Super League rugby club Wakefield Trinity has been the green light for the major redevelopment of its Belle Vue stadium.
Wakefield Council has approved the club’s planning application which paves the way for work to start on the £12m redevelopment in early 2022. The work is still subject to the necessary statutory consents and formal signing of a S106 agreement which, the club says, has already been agreed in principle.
According to the agreed schedule, work will begin after Trinity’s game with local rivals Castleford Tigers on Easter Thursday. With the main East Stand to be demolished and rebuilt, temporary seating will be erected to accommodate fans for the rest of the 2022 Super League season and some of 2023.
John Minards, Trinity’s chairman, said: “This is fantastic news and marks another significant milestone in our plans to develop the Be Well Support Stadium at Belle Vue into a community stadium for the people of Wakefield. We look forward to completing the necessary legal processes in January and making a start in earnest shortly thereafter.”
The plans, which have been developed since Trinity purchased the freehold of the 9,000-capacity venue in March 2019, include construction of a new 2,500-seater East Stand to include a large hospitality and conferencing facility. A 4G pitch suitable for all weather use by both club and the community will be installed.
The West Yorkshire club will also renovate the North Stand terracing to provide an upgrade to spectator amenity in that part of the ground and an increase overall ground capacity. Existing floodlights will be upgraded to the latest LED technology.
Trinity’s plans feature the refurbishment of the existing ‘Rollin Shack’ to provide a multi-functional leisure space including a café and club retail facility.
The plans were submitted to the local authority more than a year ago.
Those involved in the project include planning advisors Pegasus Group, Turner and Townsend and AFL Architects.
The approval comes more than four years after the club agreed to a redevelopment plan put forward by Wakefield Council in September 2017. The club had previously been focused on developing a new home elsewhere in the city.
In 2012, the club was granted outline planning permission to build a new 12,000-capacity stadium on the site of the former Newmarket Silkstone Colliery, close to junction 30 of the M62.
Be Well Support, a provider of wellbeing support services, recently acquired naming rights to Belle Vue for the 2022 season.
