Northampton Town Sixfields land sale reaches High Court

At the centre of the legal case is the land behind Northampton Town's unfinished East Stand

A dispute over the disposal of land next to Northampton Town's Sixfields stadium has reached the High Court.

A judicial review challenging West Northamptonshire Council's decision to sell the site to the club was brought by rival bidder, property developer Cilldara.

Judge Mrs Justice Steyn presided over the two-day hearing in Birmingham.

She reserved judgement and is due to give her decision in the case at a later date.

Both the council and Cilldara were represented as well as the preferred buyer - County Developments Northampton Limited (CDNL), a company wholly owned by the club.

The dispute is over the decision by the council's cabinet to approve the sale of the land behind the unfinished East Stand to CDNL on 8 March 2022 for £2.05m, despite a higher bid from Cilldara of £3m.

The deal was also on condition the stand would be completed after remaining half built for almost a decade.

CDNL had originally offered £890k, in line with an independent valuation for the land obtained by the council, with Cilldara making a counter bid of more than double that amount.

Mr Ewan West, acting for Cilldara, told the court the history of the land was "complicated and unfortunate".

He argued the council was not obtaining "best consideration" as required by law by rejecting the higher bid, that the decision was "irrational" and that the council had been "predisposed" to favour CDNL.

The grounds of the challenge to the council's decision to sell to CDNL, he said, were a failure to run a fair process, proper consideration not being given to Cilldara's offers and the council not obtaining the best price.

"Its reason for not accepting the offer is at best, suspect," he added.

Mr West described how the Warwickshire-based company had met with the council, including its Conservative leader Jonathan Nunn, back in 2019 and had discussed a potential sale of £2.5m.

Cilldara boss James Kelly, he said, had been surprised to read subsequent reports in the press that the council was preparing to sell the land at a considerably lower price.

Mr West highlighted the council's failed loan to Northampton Town Football Club and a subsequent report into the affair by auditors KPMG, which recommended a competitive tendering process when entering into such transactions.

But, he added, there was no evidence a competitive process was followed in this case.

'Bidding war'

The hearing was held over two days at Birmingham's Administrative Court

Acting for the council, Mr James Goudie KC told the court it "had an undoubtedly difficult task to perform".

"It had cannon to the left of it and cannon to the right of it," he said.

The authority had "bent over backwards" to accommodate both parties, he said, adding there had been no procedural unfairness or irregularity and that there had been "extension after extension".

Highlighting how Cilldara's final offer of £3m had arrived "extremely late", just days before the crucial meeting in March last year, Mr Goudie told the court a competitive process was followed because "there was a bidding war which the council entertained".

On the issue of the highest offer not being accepted, "best consideration is not the same as the highest figure", the court was told.

The council dealt with both parties in an even handed manner, Mr Goudie added, but "however it decided, there was going to be a very disappointed party".

The council's barrister maintained the reliability of Cilldara's offer was a major concern and that it had conducted a campaign to lean on the council, including "whipping up the press - they were coming over heavy".

On the issue of whether council members had predetermined the outcome, there was a lack of evidence of closed mindedness on their part, he added.

A West Northamptonshire Council spokesman said: "We would like to thank Mrs Justice Steyn for her time in hearing this case and we now await the court's judgement."

Cilldara have been approached for comment.

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