Leamington Football Club may have to wait another six years for a new stadium, with further delays confirmed in a council report to be considered next week.

Warwick District Council's cabinet – the panel of Green and Labour councillors in charge of major service areas – will be asked to sign off a series of actions to progress the community, infrastructure and enabling development at a meeting next Wednesday (September 3).  

As recently as March 2024, council officers – its employed professionals – targeted a July 2028 opening date in presentation made to Brakes supporters.

Doubt was cast over those projections earlier this year when the council's community infrastructure levy (CIL) list showed that £5 million worth of funding for the project was not set to be allocated until the financial years 2027-28 and 2028-29, something that was questioned by former district leader Cllr Andrew Day.

The new report on the project itself has a refreshed timeline with "the earliest possible" move-in date being April 2029 with the caveat that "in practical terms, the completion is more likely within a range of this date and 2031".

It recommends the setting of a funding cap for the district's contribution – currently kept under wraps to avoid the council showing its hand to potential contractors – plus permission to progress to RIBA stage four, the technical design stage, acceptance of the social and economic case put forward by the club and the drawing up a new memorandum of understanding for control of the council-owned stadium to be handed to the Brakes on a long-term lease at a peppercorn rent.

The report details how reaching RIBA stage four will deliver far greater certainty over costs and therefore viability with that stage expected to take until March 2027 to complete.

The recommended steps forward have largely been welcomed but that has been laced with frustration over another extended timeframe for a project that has been on the council's wishlist for some years.

However, one of the elected officials in charge of delivering the stadium has defended the work of politicians in charge.

Portfolio holder for resources Cllr Jonathan Chilvers praised the club and the work it has done to make the social and economic case, contributing to nine months of background work to get to this point.

He told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: "The commitment we made to the club just under a year ago was that we would bottom out what we could afford as a council, what we needed in terms of public benefit to justify the investment and the likely timescales and project teams.

"I am really pleased to have been able to do that work and give the club those really key assurances that they needed and I am really impressed with how the club has worked with us to get us to this point.

"It is very much a joint effort. RIBA stage four will give us greater cost certainty and we have also got that price cap in to protect taxpayers.

"We have had very rigorous discussions with the club to look at the wider public benefit. We said we could not do this without seeing the benefit that justifies taxpayer investment. These discussions have been going on for a decade and we are happy to go to the next stage because the access to sporting facilities and wider health benefits are there."

Put to him that a potential move-in date of 2031 may make some supporters question whether this will come off at all, Cllr Chilvers stressed his commitment to not promising things – including timescales – that he cannot deliver.

"We committed to telling it as it is, to work out what we could afford and what the timescales would be," he added.

"I am really pleased we have been able to achieve that by working with the club over the past nine months." 

He confirmed that "significantly more" than the £5 million of CIL funding would go into the project but noted the "safeguard" of the spending cap, adding: "We can't put the total cost of what we think it will cost into the public domain because it still has to go out to contractors and we have to make sure we get the very best deal we can for taxpayers and the club."

Included in the published papers is a list of risks which highlights that a lack of staffing resource is "likely" and could have a "major" impact on the programme itself and the quality of it.

Cllr Chilvers said he had been assured those matters were in hand. 

"I want to be assured we have the right people in place. It is something we will be keeping a close eye on," he said.

"It is essential we have the right project team and we will continue to work on that in the coming months alongside the club as our partners."

Concerns over delays to the stadium project and the ripple effect of Leamington's current ground not being available for use as a gypsy-traveller site until the club moves out are set to be discussed at an extraordinary meeting for all councillors on Thursday 4 September .