Nottingham Forest’s City Ground redevelopment: Why work has still not started

Nottingham Forest still face multiple hurdles before they can begin their redevelopment of the City Ground, meaning work might not fully get underway until next year.

The Premier League club had hoped to start work this summer to increase the capacity of their stadium — via the redevelopment of the Peter Taylor Stand — from 30,500 to 45,000.

But work cannot begin until Rushcliffe Borough Council approves the proposals — and no date has been set for the planning committee to meet to rubber-stamp the project.

Club sources, who remain anonymous to protect relationships, indicate that Forest are hopeful this could happen at some point in September and that a minor level of preparatory work could begin immediately if it does. But with the new season set to kick off in August, the reality is that the project will not get fully underway until next summer, even if the project is approved in the coming months.

Before that can happen, however, issues still need to be tackled amid a complex, wide-ranging process involving different authorities, including Nottingham City Council and Nottinghamshire County Council.

The Peter Taylor stand is set to be improved (Dan Mullan/Getty Images)

The logistics involved in getting an additional 14,000 people in and out of the stadium on a matchday — once the first phase of the project is completed — are among the most significant factors and, as part of the planning process, the club must demonstrate that the additional challenges relating to crowd and traffic management, including car parking, can be overcome.

There are 162 documents relating to Forest’s development proposal on the Rushcliffe Borough Council planning portal, covering everything from the economic boost the development would provide to its environmental impact.

A traffic management trial of plans to close some lanes around Trent Bridge after the final whistle of a match — to help with the additional flow of people out of the stadium once capacity is increased — also needs to take place.

Rushcliffe Borough Council says it is in contact with the club to figure out a time for the committee to consider the approval. “We continue to work positively with the club on progressing the application and working together towards a committee date,” said a council spokesperson. A special meeting of the planning committee will be staged to discuss the proposals once the approval process has progressed.

Forest declined to comment on the situation, but the club are keen to push forward with the ambitious plans, which would eventually see the capacity of their home on the banks of the River Trent increased to 52,000.

The club had previously been granted planning permission for a smaller-scale redevelopment that would have increased the capacity of their stadium, which has been their home for 120 years, to 35,000.

But a fresh set of proposals were submitted in early January, which would see extensive work undertaken on three of the four stands. The first phase of work would increase capacity to 45,000, before a subsequent redevelopment of the Brian Clough stand would further grow the ground’s capacity again by roughly 7,000.

The club had previously intended to simply demolish the Peter Taylor Stand — the oldest and smallest of their four structures — and replace it with a modern version, with Champions League-standard facilities.

Among the large number of changes to the package first put together six years ago, the club now intend to make it one of the biggest stands in English football. The new Peter Taylor Stand would be 58 metres tall — only slightly shorter than the Council House in the city’s Market Square, where Forest celebrated promotion in 2022. That is 20 metres higher than their initial proposals.

The most recent plans would triple the size of the current stand from 5,000 to 15,000 seats. Forest also want to fill in the corners on either side of the Trent End, joining it up with the neighbouring stands to create up to 5,000 more seats as part of that first phase of work.

In the meantime, the Nottingham Forest Supporters Trust has launched a scheme titled: “Our City. Our Club. Our Future. Back the City Ground”, urging fans to register their support for the plans by emailing the council. Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis believes the redevelopment plans are vital to sustain the club’s ambitions as they prepare for their fifth successive season in the top flight.