POPPIES VOICE

Richard Atkinson, Jeremy Nicholls, Wayne Tideswell and Gary Foreman asked the following multi-part question:

“What is the current state of play with regard to Frenches Field and the move back to Kettering?  Or is it the long-term plan now to stay at Latimer Park?’  This question may have been presented before the recent club statement on the subject.  The club is delighted to confirm that our purchase of land at Weekly Glebe, for the development of our future home, has been approved by the Secretary of State.  This is a significant milestone in our journey back to Kettering and means that we can now progress to the final phase of land purchase.  In reality this project will take several years to complete but we have started the journey. 

For the avoidance of doubt, the club will retain Latimer Park, which will be used by the Academy, various KTFC teams as well as being made available for external hire.

‘If a new ground in Kettering- What are the remaining hurdles with the purchase and development and how confident is the Club in being able to tackle them?’  

The next phase will be to sign the base purchase contracts, which could only be completed once the Secretary of State had approved the sale of the land.  The club have ensured that we have various protections in place, to ultimately ensure that we only make full payment once plans have been approved.   The club has, and will continue to take steps throughout the project to protect ourselves and we will not put the club in any financial danger.  There will no doubt be challenges along the way, as there would be with any large-scale development project, but we will tackle them one by one.

Note:

The board’s response is made to the question presented, which may have been adjusted where multiple people asked a similar question.  If you were named as someone who submitted the question but feel it does not reflect your original request, then please present your question again – stressing what was omitted/changed.

Watch out for more responses.