Councillors in Basingstoke are expected to approve plans to sell the authority’s portion of land at the former home of the town’s football club.

Basingstoke Town’s former home The Camrose has been vacant since the club was forced to leave in 2019, despite having a lease until 2053.

In December owner Basron Developments sold its 71 per cent ownership of the site to Sovereign Housing Developments (SHD), part of the Sovereign Network Group (SNG).

Now Basingstoke & Deane Borough Council’s cabinet will be asked on Tuesday, February 11 to agree to sell its 1.9-acre strip (29 per cent), which is towards the north of the site, to SNG so it can develop the whole site for affordable housing.

However, a long-running legal dispute remains over a covenant on the land which restricts its use to sport for the remaining 28 years of the lease. SHD will seek to terminate the lease.

The housing association is expected to submit new plans for social housing on the site although permission was granted in 2022 on appeal for two separate schemes, one for 85 homes and one for a 70-bed care home and six homes.

Co-leader and cabinet member for finance and property Cllr Gavin James said: “Doing everything we can to speed up the delivery of new affordable homes, especially homes for social rent, by working alongside our housing partners continues to be one of our key focuses.

“Following SNG’s purchase of the majority of the site and with limited opportunities for the small section of land we own, this is the best option available to us and would support the building of new social rented homes that our residents desperately need, close to the town centre and other facilities.

“We are committed to supporting grassroots sports opportunities and we are proposing to invest the proceeds from the sale of this land for football facility improvements in Basingstoke.

“We are supportive of Basingstoke Town Community Football Club’s ambitions for the future and will continue to work with the club to understand how we can support their aspirations for a sustainable future.”

The club is currently playing at the Winklebury Sports Complex.

Image: Basingstoke Town FC by Phillip Perry, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

© Thames Tap (powered by ukpropertyforums.com).

Sign up to receive our weekly free journal, The Forum here.