I fully understand anyone who has lost faith in this process, most of us have had our 'moments', but we can't afford to give up as the very future of our club; professional sport and even, in many ways, the whole identity of the City is on the line here.

Michael is doing his level best for our club. He doesn't get everything right, but he does it for the right reasons, however his patience with the whole thing is not as great as ours and he will not wait another 10 years as we are.

The RFL don't have licensing any more, but they do have minimum standards, which we fail on almost everything and are under serious pressure to show progress towards some fixes.

The council are making plenty of noises, but accept no blame and offer nothing. They were right behind us at the start (could that be because they ballsed up on Thornes?), but they supported the process financially and technically. However they refuse to accept to either be a party to the 106 or their role in enforcing it.

The developer claims to have assisted the scheme by putting in a road and infrastructure as part of the NC scheme - this is true, but why did the SoS reduce the trigger point from 100,000m2 to 60,0000m2 and why did the developer sign up to this. The SoS considered the trigger point to be fair and the developer was happy to go along with it - all we needed was someone to police it!

Yes, we missed it - we missed the fact that the scheme for NC was not to contribute towards the UU! But maybe that's because it wasn't exactly shouted from the rooftops and, as the representative of the 15,000+ signatories I don't agree that it was right not to be informed of this significant change!

We have the basis of an offer from the developer. It's a bloody long way from being a deal, and whilst we will try and continue to negotiate a deal we will also be looking at all the possible options open to us. No-one wants to go to court - it will be expensive and can be unpredictable - but if that is ultimately where we need to go, then so be it.

'Confused? You will be after this weeks episode of Newmarket'

TRB, what on earth has happened to Sir Rodney ?

I know that, at the recent meeting, it was said that he was staying in the background at the moment (or something to that effect).
This guy is a genuine "big hitter" and should know his way around slow moving government bodies etc.
Also, one would expect that he has serious contacts that can get things moving.

We appear to be hoping for movement rather than expecting anything and in the ruthless world of property development, it appears that Yorkcourt,
with the "help" of a passive local council aren't willing to do anything.

Although it's far too soon to expect any help from Ed Balls replacement, is Andrea Jenkyns in any position to assist or, were the positive noises made just
pre election hot air ?

Article on page 17 of this weeks Wakey Express states that the club (trust ?) were due to have a meeting with Yorkcourt yesterday, and it infers that Sir Rodders was due to be there. Did it happen, and was any progress made ?

I might get an answer to this one day...Do we know what was said in the meeting(s) between the developers and Glover/Elston that were mentioned a few pages back in the reply from the council to someone?

If we're all to form the opinion that the council is to blame, we need all the facts to prove this.

Apparently they don't recall ever being informed NC wouldn't count towards the target. Naturally no minutes of the meeting were taken. I've speculated that even if they were told was it explained to them in a way they would understand what the implications were.

I guess we'll never truly know. Both parties have form for being a little economical with the facts.

Surely the burden of proof is on the Council to prove that they informed the Stadium Trust etc.

The fact that they have no minutes can be added to the fact that they have no record of the legal advice they say they took.

Shoddy

WMDC is beggining to remind me of Doncaster Council a few years ago.

In reply to t-r-i-n-t-y…..were the "residents of newmarket"/ representative of the people of Wakefield present in that so called meeting with Glover/Elston ? Surely the point is no-one seemed to be aware of any development outside of the agreement.

The meeting happened alright as I have reported.

Sir Rodney is the negotiator. Don't expect him to be spreading dirt, it's not his style. Happy with his role just now.

I still think we will eventually get our Stadium.