Council move to complete County ground lease at last
THE COUNCIL has moved to complete Stockport County’s 250-year stadium lease by the end of April.
A new lease for the ground was agreed in 2022 but it had not been finalised.
Councillors voted to approve revised terms to resolve the outstanding commercial points and allow the completion of the new lease by the end of April 2024.
New terms propose that the club pay an increased rent of £88,039 per year until 2066 at which point it will revert to a peppercorn - a token or nominal level of rent.
The deal will see the council retain the freehold on the ground which will “only be permitted to be used as a sports stadium and functions ancillary thereto.”
It contains a forfeiture provision if the club fails to pay the agreed rent on the ground, at which point the 250 year lease would fall away and the ownership revert back to the council’s freehold.
Edgeley Park was bought by the council in 2015 to “ensure that it remained a football stadium and Stockport County could continue to play there.”
Stockport County are currently sitting in second place in League Two and are aiming to secure promotion during the campaign.
The team has been spurred on with a packed out ground of nearly 10,000 supporters regularly turning up to home games.
When the deal was first agreed in 2022, Stockport County CEO Jonathan Vaughan said: “Now the Club can focus on the long-term future of Stockport County, whilst having a positive impact on the town and its people, taking football into schools, providing better facilities for people to learn and train, whilst having a positive impact on the town’s economic growth.”