Northampton Town 'very close' to stand contract with council

Kelvin Thomas said he hoped the East Stand would be completed by 2026

The contract which will lead to a long-awaited football stadium stand being finished is "very close" to being signed, the club's chairman said.

Northampton Town's East Stand has remained unfinished since construction stopped in 2014.

West Northamptonshire Council agreed to sell land to the club, with completing the stand part of the deal.

Club chairman Kelvin Thomas says he is hoping "February will be a good month" to conclude the contract.

The plan to redevelop the East Stand at Sixfields was first announced in 2013 and Buckingham Group, the main contractor, started work the following year.

However, Buckingham Group stopped within a year, saying they had not been paid, and downed tools again the following year for the same reason.

The stand at Sixfields has remained unfinished since 2014

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

It included an undertaking to complete the work on the ground's East Stand.

But the deal was subject to a judicial review last year, brought against WNC by a rival bidder, with the High Court ruling in favour of the council.

"We haven't signed the contract with the council but we're very close to that," Mr Thomas told BBC Radio Northampton's Cobblers Show.

Earlier this month, construction firm ICS Contracting started preparatory work behind the stand.

Mr Thomas said an engineers' report on the existing structure was "very good, we're pleased about that".

"We're getting there with the final design... there is a lot of work going on," he said.

The chairman said he hoped the stand would be finished before the end of next season.