for the land goes back to the starting gate. It would not mean that Cilldara’s bid wins the land – only that the process has to start all over again and be done properly.

 

 

 
 
 

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