OUR TIME HAS COME

Many supporters and friends of the club have been asking, 'What is happening over the re-development of Sixfields' and 'What can we do?' Since the disappointing news last year that there would be a further delay before the club could realise it's plans, we have been working hard with the council and our partners to make sure that we are doing everything we can to work within their timetable, but still achieve our ambitions.

We accepted the Council's view that the whole town needs to start developing a 'Core Strategy' (a town wide plan) before matters at Sixfields can be resolved, and we also accepted that the need for our town centre to be regenerated is just as important as our plans for Sixfields. The Council has been working on both issues over the past few months.

We are pleased to say that the Council has kept to it's timetable for producing it's Core Strategy. During September and October of this year it is now consulting the public on what should be included (it's issues and options) and then over Christmas and the New Year it will work on it's plan. Then, in February and March 2008 it will again ask the public to comment on their 'preferred options'.

Obviously we believe that one of the 'issues and options' that should become a 'preferred option' is an enhanced community stadium at Sixfields financed through enabling development of the land around Sixfields. This is exactly what has happened at Milton Keynes and at other stadiums around the country.

We also believe that Sixfields as a place, needs to have more life and not just be a leisure destination and we would welcome the development of retail and housing on the site to make the area less sterile and better used. That's what we will be telling the council. We hope you share our view and we hope you will take the time to participate in the Council's consultation, like us, to ensure your opinion is taken into account.

In a seperate article on the web site we will tell you about all the issues involved, and explain further our views to you. I cannot overstate to you as supporters how important it is that we all make our opinions known both in both consultations. So please give us 10 minutes of your time to ensure that together we can achieve our goal.

Tony Clarke
Executive Director, Northampton Town Football Club