Blues chief executive Simon Clegg says the club has started discussions with the new Ipswich Borough Council regime regarding the disputed 743% backdated rent rise on the land on which the Portman Road stadium is sited. IBC switched from a Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition to Labour control after May’s local elections.

Clegg said: “I have met with the new regime and spoke to the leaders of all political parties during the election process. I have subsequently formally met with the new leader and the chief executive and this is still a live issue.”

In March, then-Council deputy leader John Carnall said the club had failed to pay back rent of just over £500,000 — the figure having risen from £15,000 to £111,000 per annum - and that the situation could ultimately result in legal action.

The Town chief outlines how the situation developed: “They could have initiated a rent review in 2004, but they didn’t. Instead, they initiated it after Marcus acquired the club and they wanted a rise significantly larger than the 743% increase.

“So, we went to independent arbitration over the issue. The arbitrator decided to come down somewhere in the middle, considerably greater than the increase we had indicated we thought was appropriate and considerably less than the figure IBC was seeking.

“IBC then indicated that they wished to backdate that to when the rent review could have taken place in 2004.

“We are in discussions with IBC and these discussions with the new regime are in their early stages. The new regime has only been in place for a couple of months now and they’ve had a lot of issues to get their heads around.”

Photo: Action Images

itfc1981 added 07:44 - Aug 11 Vote Labour!
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Marcus added 07:49 - Aug 11 How odd that the CON-DEMs would try and jump on one of their own people
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uppersirbob added 08:24 - Aug 11 Marcus Buy the ground off the council
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Lanky added 09:01 - Aug 11 Hopefully with a decent party in charge, this can get sorted out fairly. We have enough of those Tory&LibDem morons in charge at a national level.
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alfromcol added 09:17 - Aug 11 Lets not bring politics on to this site, there is already too much of it on all the other media. Lets stick to football and ITFC should we?
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nitroblue1970 added 09:44 - Aug 11 No politics in football please! ....where having to sit in football stadiums these days because of it!!!
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itfcmuzza added 10:28 - Aug 11 @Lanky We have to put up with these "morons" at national level because Labour virtually bankrupted the country and were voted out.
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CavendishBlue added 11:22 - Aug 11 As I know a lot of the background to the process that the excellent LibDem/Tory coalition had to go through, I feel that i must point out a few facts theat surround this case and other issues . When the coalition took on a complete audit(which incidently is what the govnment suggested all councils do last week), it soon emerged that 25 years of neglect had led to many council assets being under utilised and frankly in one case in particular has led to its closure. Council(remember these are yours and my )assets had been scandelously rented out on ther cheap.ITFC is bar far , NOT te worst example.This goes to the caribean club which for 25 years had been on apeppercorn rent of just ....£1!!!!!! Do you really want to see this again?That is what will happen as the local Labour have yet again conned you all into believing that they will sort out a few lolly pop crossings!!!! They really take the pi$$ this lot time andtime again. I'm sorry you were duped.But they wont be reversing that decison by much and the club will have to pay up for their fair share of what is aftr all a prime reatil site in the town centre.

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robdaful added 12:09 - Aug 11 uppersirbob - I agree with you Marcus Evans should buy the ground off the council.
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randomblue added 13:37 - Aug 11 CavendishBlue - an interesting read and to be honest hits the nail on the head. The only comment I would make is that the council are being somewhat short sighted in as much as the club must bring them a fortune in business to the local area and car parks. Imagine the cost to the town if PR was abandoned and the club instead bought and built a new stadium on the outskirts. I think there is a balance that needs to be achieved!

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