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Town and IBC Reach Rent Agreement
Town and IBC Reach Rent Agreement
Friday, 10th Feb 2012 13:09

TWTD understands that Town have resolved their long-running dispute with Ipswich Borough Council regarding £654,702 in back rent owed on the land on which the Portman Road stadium stands. The agreement reached will see the Blues pay the cash over a period of six years, two years longer than had been proposed by IBC last October.

In March 2011, it was revealed that the annual rent on the land had jumped by 643% from £15,000 to £111,500 backdated to 2004, the council having initially targeted a rise to £250,000.

While Town had paid the new sum since the rent review was carried out in 2010, the club had dug its heels in regarding the additional £654,702 owed from the period back to 2004 when the rent review was initially due. An independent arbitrator had set the new figure, a process which cost the Blues £98,500.

At a council executive meeting in October, Town chief executive Simon Clegg put the club’s case, arguing that IBC’s former chief executive James Hehir, who died in November 2009, had made a verbal agreement regarding the issue of the back rent with club owner Marcus Evans. However, current IBC chief executive Russell Williams said he could find no evidence of such an arrangement.

Talks between the two parties have continued since then and we understand an agreement has now been reached.


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irishtim added 13:27 - Feb 10
Good
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TractorMan added 13:39 - Feb 10
We've handed them Leadbitter as payment - seemed a good deal?
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CavendishBlue added 13:49 - Feb 10
With every 100k costing IBC taxpayers 1p in the pound in council tax, at last the club have agreed to pay their dues.

I knew Jim Hehir as a generous man , but he wouldn't have been as foolish as to have offerred Town such a financially crippling settlement to te Borough.

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mark1969 added 13:53 - Feb 10
Thought clegg was supposed to be a brilliant administrator so why did he believe a contract on word of mouth , very poor performance that has cost the club money and £98500 in fees , we could have loaned a player instead ? No wonder we have no money surplus i wonder how many more gross errors are taking place ? We move on lets hope our new look side gain 3 points tomorrow , the team needs support and the board including Clegg watching .
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PhilTWTD added 14:05 - Feb 10
mark1969

For the record, the contentious agreement was/wasn't made before Clegg was at the club.
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mark1969 added 14:11 - Feb 10
oops sorry the verbal was made with Marcus Evans , still think we should have discussed it over a bacon butty down at the ground or council offices and saved the arbitrator its a waste of money ,roughly 250 peoples season ticket revenue down the drain .
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whittonite added 14:13 - Feb 10
council taking the pee,one of the top council big wigs could for go their ridiculous bonus pay outs(which we all apparently agreed to pay him...not)would cover most of what they want in back payment....simple
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Marcus added 14:44 - Feb 10
As the say verbal agreements are worth the paper they're written on.

I wonder just how much the local council should pay towards the cost of running a football club. Most would say zero as many people in the borough feel they've paid enough, support other teams, don't like the sport, or argue that supporters from outside the borough get an unfair advantage.

Re-reading the story I wouldn't mind the arbitrator's job.
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CavendishBlue added 16:09 - Feb 10
whittonite

So one civil servant has to for go ther contractual right so that a multimillionaire can avoid paying a fair rent.

The council didn't set the fair rent, the arbitrator did as a result of the club kicking up a stink!!!!

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Toepunt added 16:32 - Feb 10
So IBC initially wanted 250,000 a year, ITFC pays an arbitrator 98,500 and the end result is that ITFC pay IBC 111,500 a year (a difference of 138,500).

Take the arbitrator's fee of 98,500 from the saving (138,500) and ITFC are still 40,000 better off this year and the full amount of 138,500 thereafter.

Sounds like the arbitrator was well worth it!
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