As days go for a Luton Town fan, Tuesday was not a particularly great one. The bulk of the attention would have been on the extremely ordinary performance on the pitch in the 2-0 loss to QPR, but earlier in the day something much worse than that happened.
That was the news that, contrary to a previous recommendation, the Executiveg Committee at Luton Council decided to refuse the club the lease on a site at CutenhoeRoad, where they had hoped to build a domed training facility to bolster the status of their academy.
I’m a huge Luton fan, but as someone born and raised in the town, and from a family with deep roots there, I’m a Lutonian first and foremost, and have a desire to see the town thrive. With that in mind this decision makes little to no sense to me.
I’ll come onto the football issue shortly, as we, but this is about more than the club. This is about the betterment of the town and the opportunity that it gives to Luton children.
It will give them a facility that can be used by the next generation for their personal development, through the offer of schools being able to use it. When you factor in the uplift it would give the area, and the funds it would provide the council during a pandemic, when budgets are being cut and services inevitably restricted as a result, it seems a ridiculous decision not to give a lease to 2020 Developments, the club’s property arm.
Then, of course, there is the football. This isn’t just about the first-team either, although naturally they will benefit should such a structure allow us to produce the next James Justin and Curtis Davies’ of this world more regularly.
This is about keeping the best of Luton’s talent inside the boundaries of the borough, allowing a proper under-21 and under-23 team to be formed to provide a gateway between the academy and the senior side. But, above all else, it elevates our status and our prospects for the future.
Thankfully, sense has initially been seen by Liberal Democrat councillors who have called in the decision. We must hope those responsible for making such an error in the first place see sense and do the right thing, which is to allow Luton and its next generation the opportunity to achieve their dreams.
- Kevin Harper’s views in this article do not represent those of Luton Town Supporters’ Trust.
Hi Kevin, I agree with your sentiments entirely on this totally ‘Outrageous decision’ to not grant this lease for the development of the LTFC’s Indoor Academy Training Dome on waste ground adjacent to Cutenhoe Road and the local Surrey Street Primary school.
The more I think about this decision the stranger it gets as to why the Executive Committee went against the approval of the lease considering that that the committee mostly made up of Labour Party members that mostly have been in favour of the various LTFC 2020 Development planning applications that have been put forward to the council over the last few years.
As mentioned by Kevin, the decision just doesn’t add up when you take into consideration that the development will NOT COST the local taxpayer a single penny, and in times when we are hearing the about the financial constraints that the council are under, which will have a detrimental effect on many everyday local public services for a few years to come, due to government funding cutbacks. The money stream that will be created by this development will not only benefit the council in commercial rent but the health & wellbeing of our local schools and children and its community when not used by the Academy players
Let’s all hope they all see common sense and is overturned as requested by the Liberal Democrats that our total opposed this crazy decision.