In my rather large stack of 'Stadium' papers I have copy of the original draft heads of terms for the lease, submitted by the Trust and WMDC to the HM Inspector Harold Stephens, at the public inquiry.
Would you like to know what it says... or can you guess? The word Peppercorn is in there...
We should not loose sight of what was promised to the citizens of Wakefield at the PI, in return for a rather substantial piece of land being lifted out of Greenbelt Colin Mackie was going to build a 12,000 capacity stadium (upon receipt of £2m from the Trust via WMDC) and he was going to lease that to the Community Trust on a 99 year lease for a peppercorn rent. The Trust would then lease the stadium to Wakefield Trinity as anchor tenant, the details of that lease were not part of the HOT because they didn't need to be, but it was always understood that the Trust would lease the stadium to the Club on a FIR lease and that annual lease value would have been small, to primarily allow the Trust to meet it's legal requirements (pay the accountant etc) and also provide a growing sinking fund to protect the stadium in the long term, if the current club ever went pop or was relegated etc.
Also, yes, it was always a Community Stadium project and it was envisaged the Trust would facilitate and fund/subsidise community use around the Clubs requirement but, the special circumstance that was used by Mackie and WMDC to justify the lifting of this land out of Greenbelt was Wakefield Trinity's need for a new stadium for the long term future of the Rugby League and the Club in the City.
Now, revisit Andy Wallheads (Peter Box written) statement...
I can tell you that the heads of term that the Trust and Club put together reflect, in principle, the above.
The Trust and the Club do not have mandate to accept anything less that was promised, because anything less is and will continue to short change the citizens of Wakefield!
