The Infrastructure Projects

[Fella]

New plans being reported stating that the new PT stand is now 15k and the TE is being expanded - presumably like Villas north stand - with an additional 5k seats! Also no flats are being built!

[nffc93]

Until is see spades in the ground i won't believe it.

[JohnG]

I have seen reports of some people in the Trent End lower are being asked to relocate their seats, due to some work going to take place. Any idea what that might be? The later article by the Nottingham Post suggested infrastructure towards increasing capacity.

There has been reports of planning permission going in to fill in the TE corners, but I'd imagine that would be a way down the line.

[Fumanchew]

An impact assessment has been asked for the letter went to RBC last week, looks like bridgford end development is on hold at the mo and it’s more focused on the Trent end. This link is the letter.

https://planningon-line.rushcliffe.gov.u...972154.pdf

Here’s a screenshot for a generalised view

   

[Salvatore Matrecano]

Always thought doing TE corners made more sense than Bridgford end, no whining nimbys or having to worry about the garden shed that backs on to the stand. Got to be better than that ridiculous container stand that only ever seems to have a few people in it.

[Paplane]

I'm surprised they're not considering doing something with the Brian Clough, like adding another small tier and taking the opportunity to widen the concourse. There's space behind the stand to do it.

[JohnG]

Peter Taylor increase on capacity was 8k before, are they revising the design to add another 2k?

[Sausage Roll]

Nottingham Forest are using the architects who oversaw Liverpool’s recent expansion of Anfield to help with new-look plans to turn the City Ground into a stadium with a capacity of up to 45,000. Three months after obtaining planning permission to start their home ground’s long-awaited redevelopment, Forest have now decided to shelve those designs in favour of a more ambitious overhaul of the stadium that has been their home, beside the River Trent, since 1898. The Premier League club had previously intended to demolish the Peter Taylor Stand — the oldest, and smallest, of the City Ground’s four — and replace it with an entirely new structure, increasing capacity from just over 30,000 to around 35,000. Work was due to begin next year.

New plans for the City Ground involve potentially building over the existing Peter Taylor Stand rather than demolishing it and erecting a replacementDan Istitene/Getty Images
Among sweeping changes, however, the club have been exploring alternative proposals to remove the roof of the Peter Taylor, then build over the existing structure to turn it into one of the biggest stands in English football, tripling its number of seats to 15,000. To put it into context, that would be 1,500 more than the largest stand at Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge can hold. The new stand would be 58m (190ft) tall, whereas the previous application proposed one of 38m.

At the same time, Forest want to fill in the corners on either side of the Trent End, joining it up with the adjacent stands to provide around 5,000 more seats.

Forest’s latest correspondence with Rushcliffe Borough Council advises the local authority that new plans are being finalised, as well as featuring a site plan drawn up by London-based architectural firm KSS Group. Konstantinos Chatzimanolis, an architect formerly with Foster + Partners, is also prominently involved, having been appointed earlier this year as an executive for the Evangelos Marinakis empire, taking in Forest, Greek club Olympiacos and Rio Ave of Portugal. KSS had previously overseen the expansion of Liverpool’s stadium, redeveloping two of Anfield’s stands to take the overall capacity past 61,000.

The club will set a league attendance record this weekend, but the journey to this point has been far from straightforward
The firm’s portfolio also includes new training grounds at Liverpool and Leicester City and, until recently, overseeing Leeds United’s plans to modernise and expand their Elland Road stadium, using designs very similar to those at Anfield. Leeds have since decided against using KSS and it was announced last week that another firm, Manchester-based BDP, had taken over that project.

One of the more intriguing parts of Forest’s plans is that they are re-examining whether it is possible to construct a new Peter Taylor Stand around the existing structure without causing the disruption that would be involved if it were demolished at the start of the building work. This is the way it happened at Anfield, ensuring that capacity did not have to be dramatically reduced by the stadium being, in effect, only three-quarters operational on matchdays.

Before anything, Forest have to again obtain planning permission, and that will be far from straightforward given the challenges they encountered before getting approval for their previous proposals.

The club announced plans for a new Peter Taylor Stand in February 2019 and, to begin with, their expectation was that work would begin in the summer of 2020. As it has turned out, it took six-and-a-half years to get approval, subject to planning conditions, for a redevelopment that Forest, on reflection, have decided is no longer big enough for their ambitions.

The delays have been considerable and, though the idea was ultimately shelved, the club gave serious consideration at one stage to leaving the City Ground altogether for a new 50,000-capacity stadium at Toton, southwest of their home city on the Nottinghamshire-Derbyshire border. Instead, Forest have appointed property experts Savills to inform the relevant authorities they will be submitting a new planning application for their existing site.

“This will increase the capacity of the stadium from the present 30,000 spectators up to 43,000/45,000 spectators,” Chris Potts, the Savills director, explains in a 15-page letter. “The exact capacity will be known when the final designs are completed.”

No mention is made of a time frame or what would happen in the worst-case scenario of Forest, currently 17th in the 20-team table, being relegated from England’s top division this season or in the near future. However, that has also been a concern in two of their three previous campaigns and it has never impacted the desire at the top of the club to create what they see as being the biggest stadium in the East Midlands.

Forest have returned to European football this season after three decades without it and want a home stadium to match their ambitionMichael Regan/Getty Images
Potts goes on to say that Forest intend to play the role of “good neighbour” — acutely aware that there was considerable opposition from some councillors and local resident associations during the previous planning process.

If Forest are to get consent once more, they will have to convince the authorities that the benefits outweigh the issues caused by a significant increase in spectator numbers and road traffic, bringing issues with pollution, parking and congestion in what is largely a residential area.

The updated plans do not include the 12-storey block of 170 apartments that would have stood beside the stadium as part of the previous scheme. That, in theory, should help Forest’s chances of getting approval. If they do get their way, an agreement is waiting to be finalised to buy the freehold from Nottingham City Council, their current landlords, for the land the stadium sits on.

Forest are pressing on without the involvement of Benoy, the architectural firm run by their former chairman Tom Cartledge, who had previously overseen their redevelopment project before leaving the City Ground in November last year.

Before his departure, the club did briefly look into whether it might be feasible to follow Tottenham Hotspur’s example and build an entirely new stadium on their existing site. However, the decision at the time was that there was not enough space because of the restrictions caused by the neighbouring river.

Plans were also drawn up to expand the Bridgford Stand, the section of the ground where away fans are housed. For the time being, however, the emphasis is on developing other parts of the stadium in a project — funded entirely by Marinakis — that, if approved, would also involve removing the ‘corner box’ hospitality area between the Trent End and Brian Clough Stand.


 ~ Daniel Taylor

[TrickySte]

Glad they've knocked the flats on the head, not sure they'd have been as lucrative as imagined when they started on the original plan in 2019

I think a 14/15k Main stand, taking us to 40k total is a good vision for the medium term.

Then look at Trent End corners / Bridgford upper extension if there's still demand

[Salvatore Matrecano]

I know this actually sounds feasible and sensible but this is literally ripping up pretty well all existing plans from the last 6 years and starting again. So surely planning permission already granted is largely invalid. Does most of the whole process need redoing?

And by the sound of it we get to keep the existing main stand toilets.

[JohnG]

Surely they'd replace the bottom of the PT stand, after building the top of the new behind and over the existing.

[willdared]

This is all pointless if we get relegated...this isn't just doom mongering..our form is really that bad