Council wins Northampton Town stadium legal fight

The planned sale of land next to Northampton Town's Sixfields stadium to the club can finally go ahead after a High Court ruling.

A judicial review brought by a rival bidder, Cilldara, has backed West Northamptonshire Council's (WNC) proposals.

Under the deal, approved by the court, the club's half-built East Stand can be finished a decade after work began.

The council said it had been "completely vindicated".

The dispute arose after the council voted to sell land to County Developments Northampton Limited (CDNL), which is owned by the club.

Cilldara Group Holdings made a series of higher offers culminating in a £3m bid, but this was rejected in favour of CDNL by the council's cabinet.

The company then initiated the judicial review, arguing the council was not obtaining the best value for local taxpayers, as mandated by law.

Mrs Justice Karen Steyn, who heard the case at the Administrative Court in Birmingham in March, rejected this argument.

In her judgment, she said CDNL's offer, which was almost £1m lower, achieved "best consideration" because, she said, the council was "reasonably entitled to take the view that Cilldara's offer was not reasonably obtainable".

The judge also rejected a further five arguments put forward by the claimant, including whether the council had already made up its mind to favour CDNL before considering the counter offer.

The leader of West Northamptonshire Council, Jonathan Nunn, said: "We always make important decisions through the most careful consideration, and this decision was one for which we thought through every aspect and detail.

"We still have much work to do in shaping and agreeing the final detail of the contractual arrangements with the club, and this will commence immediately."

CDNL's offer included a clause to complete the East Stand within five years of the land being sold to them, or the council would be entitled to buy the land back for £1.

Northampton Town chairman Kelvin Thomas said: "We are extremely happy with the decision which shows very clearly that the appropriate processes were followed by the council and the club all along.

"Of course, these delays have been extremely frustrating and harmful to the club and there has been a lot of inappropriate and unfounded comments surrounding the original decision by certain parties, but we can now hopefully begin to move forward again on both the contract with the council and reopening discussions with Buckinghams regarding the East Stand."

Buckingham Group Contracting was the construction firm which started work on the stand back in 2014 but walked off site after it was not paid.

Cilldara said the judgement had been based on "legal niceties".

In a statement, the company said while the judge noted the "wide discrepancy in the value of the respective offers", she appeared to "dismiss the significant loss to the council taxpayers".

It continued: "The failure of the council to engage with my clients, Cilldara, throughout their machinations to sell the site to CDNL were highlighted both by our counsel Ewan West and acknowledged by the judge."

Cilldara went on to say the "wide discrepancy" over West Northamptonshire Council's decision "to accept £2 million for 21 acres of land over £3 million for 17 acres of land has effectively been ignored".

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