Town CEO warns Luton Borough Council the Hatters may be forced to move their training facilities out of town if lease for new Academy dome isn't agreed

Luton chief executive Gary Sweet has warned that the club might have to move their training facilities elsewhere if Luton Borough Council don’t approve the lease for the club to build a dome for their academy.

Earlier this week, the council passed Town’s application for a sports dome on a playing field off Cutenhoe Road be built by four votes to three, which means the Hatters can look to develop their academy from Category 3 to Category 2 status, allowing them to play in the Premier League’s under 23 development games programme.

Manager Nathan Jones hailed the idea, admitting it could help keep hold of future stars like Max Aarons and Jamal Lewis, who opted to leave Kenilworth Road as youngsters and are now plying their trade in the Premier League, a statement Sweet agreed with.

It looked like Town had received the green light to begin building the new area for their academy to play matches, but writing in his programme notes ahead of the Wycombe game on Saturday, the CEO revealed that was not the case.

He said: “On Wednesday evening we secured planning consent for an indoor playing facility for our academy to be located at the long-standing disused fields of the various secondary schools that once operated in South Luton.

"The air dome, which would house a 60x40 yard 3G pitch, will effectively be the final item on the checklist that would enable our highly successful - if constrained - Academy to be promoted from the Division 3 to the Division 2 of Academy football within the Elite Player Performance Plan (EPPP) run by the Premier League.

"If accomplished, this would ultimately mean that we would be able to provide a clear pathway for our elite players to progress from U18s football through to the first team by virtue of our inclusion into an U23 competitive league - essentially, the closest thing to the old reserves structure of 'Football Combination' league for those old enough to remember.

"This would result in us (Luton Town Football Club and, indeed, Luton) being better able to retain our best talent - as opposed to having our youngsters taken from us by higher placed academies for a pittance, as the EPPP rules dictate.

"This is absolutely a mandatory necessity for our future prospects, if we are to continue our progressive journey as a football club and, indeed, if we are to enhance the original cornerstones of the 2020 custodianship of this magnificent club of ours.

"Simply, the construction of this dome is a non-negotiable, 'black and white', compulsory requirement to make this transition happen.

"Whilst it is considered an EPPP necessity within the rules - specifically, for the dome to be located at the site of our existing training ground (tick) and for our Academy to have primacy of use at any time (tick) - the practicality of our usage for the dome, however, would be somewhat minimal.

"For this reason, we have volunteered to share our facility with the local schools in the area, recognising that Luton Council (i.e. the taxpayers of Luton) have a limited or no budget to be able to create any such recreational facility if we didn't.

"We were delighted and comforted by the strength of written support we gained from the four schools in the immediate area (Surrey Street Primary, Linden Academy, Chiltern Academy and Avenue Centre for Education), all of whom are looking forward to collaborating with us to enhance their children's physical well-being - the spirit of which all readers will know is fundamental to our very existence as your football club custodians.

"Indeed, we are looking forward ourselves to structuring a sharing agreement with you in the near future if we're able.

"However, whilst we know many of you think we can simply crack on and build it, we're only halfway there.

“Pre-lockdown, we had proposed a lease of the playing fields on the site adjacent to Cutenhoe Road and Park Street, immediately next to our existing training facilities at The Brache.

"This proposal offered Luton Council the opportunity for us to lease that unused land, upgrade it to pro standard (at a sizable cost) and offered to (a) build the dome (tucked neatly into the farthest corner of the site I hasten to add), (b) completely reconstruct the entire grass surface of the site (at our substantial and entire cost), (c) establish a safeguarding management and maintenance organisation to allow local schools and clubs to use the facility (also at our cost) and even (d) to pay a small rent for the facility.

"Additionally, given that the site is designated for educational use within the Local Plan - which, incidentally, would remain such when used by our Academy - we also included a clause that allowed the Council to take the land back at any time should they ever wish to build another school on that site.

"In terms of the usage, the local schools would have primacy of use of pitches Monday to Friday and we would use the site for weekend mornings for our competitive Academy games.

"We’d also ensure that a kids' community league that currently play games there on a weekend would also be accommodated. Fair?

"Unfortunately no, according to some of our local Councillors.

"Alas, we currently have a long way to go to persuade a number of Councillors who, despite agreeing to it initially, have more recently rejected the proposal meaning we can't proceed at this stage despite our plan being given consent.

"There was no formal reason given at their last meeting, making it rather difficult for us to make any form of appeal even though we’ve met all of the requirements validated by the Council's own officers and consultants.

"However, appeal we shall. And we'll look to appeal because we firmly believe that our proposals are for the good of the football club - indeed many would say that they are such an intrinsic and synchronised function.”

Sweet then went on to invite any of the Councillors who voted against the lease being granted to meet with the club personally and see just how strong the links are that have been forged between the Hatters, through their numerous initiatives already in existence, and the community.

However, he also went on to state the extremely tough and unwanted decision they might be forced to take if the dome can't be built, adding: “What I am baffled by is how any open-minded Luton Councillor can question the genuine intentions for LTFC 2020.

""You need to promote yourselves more" some have suggested.

“Since taking control of a dying club in 2008, our very mantra has been to unite and include our communities without prejudice and, usually, to our financial cost.

"All of these initiatives have been voluntary. We haven't needed to do any of them, and we have initiated them all independently, largely for the good of the town.

"Those who lack faith as to whether our intentions are good, and to those who publicly doubt our promise to share any of the facilities we are offering to build, I would like to provide you with an open invitation to you to come and meet us; to meet our passionate and professional team who deliver these programmes to your communities, and even to see them in action.

"Please ask yourselves where we would be without these initiatives and what our town would look like without them?

"And to ask what hope our town would have without the ambitions, aspirations and togetherness a successful football club provides you and your constituents!

"If has frequently been said by many that Luton and Luton Town is - or certainly should be - a harmonised, living organism that strives to better our communities and environment through the pride and aspiration elite sport offers us all.

"For this to happen we desperately need to be competitive on the pitch and where other clubs have had such facilities funded by their councils, we are beginning to feel that all the good work we are doing is taken for granted, somewhat.

"Should we be unsuccessful in securing the lease at Cutenhoe Road, for the first time in our tenure, Luton Town and Luton will be divided.

"Ultimately, because we will be unable to build the requisite facilities at our training facility, we will be faced with the ultimatum, that we either limit the ambitions of our Academy (along with the entwined ambitions of our Community Trust) or we identify a new location for our club's training facilities out of town, which would be a crying shame.

"This is such an important issue to air and one which, in the spirit of transparency and democracy, needs to be politely and professionally debated.

"Our open invitation to Councillors is repeated.

"We want it to be us who's negotiating a deal with Barcelona for our fellow young Lutonian, Max Aarons, now the club legitimately that took him from us because they were able to offer him a pathway.

"The club needs that to be us!”