Additional offer of £3 million for land surrounding Northampton Town’s stadium ‘not recommended to council members’

An additional offer of £3 million for land next to Northampton Town Football Club’s stadium was “not recommended to council members”.

The deal with County Developments (Northampton) Limited (CDNL), worth £2.05 million, for 22 acres of land next to Sixfields was approved at a West Northamptonshire Cabinet meeting last night (March 8).

However rival bidders and private land developers, Cilldara, had submitted a higher bid of £3 million, prior to the meeting.

According to the council, this bid was “not recommended to council members” and the CDNL offer was labelled as “preferred”, based on “financial reasons”.

A council spokesman said: “An alternative £3m bid from development company Cilldara was not recommended to members as the professional assessment of best consideration recommended the CDNL offer for financial reasons as stated in the report [cabinet report on the land deal].”

In the report, cabinet states the potential for overage, the ability to repurchase the running track site for £1 if the East Stand is not finished in five years and the potential for additional income as the financial reasons.

In summary, the report states: “Overall, this suggests that the CDNL offer is to be preferred, on purely financial considerations.

“Whilst the Cilldara offer is theoretically marginally higher, the effort and risk attached to securing the return of the HWRC site and ancillary land, and the potential for Homes England clawback overage mean it is likely to be in the council’s financial interests to proceed with the CDNL offer.”

Councillor Malcolm Longley, Cabinet Member for Finance, added: “Following comments we received from colleagues at a full council meeting last month, we’ve given this issue a great deal of further consideration.

“In that time, we received revised bids from both parties, and we have had officers give them due consideration.

“Based on their advice, along with additional specialist advice we commissioned, we have decided that the CDNL bid is the most prudent of the two options."

Now the deal has been agreed, legal papers will be drawn up and signed, which is expected to take six to eight weeks.

The running track site to the east of the stadium will transfer from CDNL to the football club for its future benefit and, if work on the stand is not completed to the council’s satisfaction within five years, the council will be able to buy the site back for £1.

The section of land being sold is broadly bounded by the Sixfields Stadium to the west, Walter Tull Way to the north, Tweed Road to the east and Edgar Mobbs Way to the south.

It also includes the car park adjacent to the household waste recycling centre, the council will retain the freehold of the household waste recycling centre and ancillary land.

If any of this land is sold within five years without any investment being made to ready it for development, the council will receive a proportion of the profit.

The full cabinet report can be viewed here.