The Liberal Democrats have hit out at the ruling Labour Party’s “cloak of secrecy” with “no legal reason” after a second secret lease snub for Luton Town Football Club’s proposed academy dome training facility.
The minority party last month used a rare standing order to call in a decision by Luton Council’s Executive Committee which denied the Hatters a lease on land at Cutenhoe Road, despite the authority previously granting the club planning permission for the facility.
The dome is a requirement to allow the club to enter the Premier League games programme, which is a key part of the Hatters’ plans to be sustainable and prosperous, while affording the cash-strapped council much-needed commercial rates.
The Hatters had even gone further as to gain support from the neighbouring schools and offer local children a share of the elite level facilities, to help boost the sporting and exercise prospects of young people in the area.
And, as the council had earmarked the disused site for future education purposes, despite the dome proposal only accounting for a small section of the available land, the club also offered to return it to the council, with 12 months’ notice, if an educational development came forward.
However, despite recommendations for approval from council officers to grant a lease, Labour councillors voted in private last month to refuse this, citing commercial sensitivities. That saw the Lib Dems enact a measure that sent the decision back to the the Overview and Scrutiny Committee last night.
However, Labour councillors once again voted – seven to six – to hold the session in private, where they decided to support the Executive’s decision and not refer it back to Full Council, leaving Luton Town FC’s plans virtually dead.
Lib Dems leader David Franks said: ‘If the meeting had been in public we would have proposed that lease negotiations should proceed including payment of a commercial rent; football club responsibility for maintenance of the playing field; a free of charge shared use agreement with the local schools and the Council’s right to take the land back for educational use with 12 months notice.
“The Town Hall lawyers agreed with us, there was no legal reason to justify the final recommendation being decided in secret but Labour used their majority to make the whole meeting secret.
“What are they trying to cover up, what are they hiding from Luton residents? They are so determined to keep the issue under a cloak of secrecy there must be something they don’t want people to know. Taxpayers are entitled to know what their Council is doing with their money and their assets and why.”
Hatters chief executive Gary Sweet said last month, after the Luton Council’s Executive held a vote in private, that he was “dumbfounded by the short-sightedness” on the decision to refuse a lease.
In his programme notes before the 1-1 draw with Huddersfield game on Saturday, the club’s chairman David Wilkinson wrote: ‘It has been said before, by us and others, that we are shocked and disappointed by the Council’s decision to refuse to grant us a lease on their land by The Brache for us to build a dome for use by our academy and local schools.
‘In order for the club to progress, we believe it is vital for our academy to be in the Premier League games programme, which is only open to Clubs in EPPP categories 1 & 2.
‘This and better protection for our youth players is vital for us if we want to progress as a locally-owned and community-based football club not relying on overseas owners to generate investment.
‘We notice that Peterborough United have just been granted permission for a dome on Council land so that they can move up to Category 2.
‘As a local team this will give them a competitive advantage over us in attracting and improving young players, like we have with young Ed McJannet, who we were delighted to have become the youngest to sign a professional contract with the club since 2020 took custodianship, as he did on his 17th birthday last week.
‘It is our ambition to reach the Premier League. Everyone can see the massive improvement we have made to The Brache since taking over, but there is no room for expansion.
‘So we hope that we can work with the Council to find a way of enabling us to satisfy the requirements of the Premier League at the same time as improving and maintaining facilities for use by local schools and the community.’
