The Battersea-based practice has launched legal action against 2020 Development (Luton) Ltd, with a particulars of claim document saying it is yet to receive £160,000 relating to a settlement for work upgrading Luton Town’s Kenilworth Road Stadium. It is also pursuing £28,000 in design fees for the proposed Power Court stadium for the club, which was relegated from the Premier League a year ago and last weekend further relegated to League One. Defendant 2020 Developments has not yet submitted a defence document outlining its response.Advertisement The company stopped working with AndArchitects in 2024, instead picking AECOM working with AtkinsRealis to design an updated scheme for the new 25,000-capacity stadium at Power Court – site of the town’s former power station. The scheme was approved in January, with construction set to start this summer ahead of a 2028 completion. AndArchitects first unveiled plans for a new stadium at Power Court for Luton Town FC in 2016. The scheme was given planning consent in 2019 and in the same year a related application by AndArchitects for a major mixed-use scheme by the new stadium was approved. However, in May 2023, Luton Town was promoted to the Premier League, which required its existing 10,000-capacity Kenilworth Road stadium to be upgraded within months to meet broadcast requirements. The practice says it was told to pause work on the Power Court plans, adding that it was then awarded a contract for the works at Kenilworth Road, which included a new media gantry, TV studio and broadcasting facilities, new spectator seating and a players’ dug-out, floodlighting and renovation of the Oak Road stand.Advertisement But the practice says that, in August 2023, its staff were asked by project manager and quantity surveyor Faithful + Gould not to raise building control requirements with the contractor for the Kenilworth Stadium upgrade. According to AndArchitects, its staff later visited the site ahead of a test event but were told by Gary Sweet, chief executive of Luton Town and 2020 Developments, that Faithful + Gould ‘had processes in place to close out all outstanding issues … including any dialogue required with building control’. The document claims: ‘Mr Sweet asked AndArchitects not to attend site but wait in the trophy room. AndArchitects waited in the trophy room for around three hours before [2020 Developments’s operating officer] Mr [Michael] Moran asked AndArchitects to leave Kenilworth Road without visiting site or inspecting the works.’ AndArchitects alleges that, after a series of emails with Luton Town’s safety officer Barney McGhee in September 2023, Sweet sent an email ‘stating that he did not want AndArchitects involved in his business and instructing AndArchitects to refrain from contacting any member of Luton Town staff’. The practice says that it agreed a settlement with 2020 Developments in October 2023, under which it would be paid £260,000 of outstanding fees for the Kenilworth Road projects in exchange for ceasing work, releasing two consultants, passing over relevant documents and providing a closing status report. It alleges that 2020 Developments paid an initial £100,000 instalment but failed to follow up with two subsequent instalments of £80,000, in breach of the settlement. ‘On 20 November 2023, Mr Moran emailed AndArchitects to state that he was not in a position to pay further instalments under the settlement as the board had asked for a review, which had raised concerns as to AndArchitects’ work on the Power Court project,’ AndArchitects states. AndArchitects says it submitted a further invoice for £28,000 of work related to the new stadium in January 2024. The invoice sum was calculated based on 38 per completion of preparation of documents for a detailed planning application for a revised scheme. However, it says 2020 Developments refused to pay as it considered that no amount was due. AndArchitects, 2020 Developments via Luton Town Football Club and AtkinsRealis — the brand which Faithful + Gould became part of — were contacted for comment. AtkinsRealis is not part of the legal proceedings. AtkinsRealis and AndArchitects declined to comment 2025-05-07 Will Ing comment and share