Officers recommend approving Forest's 45,000 City Ground plan, and the committee votes on Wednesday 16 September. No extra fans until a new river crossing.
Rushcliffe’s planning officers have recommended that Nottingham Forest’s two City Ground applications be approved. Councillors vote on Wednesday 16 September at 6pm in the Council Chamber at Rushcliffe Arena, Rugby Road, and the two applications are the only items on the agenda.
The full application would take the ground to a capacity of 45,000. The outline application alongside it would take it to up to 52,500. The certificated capacity today is 31,212.
Officers recommend approval of both, subject to conditions and to a Section 106 agreement being completed first.
But the recommendation carries a condition that matters more locally than the seat count. Forest cannot build the new stands above ground level, and cannot let a single extra spectator in, until a scheme to move crowds across the River Trent has been approved by the borough council and actually built.
The crossing comes first
Both highway authorities told the council the scheme as submitted was unacceptable, and that the pedestrian capacity of Trent Bridge is the problem.
The officer report puts it plainly: “The pedestrian capacity of Trent Bridge is the principal constraint on the development, and both highway authorities have concluded that the scheme as submitted is unacceptable and that an alternative crossing is the route to acceptability.”
The Section 106 agreement handles that in two stages:
- an Initial Scheme must be approved before any work starts
- a Comprehensive Scheme must be approved before the new stands go above ground level
- occupation above the existing capacity is barred until that Comprehensive Scheme has been fully carried out
- where the scheme involves a new bridge, all consents and the funding must be in place before it can be approved
The existing capacity for that purpose is defined in the draft agreement as 31,712, which is the certificated 31,212 plus a 500-person margin.
Officers say a new pedestrian and cycle bridge is “the most obvious means of achieving that outcome, and the one both authorities favour”, but the obligation deliberately fixes the outcome rather than the design, so the permission is not tied to one bridge that might never be built. The risk of it not being delivered, the report says, “falls on the applicant rather than on the highway network or the public”.
What is actually being demolished
The full application, 25/02123/FUL, covers the Peter Taylor Stand and the Trent End. The new Peter Taylor Stand would hold around 16,000, an increase of about 10,000 seats. The Trent End keeps its existing concourses, with new tiers built over the existing roof so capacity is not lost during construction, and the corners between the stands are filled in.
To make room, the report lists these buildings for demolition:
- the existing Peter Taylor Main Stand
- the temporary corner module between the Brian Clough Stand and the Trent End
- the Champion Centre
- the existing club shop and its outbuildings
- the Britannia Boathouse and the Sims boathouses
- 27 Rosebery Avenue
- 17, 19, 21, 23 and 24 Colwick Road
The replacement club shop inside the new stand would be 200 square metres, down from 603 square metres today.
The outline application, 25/02122/OUT, seeks approval for scale only on the Brian Clough Stand, for up to 7,500 more seats. Access, appearance, layout and landscaping are all reserved for later.
The rowing club
The Britannia Boathouse is a registered Asset of Community Value, approved in May 2024 after the clubs nominated it themselves. Listing an asset does not stop it being knocked down, and officers say so.
Instead, the Section 106 agreement bars demolition until replacement facilities, or temporary ones followed within three years by permanent ones, are in place and usable. Nottingham Rowing Club’s committee would be a party to the agreement, and would have to be satisfied before the obligation is discharged. No alternative site has been confirmed yet.
Officers list what they expect the replacement to include: minimum floor areas for boats and equipment, stepped access and landing strips to the river, changing rooms with showers, toilets and a club room, plus replacement of the kitchen and balcony lost from the Britannia.
Match-day parking: a zone across a 25-minute walk
This is the part that reaches furthest into West Bridgford and Lady Bay.
On-site parking at the ground would fall from 375 spaces to 232, a loss of 143 and a cut of about 38%. The whole reduction falls on the Peter Taylor car parks, which drop from 152 spaces to nine. The East Car Park (142) and Brian Clough Car Park (81) are unchanged.
In its place comes an Event Day Controlled Parking Zone. Forest originally proposed a 15-minute walking radius. Both highway authorities pushed for 25 minutes, and that is what is now in the papers: a zone covering roughly 4,800 on-street spaces, funded by a £990,000 Parking Restrictions Contribution in the draft agreement.
Two warnings sit in the report itself. First, the Traffic Regulation Orders needed to create the zone go to statutory consultation and are “not guaranteed to be implementable”. Second, Nottingham City Council wants the applicant to subsidise residents’ permits in affected areas, which officers think can come out of the £990,000 rather than a separate payment.
Residents who objected were split on the zone. Some called it exactly what the area has needed. Others said it should reach further south than Rectory Road, or that Violet Road, Florence Road and Priory Road should be inside it. One objector said it would simply push the problem into neighbouring streets.
The money
The draft agreement sets out these contributions.
| Obligation | Amount |
|---|---|
| Bus Service Contribution | £1,750,000 |
| Parking Restrictions Contribution | £990,000 |
| Walking and Cycling Contribution | £424,900 |
| Park and Ride Site Contribution | £386,397 |
| Transport Working Group Contribution | £250,000 |
| Electronic Transport Information Display | £120,000 |
| Wayfinding Signage Contribution | £100,000 |
| Canal Walking and Cycling Contribution | £100,000 |
| Micromobility Contribution | £50,000 |
| Total of the agreed sums | £4,171,297 |
Monitoring fees, the Travel Plan default fee and further Transport Working Group money are all listed as “to be agreed in writing” before final completion, so the real total is higher than £4,171,297.
Non-financial obligations include the river crossing scheme, improvement works at Lady Bay Bridge and Trentside (a 6m accessible ramp and a 6.5m footbridge replacing narrow unlit steps and a 3m one), a flood defence built to at least 25.1m AOD with a 40-year maintenance covenant, the replacement rowing club, a Travel Plan and variable message signage.
The transport case rests on a large shift away from cars. Officers put the requirement at around 8,717 additional public transport journeys per event at the assessed capacity. The Park and Ride contribution is costed off roughly 39 event days a year.
What people said
At the time the report was written, 878 representations had been received:
- 846 in support
- 17 objecting
- 15 neither supporting nor objecting
Officers note that many of the 846 are a standard pro-forma with identical or near-identical wording, “indicating a co-ordinated campaign in support of the proposals”, and that how much weight to give them is a matter for the committee. The report’s summary of objections refers to 12 letters rather than 17; both figures appear in the same document.
The objections are mostly about the streets rather than the stadium. They include double parking and pavement parking on match days, ambulances and fire engines unable to get down residential roads, the number 11 bus being cancelled or diverted on Trent Boulevard, Lady Bay Bridge closing for about an hour after every game and pushing all the traffic onto Trent Bridge as the crowd leaves, and speeding out of Lady Bay.
Objectors at Trent Bridge View and Trent Quays, on the north bank, say the stands would rise about 35% to around 69 metres and take their light. Officers disagree, putting the separation at about 90 metres across the river and Trentside North. On Colwick Road, about 50 metres away, officers accept there would be “a degree of harm” to residents’ outlook but conclude it would not be significant.
Neither the borough’s own conservation officer nor National Highways objected.
The two highway authorities are a more careful read. Nottinghamshire County Council raised a holding objection, and after Forest’s revised submission it confirmed it “now has no objection in principle to the proposed increase in stadium capacity”, provided the river crossing scheme is secured through the Section 106. Nottingham City Council says it “strongly supports the expansion in principle but cannot support the proposals as submitted”, because Forest’s plan permanently removes a traffic lane in each direction from Trent Bridge. It says it could support the scheme if an acceptable river crossing scheme replaced those lane removals.
One thing was still unresolved a week before the vote. In comments dated 3 September, the county council said the Framework Travel Plan is “not recommended for approval” and that a further revision is required, listing the appointment of a Travel Plan Coordinator and a modest staff target for cutting single-occupancy car use among the outstanding points.
What it means for you
If you live in West Bridgford or Lady Bay, the change that will reach your street is the event-day parking zone, not the building work. It is not decided by this vote. The Traffic Regulation Orders that would create it go to separate statutory consultation, and the report says outright that they are not guaranteed to be implementable. That consultation is where residents get a say on which roads are in and which are left out.
If you go to matches, nothing changes yet. Capacity above 31,712 is locked until the river crossing scheme is approved and built, and no date exists for that.
If you want to speak at the meeting, the council says guidance on who can speak will be announced, and that it expects objectors, ward councillors and the club as applicant. The meeting is at 6pm on Wednesday 16 September at Rushcliffe Arena and is expected to run at least two hours. It will be streamed on the council’s YouTube channel.
If you cannot get there, the full officer reports are attached to the agenda and are public now.
Related
- West Bridgford planning news, with the borough’s housing target and the live applications.
- Lady Bay Bridge Forest matchday closures, the order that already closes the bridge around games.
- Parking in West Bridgford, including which authority runs which spaces.
- West Bridgford roadworks and travel.
Sources
- Rushcliffe Borough Council, Planning Committee agenda, Wednesday 16 September 2026 for the date, time, venue and the two reports.
- Rushcliffe Borough Council, Nottingham Forest planning applications to be considered at September 16 Planning Committee, published 8 September 2026, for the officer recommendation, the YouTube stream and the speaking arrangements.
- Officer report on 25/02123/FUL for the capacity figures, the demolition list, the car parking numbers, the Controlled Parking Zone, the Section 106 contributions, the representation counts and the daylight assessment.
- Officer report on 25/02122/OUT for the Brian Clough Stand, the 7,500 seats and the up to 52,500 total.
- Rushcliffe Borough Council Public Access portal, 25/02123/FUL and 25/02122/OUT.
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