Wakefield Trinity’s ground development set to be green lit this week

Plans for the redevelopment of Wakefield Trinity’s Belle Vue ground will be given the green light later this week.

That will be sent for approval alongside an application for a major commercial development that will help fund the stadium scheme, according to Insider Media.

John Minards had previously given an essential update on the work that is currently going on regarding a stadium upgrade.

“I believe we now have a fully funded scheme that we can take to the planning committee in December,” Minards told Trinity TV.

“There have ben delays for about 50 years on this whilst I’ve been at this for about three years since I became chairman and I’ve been working flat out on this.

“When we bought the freehold in March 2019 I said it was going to be months not years but it has been 18 months given that we have had delays due to the Covid-19 pandemic.”

Minards had also keen to stress that full planning permission is not a given, despite it looking increasingly likely that will be the case.

“There are various timetable issues, we can’t take the planning permission case for granted.

“The enabling development at Newmarket needs to go through planning too because that is providing a fair degree of funding for all of this.

“The assumption that they all go through successfully, there’s then a grace period with the Secretary of State before we can start building.

“I would say February is the earliest we can start.”

The Trinity chairman went on to describe what new improvements will be made to the iconic stadium.

“The flagship will be the new East stand, the existing East stand will be demolished with 2,500 brand new seats.

“The car park will get a makeover and the whole approach from Doncaster road will be majorly different.

“The north terrace will be resurfaced and repointed which will be a major makeover with safe standing and space for concessions.

“The building that contains the changing rooms will be gutted and will be known as the community hub.

“There will be community changing rooms and space for exercise classes and a community cafe.

“And, there will be a new big screen and a new 4G pitch.”