• Text Size
  • Contrast

The Council’s Chief Legal Officer, David Shepperd, has issued a determination on an application to list land and buildings at Home Park as an Asset of Community Value.

Home Park Links
The application by Argyle Fans Trust was submitted in November to designate the site – including the stadium – as an Asset of Community Value under the Localism Act. The Trust argued that the ‘social interests and social wellbeing’ he said and added it evidently extends for wider than 90 minutes of football at home games.

It has been determined that the football stadium at Home Park, including the car park and office accommodation at Higher Home Park, should be listed as an Asset of Community Value.

The determination has been made after applying strict legal criteria, with the primary consideration being whether the Stadium furthers the social wellbeing or social interests of the local community.

Mr Shepperd cited another case in Oxford where a tribunal judge argued that the existence of a home town football club, intrinsically linked to the use of its home ground fosters community pride; stimulates daily conversations in, for instance, pubs, work places, local media and social media; forges friendships and encourages the mix of generations.
Once an asset is placed on the list it will remain there for five years.
Being on the list means that should the owner intend to sell the asset he must notify the local Council. A community interest group then has six weeks to ask to be treated as a potential bidder. If it does, the sale cannot take place for six months. Known as the moratorium, this period allows the group to come up with an alternative proposal – although at the end of this period it is up to the owner whether a sale goes though, to whom and for how much.
The owner of the Stadium and surrounding land has the right to a review of this decision.

Back to Case Studies