Councillors vote tonight on opening talks for a 100-year lease at The Arena, up from about 22 years left, and on whether promotion should be a condition.

Brentwood councillors are being asked to open talks on a 100-year lease for Brentwood Town Football Club’s ground. The club has about 22 years left on its current lease, and a notice of motion going to Full Council tonight, Wednesday 23 September, says that is not long enough to attract serious investment.

The motion is moved by Cllr Craig Thomson (Brizes, Stondon Massey and South Weald) and seconded by Cllr Sam Gascoyne (Pilgrims Hatch). It was received by the Monitoring Officer at 22:57 on 6 September (notices of motion, Council, 23 September 2026).

What the motion asks for

In the motion’s own words, the club “has made clear that a substantially longer lease is important to provide the security necessary to attract significant external investment into the club, its ground and its facilities”, and discussions have already taken place about extending it to 100 years.

Council is asked to resolve five things:

  • to request a report to the relevant committee on the legal, financial and operational implications
  • that a longer lease should not be conditional on the club winning promotion this season
  • that officers progress negotiations immediately, aiming to agree heads of terms for a 100-year lease
  • that protections are written in to safeguard the council’s ownership and keep the site in football, sporting and community use
  • that the rent is “fair, reasonable and proportionate”

The second point is the pointed one. The motion argues that investment in the club “should not be dependent upon the result of one football season or whether the club achieves promotion in any particular year”. It does not say who had suggested otherwise.

Brentwood Town play in the Isthmian League Premier Division at The Arena, at the Brentwood Centre on Doddinghurst Road. The club has published nothing about the lease on its own website, where the recent news is a new manager, four signings and a 3-2 Emirates FA Cup win over Aveley on 19 September.

Why the timing matters

The ground sits inside the site that the council has just won planning permission to rebuild. Permission for the £25m Brentwood Centre redevelopment was issued on 18 September. It brings three floodlit 3G pitches and a new extension that includes a football club changing area.

The club’s own pitch is not part of that scheme. The officer report is explicit that “the Brentwood Football Club pitch and its immediate surroundings are excluded from the application boundary”, and records that the club was consulted separately on 12 November 2025 and made no representation on the application (officer report, application 26/00465/FUL).

The same report gives a small measure of what the club brings to the site. The overflow car park next to the ground reaches about 85% occupancy on a match day, against 64% peak use in the main car park.

Two more motions on the same paper

Councillors have three motions in front of them tonight, not one. The report’s own summary says “One Notice of Motion has been submitted”, then lists three.

Graffiti on private property. Cllr Keith Barber (Hutton North), seconded by Cllr Jay Patel (Hutton North), wants officers to design a service that removes graffiti from privately owned buildings as well as council ones. The motion points at Chelmsford City Council’s wider scheme as the model. It asks for a fully costed proposal to the Clean and Green Committee, possibly as a time-limited pilot, with offensive, racist or threatening graffiti prioritised and the owner’s consent required first. It also asks the council to chase highways authorities and utility companies when residents report graffiti on their kit and nothing happens.

The Warley Gap bike track. Cllr Omar Bakhsh (Herongate, Ingrave and West Horndon), seconded by Cllr Russell Quirk (Hutton South), asks the council to “retain the bicycle track at Warley Gap and explore all avenues to prevent its permanent closure”. The motion says “valid questions regarding health, safety, and potential legal liability have been raised concerning the ongoing operation of the track”, and argues that outdoor sport always carries risk that can be managed rather than designed out.

We could not find any council decision, report or statement proposing to close the track. The motion is the only published record of the question, and it does not say where the safety concerns came from or who raised them. Until the council publishes something, that is all there is to go on.

What it means for you

If you follow Brentwood Town, nothing changes tonight at the ground. The vote is on whether officers start negotiating and write a report; a 100-year lease on council land would come back to committee before it was signed. Watch the Assets and Strategy Committee for that report.

If you use the Brentwood Centre, the two things are separate. The £25m rebuild has its permission and its own remaining hurdle, a full business case due at Assets and Strategy in October. The lease question is about the football ground next door.

If you have graffiti on your wall or your fence, there is no service yet. The motion asks for one to be scoped and costed, which means a report first and a budget decision after that.

If your children use the Warley Gap track, the motion asks for it to be kept. It is not a decision to keep it, and it is not a closure notice either.

A motion that passes is an instruction to officers to bring a report, not a decision to spend money or sign anything. The meeting starts at 7pm in the Council Chamber at the Town Hall on Ingrave Road, and is broadcast live. Councillors also vote tonight on ending councillor call-in of planning applications.

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