Moulton Football Club can expand onto council land at New Manor Farm on a lease of up to 75 years at a peppercorn rent. The club says it has been turning players away.

Moulton Football Club is set to build new pitches on council farmland next to its ground, after West Northamptonshire Council’s Cabinet approved a lease of up to 75 years. The land at New Manor Farm in Moulton, on the northern edge of Northampton, is grazed by a local farmer today.

The Cabinet paper on the site says the club is “having to turn people away” and rents extra pitches across Northampton. It says the land is “likely to offer the only viable expansion option for the club”. The paper calls it Moulton Magpies Football Club.

What the club gets

The lease was approved on Tuesday 10 November, according to the council’s decision notice. The terms in the Cabinet paper include:

  • a lease of up to 75 years at a peppercorn rent
  • up to about 15.09 acres (6.10 hectares), though only the land the club can show it needs will be included
  • at least 100m by 50m, about half a hectare, kept outside the lease for public access and informal recreation
  • the lease lined up, where practicable, with the club’s lease of its existing ground next door

The council’s announcement says the plans include access to a new 150-space car park on land next to the existing site.

Why the pitches are needed

The council’s playing pitch strategy finds the biggest shortfall is in youth 11-a-side pitches. The Cabinet paper says that around Northampton this provision “is already insufficient to meet demand” and the gap is forecast to grow. Northamptonshire FA backs the club’s expansion.

The long lease matters for funding. The Football Foundation’s Home Advantage Programme can pay up to 100% of eligible costs, to a maximum of £250,000 a project, for clubs taking long leases of council football land. It can cover pavilion and changing room work, floodlights, fencing and up to six years of grounds maintenance.

What the council gives up

The council already holds a valuation of the whole 81.85-acre farm at £3,000,000, made in January 2024 for an earlier deal. On that basis, the area offered to the club is worth about £553,084. The paper estimates the farm rent forgone at between £2,300 and £3,800 a year and calls that “proportionate to the community benefits”.

That earlier deal was a lease of part of the farm to Northamptonshire County Cricket Club, which Cabinet had approved. The paper says the club “chose to locate at an alternative location”.

The farmer “is supportive of the proposal”, according to the paper.

What it means for you

Families waiting for a place in a Moulton team should see more capacity once the pitches are built. There is no opening date yet. Pete Knight of Moulton Football Club said: “The club will now work to put a plan in place to bring the new football pitches into operation.”

If you walk the farm, the council says existing public rights of way and permissive paths will be checked before the lease is signed. The exact area kept for public use will be agreed after talks with Moulton Parish Council and the ward councillors.