Thomas waiting on Trust to confirm meeting over East Stand deal

Cobblers chairman Kelvin Thomas is still hoping to arrange a meeting with the supporters' trust over the coming weeks so the two parties can 'work together' regarding the East Stand deal.

The Trust released a statement on July 28 in which they raised ‘reservations’ about the deal and called for ‘openness and transparency’ from the council when it came to the negotiations.

That prompted a response from Thomas the following week when he wrote an open letter to the Trust contesting parts of their statement and calling for a meeting resolve any disagreements.

Thomas also said last month that a deal on land at Sixfields Stadium will be discussed at September’s cabinet meeting of Northampton Borough Council, however he hopes to first meet with the Trust.

"We wrote to the trust almost three weeks ago and we offered a Zoom meeting to talk about it," said Thomas. "They've got a board meeting and then they're going to send us some dates to hold that meeting, which is definitely a positive step.

"I think the real positive for us is that the Trust now have all the information. They've said that they're here to ask questions and we welcome those questions. The Trust have now spoken to the council and they've done their freedom of information request.

"They've got a 190-page freedom of information response and nothing has come out of any of that which says that there's been any wrongdoing from the club's perspective.

"That's good news for us because that allows us to confidently move forward. We obviously already knew that but it's good that the Trust are able to confirm it in what they've said and now we're talking about the commercialities of the deal. That's what we've been talking about with the council for a while.

"It's about understanding what the Trust's views are but also understanding that we have to negotiate a deal with the council ourselves and we've got to try and get on with that and hopefully get the Trust onboard.

"Hopefully they can work together with the club because they've now seen that what we're doing is in the best interests of the club. We're looking forward to having that conversation with them and understanding their position a bit more so we can all move forward."