"We're acting for the community of Calderdale," says one of the parties hoping to take over running of The Shay

Stewart and Beverly Charnock-Bates, from Sowerby Bridge, are property consultants and founded chartered surveyors and auctioneers Charnock Bates.

They have proposed a community asset transfer to a not-for-profit organisation that would run the stadium for the benefit of the borough.

There are two other expressions of interest lodged with Calderdale Council over running The Shay.

Tony Wood, owner of Halifax-based Roxor Group, is proposing to establish a community trust to operate the stadium, while a consortium of Halifax Panthers directors are proposing a collaboration with other groups and key stakeholders.

Stewart, who has been a Halifax Town fan since he was five, told the Courier: "We're people of Halifax, we're business people of Halifax.

"It was always wrong for the council to consider to transfer the freehold.

"The Calderdale community would have been living on promises about the future without any form of security.

"But life isn't like that, you can't live on promises that somebody is going to do something in five years.

"Irresepctive of whatever covenants would have been included, you can never say never.

"So our approach is completely the opposite.

"People might say 'what's in it for you?'. It's going to be a not-for-profit organisation, we don't want anything from it.

"We wouldn't say that, in writing, if it wasn't true.

"My family have been involved with Halifax Town, one way or another, for 100 years, and that's something I believe no-one else can say.

"Why do we want to do this? Because my father would be very, very upset to see where the ground and the clubs are today.

"They say business and sentiment don't go together, and they don't.

"But with something like this, there has to be an element of the two things. There's a lot of sentiment in this and it's also a case of correcting mistakes that have happened in the past.

"You've got a huge piece of land which only entertains a small portion of the Calderdale community, and this is the main thrust of our proposal.

"You have over 200,000 people in Calderdale and we have around 1,500 at The Shay for the football and the same for the rugby club, so how are we catering for the other 190-odd thousand?

"We want to tap into that market that's been forgotten for too long.

"You have women’s and girls’ football and rugby, walking football and, equally important, a variety of disabled people's sports - whatever it might be, the facilities are not utilised at The Shay.

"For example, Halifax Ladies and Halifax Girls play football in Bradford. Why not Halifax?

"The facilities need money spending on them to bring them up to health and safety standards, which is an ongoing problem for the council, but that aside, we still have very good facilities at The Shay ground to cater for everybody.

"Our proposal is aimed at welcoming everyone, which is why we would create a community benefit society.

"This society provides control for the community and a one member, one vote system for running The Shay."

Stewart added: "It's bizarre that you've got such a huge piece of land, with the facilities it has, the car park, so close to the town centre, and it's not fully utilised.

"On the events section of the council website for The Shay, it comes up with booking Christmas parties for 2024.

"This is how the ground is run, so it's not difficult to pick it up from where it is and improve it."

Explaining their vision for how The Shay would be run, Stewart said: "We will form a steering group that will take the community forward and we will create this society, where all people will become members of that group.

"The community can buy a share into it, whether they spend one pound or ten thousand pounds, that gives them one vote, so the deeper the pocket doesn't mean you have more votes.

"You get the same vote irresepctive of how much money you put into it, but the success of this is if you get the public investing into the ground and the society, then it's in their interest to visit it.

"They're not giving money to a single person or business, they'd be giving money into their own society and any profit goes back into the society."

When asked how many people he thinks might join the scheme, Stewart said: "We've got three thousand for a start (FC Halifax Town and Halifax Panthers fans), who would become members.

"But you have to offer benefits, and I would envisage, for example, a family to make a payment per annum to become a member and that would allow them to have the benefit of the use of the function room, subject to agreement.

"In simple terms, it's like a 21st century working men's club, it would run along those lines, where there are benefits to the membership and that would encourage people to become members."

Stewart says it would be vital to have representatives from the Panthers and FC Halifax Town on the steering group.

"It has to, because they are an important part of the stadium, but they're not the only part," he said.

"That's been the problem in the past. The clubs have been looked after with total ignorance of everybody else."

Stewart says he and Beverly would initially head-up the steering group.

"Initially, we would certainly lead it because of my background as a chartered surveyor and having extensive experience of delivering major projects such as this," he said.

"I've raised funding for other groups through the National Lottery so I'm familiar with the process.

"This is the way forward.

"You mention a community benefit society to the National Lottery or other funding sources, their eyes light up because they know they're not going to be giving funding to a commercial enterprise but a community-led project.

"That's why they won't give funding to the council, because the National Lottery would say 'as a local authority, you should budget to look after the ground yourself and you should be charging an open market rent to the clubs and all other alternative uses for the ground'.

"But they haven't done."

Stewart says there would be an initial steering group, which would contain a different set of people to the steering group that would look after the ground after the transfer of the asset.

"There has to be a period between now and the transfer of the asset because of certain legislation and regulations," he said.

"That could be anything up to 12 months and then, beyond that, I envisage there would be a permanent steering group to manage the ground on a day-by-day basis.

"But they would be voted in by society members, so they would have control, not any private individual.

"It would be a community building, for the community, owned by the community and run by the community.

"And if they don't like the chair, they would get voted out and replaced by someone else.

"But it's essential the first steering group would include council officers, maybe one or two of the directors, and there would also need to be a councillor, such as Councillor Payne, who is presently leading the process.

"Then it would need representation from the clubs and also from other community people who could bring something to the party with different areas of expertise.

"With myself heading that team, it's like anything, you're only as good as the team you pick so it would be necessary for me to select, initially, the people who are most appropriate with the broadest range of skills.

"But after that first group, the second one would be voted in by the society and, by definition therefore, it would be a completely different team, but there would always be input from the two clubs."

Stewart says Calderdale Council would prefer the long-term transfer of the leasehold rather than the freehold.

"And in my opinion, that is perfectly acceptable," he said.

"If that's not acceptable, I would be asking why not, because then, does someone have an ulterior motive?

"This isn't about us, it's about doing right by the community and we need to protect their interest.

"We need to attract people from Calderdale into the stadium and make it self-sufficient.

"I'm happy for the council to put in whatever conditions or covenants they desire on the presumption that they are reasonable and with the best interests of the community at heart.

"This isn't a financial bid, it's a bid for Calderdale."

The council has repeatedly cited annual losses as their reason for disposing of The Shay, but Stewart insists the stadium can be self-sufficient.

"I can't see how it wouldn't be," he said.

"We'd be taking on a Premier League football club at the bottom of the league.

"The fact there's a football club and a rugby club there, the stadium is probably only used ten per cent of the time.

"How can we utilise the remaining 90 per cent of the time and tap into the 200,000 people? Nobody has ever looked at it like this from the council.

"That's not a criticism of them, because they do not operate in the commercial sector that we have been in, where financial success and self-sufficiency is paramount.

"There are so many different uses for the stadium, which I have discussed before and it's essential that we look at all sports for all genders, and for all to benefit, irrespective of skills and we have many examples of successful athletes to be proud of in Calderdale, such as Hannah Cockroft and Megan Shackleton, who has just retired from playing top level table tennis.

"A significant improvement from the present financial position of the ground is difficult not to achieve as the space has been so under-utilised.

"As I've illustrated, there are so many different avenues we can explore.

"But initially, we have to look at the main event first, which is to ensure that the needs of FC Halifax Town and the Panthers are met.

"By doing this, we will then be able to look at the areas already mentioned."

Stewart says the council would initially need to oversee the most pressing areas of stadium maintenance and improvement.

"In the short-term, these have to be addressed to meet health and safety requirements for the continuing eligibility of the two clubs to play in their respective leagues," he said.

"So that initially would be the responsibility of the council until the asset was transferred over. Once it was transferred, it would then be the responsibility of the society.

"Over the transitional period from the steering group to it being a community asset, we need an agreement where the council has some responsibility to bring various repairs up to speed for the two clubs to comply with health and safety so they can continue to operate.

"It's a landlord and tenant relationship. For example, this may include stadium roof repairs and work to the floodlights, not to mention other items which may be necessary."

The wider Shay estate has been the subject of discussion among interested parties, who feel it is not being fully monetised.

"That is a massive issue because there is a shortfall of £500,000 per annum which needs to be drastically cut and that is one area that has to be maximised from a commercial avenue," Stewart said.

"That is one of the areas where we can use our expertise because we have huge experience in dealing with property, commercial property and ensuring space within the buildings are fully occupied at all times.

"At the moment, the council are occupying areas of the building and aren't paying rent.

"If everybody pays the appropriate rent, then that £500,000 deficit will be significantly reduced and that will contribute to being successful with a National Lottery bid because they will always play devil's advocate should we apply to the National Lottery and say 'why aren't you getting income from these areas' and 'why should we fund you when you've got buildings where you can provide for your own income?'

"So we need to justify our existence to people like the National Lottery and say 'we've done what we can to get the greatest amount of income from our asset, now we require assistance from you to provide a helping hand moving forward'.

"This is where I see them coming in to assist in managing the lack of repair that's taken place over many years."

Stewart says the process could take around a year to be completed before The Shay was officially handed over.

"At that point, we can then start looking at attracting these different uses and charging open market rents to the people currently occupying all the space there.

"Then it needs an operations manager who can think about utilising all the possibilities for the banqueting suite."

On why he feels his and Beverly's proposal should be favoured over the other two schemes, Stewart said: "I haven't seen the other two proposals but it would appear that ours differs in the way we will have no commercial benefit from this, and we are looking to create a community society where the community owns the asset and therefore, the community will have control.

"We will only direct and lead what we believe is in the best interests of the community to ensure the best outcome for them.

"We're also not looking to favour either club, this is about the survival of The Shay stadium and its future security for the community. That is our bid.

"Our bid, therefore, is completely independent and neutral without any bias to any club. We're acting for the community of Calderdale."

The other two interested parties in running The Shay have been approached for an interview by the Courier.