New stadium for Leamington Football Club is 'far from a done deal'

The leader of Warwick District Council is “keen” to deliver a new stadium for Leamington Football Club but insists it is far from a done deal.

Fans of the Brakes, who are challenging for promotion from English football’s seventh tier, were presented with proposals for a council-owned facility last week.

It is proposed that a 4,000-capacity ground, including a three-storey building that houses the main stand, will be run autonomously by the club through a 150-year lease at a peppercorn rent.

It would be part of a wider masterplan for land to the south-west of Leamington off Europa Way, Gallows Hill and Myton Road which includes housing, residential amenities, education provision to help cater for larger housing developments nearby, a separate relocated athletics track as well as offices and the already-built BMW car showroom on Fusiliers Way, near Warwick Technology Park.

The council’s presentation shows that pre-planning – the process of smoothing out any problems with planning permission before submitting a full application – is underway with an initial report to the cabinet, the panel of Green and Labour councillors in charge of major service areas, earmarked for June 2024.

The first of two public consultations is scheduled to begin in August with a formal planning application and the all-important appraisal of funding options set to be assessed around the turn of the calendar year.

There are various other stages to go through before a tentative target date of starting building work in early 2027 in order to open the stadium in July 2028.

Leader Councillor Ian Davison (Green, Leamington Brunswick) acknowledged various aspects of the wider masterplan were interdependent and that it was too early to definitively commit to delivering a scheme that has “lots of complexity and lots of landholdings as well” but said that the Green-Labour coalition supports the project in principle.

“There are a lot of steps in this and a lot of decisions to come,” he said.

“When it comes to the business plan, we want a good deal for the football club and for them to be closer to town, partly for them and partly in climate terms – it is much better if people can walk, cycle or get a bus to a stadium like that.

“It would also need to be used a lot more than training sessions and Saturday afternoons and it would be. It is trying to create that business model that is good for the club and can generate income as well. That is what we are exploring.

“We are very keen to get something along these lines done, we are committed in that way but it is not a guarantee or full steam ahead at this point because there are a lot of issues to sort through first.

“It is one thing to be supportive but another to drive it forward. That needs a sound business case and for it all to stack up in a credible way, we are looking to do that but we can’t make promises until we have got there.

“We want facilities for all sorts of reasons that you would expect, a place feels more alive when you have things going on and we are keen on promoting sport and leisure. Those wishes all fit together but it comes back to money and the logistics of getting it to work, there are many partners involved in this one.”

Asked how confident he was that the finance could be found, Cllr Davison replied: “I am confident something can come together.

“Politics is full of competing priorities, if the council spends a few million on this then that is a few million less on something else.

“There are bits in there that we want to have, they may not all happen but I am sure something will happen and I am very keen that we don’t just leave it as a possibility for decades. That would be the worst outcome.

“It will be a challenge, how much money and political will there is not only from us but other stakeholders is among those. It is complex but we are looking for a way forward.”

It would be a particularly big step forward for the football club which was a major player at the sharp end of the non-league game until the 1980s.

The Brakes got denied promotion back to the Alliance Premier League – now the National League, the top tier outside the Football League – in 1983 and on-field fortunes plummeted following the news that Automotive Parts Leamington would be selling its ground at the time for housing.

The club was mothballed in 1988 and sat out until 2000 following the development of its current headquarters, The New Windmill Ground, Harbury Lane. It is some four miles south of the town centre with limited transport links.

If delivered, the council plans to use the current football club site as a gypsy traveller site, while the current athletics provision would be turned into public open space.