Nottingham Forest Stand And Apartment Scheme Approved

Nottingham Forest FC have been given planning permission for the construction of a major new stand and apartment development at their City Ground home, which will add 5,000 seats to the stadium’s capacity.

Rushcliffe Borough Council’s Planning Committee backed the recommendation of its planning officers that the proposal should go through.

The new stand will be part of a project costing nearly £100 million and the news comes as the newly-promoted team prepare for their long-awaited return to the Premier League.

As well as increasing the capacity of the Peter Taylor Stand, the project also includes the construction of a 13-storey apartment building next to the stadium, which will provide 170 new homes and help provide long-term financial support for the development.

While the three-year project to get the development approved has now been successful, there are further steps to undertake before anyone wearing JCB work clothes is on site to start the construction work.

This includes establishing exactly when and how to proceed with the project, which will involve finding a construction partner and agreeing on a timetable. The club statement said the project is “crucial to maintaining the club’s status in the Premier League and all of the benefits to the local community and economy which this status brings”.

It added: “These discussions will be undertaken as soon as practicable and the club remains determined to provide the wonderful supporters of the Club with a stadium of which they can be truly proud in the modern era.”

When the new development is complete, the venue will hold 35,000 fans and will start to reflect the ambition of a club that won back-to-back European Cups in 1979 and 1980, but had been out if the top flight since 1999 and usurped as the leading team in the East Midlands by Leicester City, who have won both the Premier League and FA Cup in recent years.

Forest will not be the first club that has included residential property construction in the development of a new stadium. Sheffield United’s Bramhall Lane Ground now includes Boundary Corner, a development with apartments above the club shop. Planning permission was granted for this in 2017, with the development also involving a 3,200-seat expansion of the Kop End.

The name of the development at Bramhall Lane reflects the fact that the ground was once shared with Yorkshire County Cricket Club and even once hosted a Test match. Nottingham Forest once did likewise, playing at the adjacent Trent Bridge.

However, the club also played at other venues around Nottingham before moving to the City Ground in 1898. At the time the site on the south bank of the Trent was just inside the boundary of Nottingham and its name reflected the fact that Nottingham had gained city status the previous year.

However, a boundary change in 1952 saw all of the land in the vicinity of Trent Bridge south of the river transferred from Nottingham to West Bridgford, which is why Forest had to make their application to Rushcliffe Council rather than Nottingham City Council.