Cilldara not planning to launch appeal against judicial review verdict into Sixfields land deal

Cilldara do not plan to review the outcome of the judicial review into the Sixfields land deal between West Northamptonshire Council and Northampton Town Football Club.

A High Court judge this week ruled in favour of the council after Cilldara launched a judicial review into the process that led to WNC agreeing a £2million deal with the football club for 21 acres of land near Sixfields. Judge Mrs Justice Steyn dismissed all of the claims against the council.

Cilldara do now have the option to appeal the outcome, however they have confirmed to the Chron that there is no plan to do so, allowing WNC and the football club to finally move forward. The next stage is to draw up and sign off the legal paperwork before work can then restart on the East Stand.

"While the outcome of the judicial review is disappointing, we note that while the judge notes that the wide discrepancy in the value of the respective offers, she appears to dismiss the significant loss to the council taxpayers,” said Cilldara in a statement.

"The failure of the council to engage with my clients, Cilldara, throughout their machinations to sell the site to CDNL were highlighted both by our counsel Ewan West and acknowledged by the judge.

“The wide discrepancy in the decision of West Northamptonshire Council to accept £2 million for 21 acres of land over £3 million for 17 acres of land has effectively been ignored.

"We now look forward to seeing what the reaction of individual councilors and the citizens of West Northamptonshire will be to the decision of the council to sell this land for what appears to be considerably less than we could have obtained from Cilldara.”

The judge, however, reached the conclusion that CDNL's was preferable on ‘financial grounds’ due to the fact that they hold the lease on the main site at Sixfields.

In her verdict, she said: “The conclusion is that, on balance, the CDNL offer is to be preferred on financial grounds. This is primarily because whilst it is lower, it is not subject to the risk and delay likely to result from an attempt by the council to break the Main Site Lease (which could not occur earlier than 2024 in any event).

"It is anticipated that CDNL would robustly challenge any attempt by WNC to terminate the Main Site Lease and might litigate (arguing that the council was not entitled to break the lease). Litigation is likely to be expensive and time-consuming and of uncertain outcome.

"So there are risks in seeking to terminate the Main Site Lease in order to progress a deal with Cilldara (or any other party). Accepting the CDNL offer removes those risks, although of course Cilldara may challenge a decision to proceed with CDNL and not with Cilldara, which would be limited to a challenge to the decision-making process. These are less likely to result in significant delay and the range of possible outcomes is more limited and therefore easier to assess.”