Deal agreed to finish Northampton Town East Stand build

The half-built East Stand at Sixfields could soon be finished

An agreement has been reached to complete a new stand at a League One football ground, nine years after construction work stopped.

Northampton Town has announced that GRS Group will be finishing the long-awaited East Stand at its Sixfields ground.

The club said it had spoken to several contractors and GRS offered the best solution.

GRS Group said it was looking forward to getting on site to start work.

Northampton Town was given a £10.2m loan to redevelop Sixfields stadium, with much of it being passed to a company called 1st Land Ltd.

The Buckingham Group was originally appointed to get the stand built, but said it had to stop work twice - initially when 1st Land Limited went into administration and again when the contracting company CDNL failed to pay in full.

CDNL eventually went into liquidation and the Buckingham Group collapsed earlier this year.

Meanwhile, West Northamptonshire Council struck a deal to sell land behind the stand to a new company called CDNL. A rival bidder applied for a judicial review into that decision but its challenge was dismissed.

The Nuneaton-based GRS Group is now taking over the project.

The Cobblers chairman Kelvin Thomas said that GRS offered the best solution

Northampton chairman Kelvin Thomas said: "We are very happy to reach this important milestone.

"Having spoken to various contractors and followed a thorough tendering process, we feel that GRS offer the best solution.

"We will now be working with GRS to finalise all aspects of the design for the stand and develop a construction timeline for them to get back on site and finish the job."

The chief executive of GRS Group, Jon Fisher, said: "We are very pleased to be selected to complete the remaining works for Northampton Town Football Club on the East Stand.

"With our local connections we understand the importance to the club and the community of this project, and we are looking forward to getting on site, completing the job and for the fans to be using the East Stand fully once again."

The club has promised to keep fans updated on progress.