The lease questions remain
 

Buckinghamshire Council and Wycombe Wanderers confirmed that the lease was completed on 24 August 2026 — before this planning application was submitted.

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After a lengthy Environmental Information Regulations request, the Council has now provided a copy of the executed lease. However, substantial parts of it have been redacted.

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And the document contains a surprise.

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Although the Council decided in July 2025 to negotiate a lease for up to 75 years, the disclosed lease has an initial term of only five years. Any provisions governing an extension beyond that period are presently hidden by the redactions.

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What is clear is that WWFC is already the leaseholder and operator of the site.

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The lease matters because ownership, contractual rights and planning permission are three different things.

The Council remains the landowner, WWFC now holds contractual rights under the lease, and the present application seeks planning permission for the proposed development.

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There is an additional complication: part of the land is held for charitable public-recreation purposes. The lease therefore raises important questions about what has actually been agreed, what WWFC is required or permitted to do, how long those rights may ultimately continue, and how the agreement interacts with the Council's obligations in relation to the charitable land.

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We now have the lease — but the redactions mean that some of its most important questions remain unanswered.