Judicial review set for stalled football stand

The parcel of land lies behind the East Stand and the running track

A judge is due to decide whether a council's sale of land surrounding a football club with a half-built stand was lawful.

Developer Cilldara was given permission by the High Court to apply for a judicial review, after its bid for land next to Northampton Town's Sixfields Stadium was rejected by West Northamptonshire Council (WNC).

Work on the club's East Stand stalled in 2014 after a £10.25m loan from the now-defunct Northampton Borough Council went missing.

The judicial review is due to be heard on 28-29 March.

The East Stand at Northampton Town's Sixfields stadium has remained unfinished since 2014

Since the original loan was made, the borough council has been succeeded by West Northamptonshire Council as part of a unitary realignment of local government in the county.

In 2021, WNC approved a deal for £2m with County Developments Northampton Ltd (CDNL), a company owned by the club's owners, to buy the land behind the stand.

A judicial review is designed to assess the lawfulness of a decision or action made by a public body.

It will look at whether any decision on the was made correctly, but not the decision itself.

It included an undertaking to complete the work on the East Stand, which has remained half-built for almost nine years.

Northampton Town said it needed direct control of the leases on the development land to complete the stand, which it would gain for the first time through the deal.

Officers recommended the CDNL bid to the Conservative-led authority, despite Cilldara bidding £3m for the same land.

The stand at the League Two club's stadium was supposed to be refurbished using money from a £10.25m loan, but work stalled in 2014 after contractors went unpaid.

The cash had originally been loaned to the club under its previous owners in 2013 to rebuild the stand and develop land around the ground.

However, the money seemingly went missing and became the subject of an ongoing police inquiry.

The deal for the land would have allowed the completion of work on the East Stand (artist's impression), the club said