Wakefield City wrote:
What plans were these? can’t remember anything submitted since the west stand was knocked down. What do you mean by access? Been to many stadium football and rugby that seem to have less access than the west side of Belle Vue.
Up the Trin
You won’t have done, they were in a draw at the club when I saw them in 2005. There were three versions dating from the late 80’s, up until the millennium, the latter were done as part of our SL application. I actually had to sign a confidentiality agreement to see them but I’m sure nobody cares now. They were never made public because they were never going to happen.
Anyway all were rejected. The main reasons were as follows.
1. Not enough access for emergency vehicles.
2. Poor general access and no parking.
3. Due to lack of space for facilities an unacceptable financial return for the outlay.
Even then the east and south stands were the obvious contenders for upgrading.
We all fondly remember the old west stand but let’s be honest it was ridiculously cramped underneath even by the standards of the day. It’s only suitable as a terrace unfortunately. Don’t see a problem with that myself.
As a matter of interest which ground have a stand that only has a narrow path behind two thirds of it. The only one I can think of is Cas which like BV is a relic. Like BV that terrace was built long before modern stadia regulations. I don’t make the rules, what is certain is that you can’t replace the west terrace like for like, ithe new structure would have to meet modern criteria.
This states that there must be unimpeded access for emergency vehicles including a fire tender. So it’s a minimum one way road. Added to that you’d need a pedestrian walkway as well. That starts to eat away a lot of space.
