City Ground meeting sees Nottingham Forest expansion plans approved

Nottingham Forest’s ambitious plans to expand the City Ground have received a huge boost after the first phase of work was approved. The Reds first unveiled their proposal to expand the ground on the banks of the River Trent back in 2019 and they were given conditional permission in 2022.

Complex negotiations have been taking place since then on issues including the financial contributions Forest will make to the local area and how they will support a rowing club when the club demolish one of its buildings.Progress on those negotiations mean that, at the crucial Rushcliffe Borough Council planning committee meeting on Thursday night (June 26), councillors unanimously backed the plans.

The planning approval is seen as a crucial step in Forest signing a deal with the Nottingham City Council to buy the City Ground’s freehold. The capacity of the Peter Taylor Stand is set to increase from 5,000 to 10,000 seats and a residential apartment block could be built next to it, containing up to 170 units.

Forest’s broader plans include improving and, in the case of the Bridgford Stand, extending the other three sides of the ground. The overall masterplan aims to get stadium capacity from just short of 30,000 up to 40,000.

Rushcliffe Borough Council has confirmed that full planning permission has been given to the Peter Taylor expansion element of the plans, meaning they can get underway once all the conditions laid out have been met. The residential element of the plans, which has now been “delinked” from the stadium expansion, has got outline planning permission.

This means councillors have given broad approval for the scheme, but Forest need to come back to the council with further detail on issues like appearance and landscaping before full planning permission is given.