Football club granted new 50-year lease for ground
ReutersA football club has been granted a new 50-year lease for its stadium and training ground.
National League side Boreham Wood FC will hold a single lease covering Meadow Park, which is also used by Arsenal Women, and an adjacent training pitch.
The Hertfordshire club currently holds separate leases for both, which will be surrendered and replaced by the new agreement that covers the whole site.
On 16 September councillors at Hertsmere Borough Council unanimously agreed to the principle of changing the lease, with the full terms still to be negotiated and brought back to the authority later this year.
Jeremy Newmark, the council's leader, said: "The club have quite reasonably written to us asking for a single, consolidated 50-year lease and officers agree with me that the moment should be used to regularise the entire position and the entire holding because the status quo is a mess that has evolved over time."
The club has been working on a £3.75m redevelopment project that included building a new South Stand and improving other facilities at the ground.
Meadow Park's existing lease runs until 2049, while the training pitch agreement expires in 2029, according to Local Democracy Reporting Service.
Each lease has separate rent review arrangements and a different method for determining how much Boreham Wood FC would pay.
The plans were also backed by the Liberal Democrats, Conservatives, Reform UK and Hertsmere First opposition groups.
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