I WAS delighted this week to join Swindon Town chairman Lee Power and his Supporters’ Trust counterpart Steve Mytton to announce what we hope will be an exciting new chapter in the football club’s history.

The deal to sell the freehold of the County Ground, which we have agreed in principle with the club and supporters’ group, is one the council has carefully considered.

The council has been a custodian of the County Ground for more than 90 years and, although there have been plenty of changes to the stadium during that time, I am sure most fans would agree that it is in need of modernisation to bring it up to the standards associated with many other clubs in the football pyramid.

To put it simply, and to use a football analogy, the investment required in the stadium is out of the council’s league.

We simply do not have the millions of pounds needed to carry out the improvements required, which is why we have always been open to selling the freehold to the right bidder.

We have been working hard behind the scenes over the last few months to bring the football club and supporters’ trust together as a partnership.

Now they have agreed to jointly meet the £2.2m asking price for the County Ground, which was set by an independent specialist valuer.

It makes this the perfect match.

Not many of these types of 50/50 joint ventures exist.

The football club gets the opportunity to upgrade and improve the existing facilities to bring in extra revenue to make the team more competitive on the pitch.

And the supporters get a stake in the home of the club they love and the stadium remains an important part of the local community.

Although the council will receive the full asking price, this deal, which still needs to be agreed by the council’s cabinet in a couple of weeks’ time, is about much more than money.

It retains the club in its current home.

It will result in significant investment at a key gateway into the town centre and it will improve facilities, not just for supporters, but for the people of Swindon.

There have been good recent examples of how other clubs have been able to transform their existing stadiums without the need to up sticks and move to an out-of-town soulless, purpose-built stadium leaving behind years of history and their fans’ memories.

In fact another team just along the M4, which shares the same nickname as Swindon, shelved plans for a brand new state-of-the-art stadium to concentrate on redeveloping their long-term base.

The ambition is to create something similar at the County Ground and I agree with the chairman in his assessment that our club should be a competing a couple of divisions higher than it currently is now.

I hope this week’s announcement is the first significant step in helping the club back to where it belongs.