The Swindon Town Supporters Trust have clarified that members will get a vote on redevelopment plans for The Nigel Eady County Ground.

In March 2023, the club in partnership with TrustSTFC and the Nigel Eady Trust, purchased the ground and are presently working towards a redevelopment of the ground.

During a question and answer session with The Adver, TrustSTFC clarified that they would put proposed redevelopments to a vote among members.

Neil Hutchings, Chair of TrustSTFC, said: “Under the terms of the Joint Venture agreement, any significant development of the stadium requires the support of the Trust membership.

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“That is written into the legal agreement which formed the Joint Venture and it is also written into the rules of the Trust, as well.

“There are two times when we would go to members for votes, the first is for the annual business plan – the next business plan is being put together as we speak – that sets out how the rental income that the Joint Venture receives from the club is spent each year.

“Typically that will be spent on longer-term dilapidations, repairs, and things that need urgent attention – things that has previously been spent on include urgent repairs to the Arkell’s Stand roof.

“Separately to that, if the club under the 250-year lease wanted to undertake a development then in addition to the Joint Venture board supporting that, the membership needs to support it as well.

“That is a simple majority vote and it will take place on the same basis that the business plan gets voted on each year.”

 

 

Hutchings added that whilst members will vote on all proposed developments, the board believe they understand what fans are looking for and something would only get that far if they expected it to be supported.

He said: “If there was a membership vote against a development then we would have to go against it, we are a democracy.

“What would happen though, in reality, is that we would sense whether or not there is support for a particular project and it is unlikely that we would put a project to members if we felt they weren’t going to support it.

“As board members, we are here for the long-term interests of the supporters and the wider community, so if we felt that the club were going down the wrong path then we would be telling them as early as possible before it got to that point.”