Hatters boss Nathan Jones says there is a fight on to move the football club forward after Luton Council gave them planning permission for an academy training dome, but then refused a lease for the land.
Despite council officers recommending approval, councillors on the Executive committee voted in private on Monday evening for refusal.
In his programme notes ahead of the 2-0 Championship defeat to QPR on Tuesday, Luton Town chief executive Gary Sweet said he had not been informed the reason for that decision and called on fans to contact their local representatives for an explanation.
Unless the decision can be called in for review by other councillors, it effectively scuppers Luton’s hopes of building state-of-the-art academy facilities in the town that would be a boost for young people and help provide a sustainable future for the club, while generating income for the area.
Its understood the council wish to retain the land at Cutenhoe Road for educational use, however, it is a piece of land that already has two schools either side of it and another one within a mile. Both of those neighbouring schools support the Hatters’ plans which had laid out that the Council could take back the land at any point, should an educational development come forward.
This major setback comes after it took almost four years to gain planning permission to build a new 17,500-seat stadium at Power Court in the town centre and Hatters boss Nathan Jones has compared the club’s development struggles to those at his old club Brighton and Hove Albion.
He said: “I signed as a player in the year 2000. (Then manager) Micky Adams’ words to me were, ‘however long you want, you tell me the length of contract you want and by the time that contract finishes, we’ll have a brand new stadium’.
“That was the year 2000 and they moved into the Amex (Stadium) in the year 2012 because a lot of people just blocked things.
“There was millions in legal costs and putting things through planning and they finally got it 12 years later. And it’s been a wonderful thing for Brighton and for the city. Wonderful, absolutely wonderful.
“Then I came here and there’s been a fight on to move the club forward. If the club moves forward with the planning that it had – so let’s go back to that first – the whole of Bedfordshire would benefit from that.
“If the football club’s doing well, that generates a lot for the community. It adds a certain bit of traffic and so on, but it brings people to the town, to the county and, as a League Two side, it doesn’t bring as many. As a Championship side, it brings more.
“If we can go another step, it opens up a whole new world. Now, to get to that level, we’ve got to a certain level, praise the lord, through all good work on all levels right throughout the club.
“Now, we’re at our limits here and for us to move to the next level, we need certain things to happen. One of those is to make sure we get a new stadium, so that we can compete at this level.”
A domed youth training facility is required for the club to enter the Premier League games programme, which they hoped would happen from the start of next season. That would attract and retain better players and provide a greater route through to the first team and beyond.
The Hatters sold academy ace James Justin to Premier League Leicester City last summer in a multi-million pound deal after the Lutonian had helped his hometown club to consecutive promotions.
Jones said: “To move to the next level, we need to be able to recruit from a young age, to develop our own and to do another James Justin on a bigger scale.
“Then, we can compete at the next level and to do that, a dome starting off to go Category 2, to open up our scope and have a greater catchment area and a greater pull to attract these players and develop them, because we believe we do good work, all these things need to happen.
“I can’t believe that it’s taken this long to do all those things, because they’re logical.”
Luton also set out plans for the training facility to be used by local schools and Jones said: “To do a dome would benefit everyone, absolutely everyone, not just the football club, everyone.
“It’ll give us Category 2 and good footballers that are in schools can stay in the Luton area, can train and be in a Category 2, eventually a Category 1.
“Hopefully, with the pathway we’ve got, get in the first team, be a footballer, be a Premier League footballer.
“It’s (the council’s decision) short-sightedness for me. Obviously, I’m slightly biased but I can’t see a legitimate reason why permission’s taken this long to do all those things, if we are thinking about long-term for the area, the community and taking this club, town and county forward.”
