Charity Commission and Northumberland County Council in discussions over Bedlington Terriers FC lease delays

A lease has not yet been signed but according to David Perry, chair of the football club, a “very positive” meeting with the council took place this week and the club is now “much more confident” that the issue will be resolved, possibly as soon as next week.

The club has secured £600,000 of private investment to install an artificial pitch, which would allow community use of Dr Pit Welfare Park and put an end to drainage issues that saw several first team’s games postponed in the last year.

A new lease must be secured before the work can begin, but despite the plans being in the works for two years, “legal issues” have prevented Northumberland County Council from signing off on the lease.

Mr Perry said: “It has been dragging on and that frustration did build. It has been very frustrating. It was email after email after email and you were still not getting anywhere.”

He added: “Obviously we have got a deadline, which we explained to them, for the beginning of the season to have the pitch down and ready.

“We are still on a timescale but we have got people waiting to jump straight on it.

“Hopefully we will get on as quickly as we can.”

The council and the football club have agreed terms for the lease but as the council technically owns the land as a charity trustee, Charity Commission consent is required to grant the lease in the agreed format.

A council spokesperson said: “Bedlington Terriers FC has a long and proud history going back some 75 years and we know what it means to the local community.

“We are doing everything we can to try and resolve this. It is a complex legal issue and we have consulted the Charity Commission on a proposed community use agreement.

“However this is currently not acceptable to them so we have asked them to reconsider.

“The leader of the council has personally written a letter of support and it is frustrating, because if the Charity Commission agreed we could resolve the lease issue quickly.

“In the meantime we continue to try and find a positive way forward.”

A Charity Commission spokesperson said: “We are engaging with Northumberland County Council, which holds the land as trustee, and have recently provided it with advice and guidance about the options it has to move matters forward in a way that is in the best interests of the charity.”

The club has thanked its supporters for their backing while the issue persists.

Mr Perry said: “I would like to thank the people of Bedlington for supporting us on this.

“They have been on Facebook and on other sites and in touch with all the councillors, and more or less pushed it forward.

“Hopefully people in the council are working as hard as they can to get this resolved.”