Meadowbank – Sale will only go ahead if Community Football is protected for the long term

Accepting Dorking Wanderers' offer for the freehold of the Meadowbank stadium would release funds to invest in other community facilities across Mole Valley, while ensuring Surrey FA can continue to provide community football in Dorking for the next 45 years.

The Meadowbank Stadium is a fantastic facility, which received cross-party support when it was first proposed and we are all very proud of it.

The Council has received an offer from Dorking Wanderers FC to buy the freehold. Councillors are under a fiduciary obligation to consider whether accepting that offer would be in the best interests of residents, including local residents, users and of course council taxpayers. From the outset, Liberal Democrat councillors have been clear that any change in the freehold should not affect the stadium's existing use by Surrey FA and the community groups who play on it.

So the Liberal Democrat administration has conducted a wide-ranging public consultation to help us identify any concerns or risks to community football that need to be addressed. We have asked officers to negotiate broad heads of terms which safeguard existing use for community football, while also producing a significant capital sum, so that it can be used to support other community facilities across Mole Valley. Those terms include:

• permanent retention of community use, based on an agreed definition of community use following consultation with interested parties;
• permanent retention of the Council's right to review and propose changes to the designated Approved Community Groups;
• permanent continuation of the existing use of the site as a football and sporting facility;
• prevention of redevelopment for any other purpose with specific legally binding guarantees through implementation of a ransom strip and other safeguards.
• A covenant that will ensure that pitch surface issues remain matters for the Council's consideration.

Before accepting Dorking Wanderers' offer, we want to make absolutely sure that those safeguards are watertight and that they represent best value to council taxpayers. So we have agreed to defer a final decision until the Council has completed its due diligence. Separately, we want to give Surrey FA a final opportunity to explore ways to generate more profits for themselves and the freeholder, and to tell us about any remaining concerns which need to be addressed if the offer is accepted.

Mole Valley Council under Lib Dem control is committed to do everything possible to promote and sustain community football and community sports facilities. There is a recognised shortage of football facilities in Mole Valley which needs to be addressed with some urgency. A number of projects are currently underway and we will do whatever we can to pursue these and further developments as they arise, within the constraints of our responsibility for planning, finance and land holding. If the sale were to go ahead, the use of the resultant capital receipt would have legal constraints attached but there are significant projects which are currently unfunded and in urgent need of action and the Council will consider the most important priorities for its use.

The lease on the Softplay area and the café gives the Council no powers to intervene but we are keen to see both open again as we know these are valued facilities. So the Council is doing what it can to facilitate a solution.

Sadly, the Conservatives have chosen to play politics with this issue. They are pretending that their botched lease agreement hasn't resulted in any loss to council taxpayers. They are also falsely suggesting that a sale of the freehold would put an end to Surrey FA's lease, which Surrey FA have made clear is not true.