Kelvin Thomas sets out next steps for East Stand after judicial review victory

Cobblers chairman Kelvin Thomas has set out the next steps for finishing the East Stand at Sixfields after West Northamptonshire Council won their legal battle in the High Court earlier this month.

Rival bidder Cilldara launched a judicial review against the council last year but a High Court judge ruled decisively in favour of WNC and by extension the football club, allowing both parties to finally move on with the process.

There will now be a legal process between the club and the council, which could take up to six months, but in the meantime Thomas has already met with construction company Buckinghams over restarting work on the East Stand.

"We want to get it done as quickly as we can,” said Thomas. “We’ve met both the council and Buckinghams and Buckinghams have gone away to finalise a quote for us to get the East Stand finished.

"The council are working on the paperwork and we have exchanged a couple of emails and are hoping to meet up next week. I think the report said that disposal could take between three and nine months but it shouldn’t take that long.

"It’s like buying a house. We’re buying land from the council and there is a legal process to go through and things take time, but as a club we have pushed as much as we can throughout the process so one thing is for sure is that we won’t be holding anything up.

"We’ll be pushing to get it done and I know the council are keen now the judicial review is done. We can’t give a timeline until we hear back from Buckinghams but we’ve had conversations with them and they’ll dictate timelines.

"They did say that they will be able to do some work during the season but like any building process, they need to get on site and have a real good look at what needs to be replaced, what needs to be tidied up and what needs to be finished.

"All we know is that we want to get it done as quickly as we can but we can’t rush it because it’s a big job and we want to make sure we get it right. There’s lots of thinking and lots of conversations ongoing.”