King's Lynn Town Football Club and West Norfolk Council agree 99-year Walks lease deal

A new 99-year lease of The Walks stadium has been agreed between King’s Lynn Town Football Club and West Norfolk Council.

Club chairman Stephen Cleeve announced the agreement in an interview on King’s Lynn Town TV’s YouTube channel, recorded ahead of the club’s game against Banbury Utd on Saturday, in which King’s Lynn Town won 3-1.

He said: “It’s taken me a year and a half of pulling my hair out. The council has been great and we’ve finally got there in the end.

“I’m pleased that we’ve managed to work together to get to a successful conclusion.”

Mr Cleeve said, before the agreement was reached, the club had 17 years left of a 25-year lease.

“I wanted to extend that, and not just extend it, but protect the football club because the football club is bigger than any one person. I wanted to make sure it was in a safe place,” he added.

As part of the agreement, Mr Cleeve said where the council previously had a ‘rent review’ of The Walks every five years, from now on the base rate will go up by Consumer Price Index.

Another negotiation was over the car park.

Mr Cleeve said: “The council are going to put their own deal together and my guess is that they will put meters in which run for two to four hours free of charge and then no longer can you park, which is great because it needs clearing out as there’s a lot of people who park long-term.”

A West Norfolk Council spokeswoman said this permits the council to operate a pay-and-display car park, to hire spaces and issue season passes if it decides to.

“There is a landlords break option if the football club achieves a certain level of promotion,” she added.

The club has also reserved a right to have exclusive use of the car park on match days between 9am and 8pm for any fixture held on a Saturday, Sunday or bank holiday and between 1pm and 12am for any fixture held on a Wednesday.