Longer Dripping Pan ground lease to allow Lewes FC to bid for funding

At a virtual meeting on Thursday (June  11), Lewes District Council’s cabinet is set to consider proposals to grant the football club a 25-year lease to the Dripping Pan grounds in Mountfield Road.

By securing a long-lease for the grounds, which have been home to the club since its formation in 1885, Lewes FC hopes to attract grant funding from the Football Foundation.

To secure the foundation’s funding, which would be used to undertake a series of improvement works at the grounds, the club would require an uninterrupted lease agreement of either 10 years or 21 years, council papers say.

The proposals have already been discussed at an informal (and private) meeting of the council’s scrutiny committee on Tuesday, June 2.

According to minutes from that meeting, the scrutiny committee was supportive of the proposals but asked cabinet members to go further and commit to finding additional ways to support the viability of sports clubs and leisure facilities in the district. 

In a report from the meeting, a council officer said: “The committee members felt that through the amendment, the council will be able to acknowledge the importance of sport and leisure to the district’s residents and the extreme stress placed on sport clubs following the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the necessity for support to be provided.”

During that meeting, councillors also discussed the possibility of inserting a break-clause into the lease agreement, but legal advisors said this could inhibit the club from securing grant funding.

Initially, council papers say, the club had been seeking a much longer lease, with the 25-year lease considered to be a compromise position by officers.

This arrangement limits the reduction in the council’s flexibility of the use of the land in the future whilst still allowing the club to access grant funding, the report says.

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