I have been following this saga for years without becoming involved and I thought I had some grasp on the situation, but clearly not. So, can anyone help me to understand what is going on.

As I see it:

- The Council were able to fulfil their duties by allowing Yorkcourt to develop Newmarket with a Community Planning Gain of a stadium and community facilities. This was ratified by the SoS with a S106 to allow the Council to manage the process and ensure compliance by Yorkcourt.

- Failure by WMDC to properly manage the S106 has led to an impasse with Yorkcourt.

- All involvement by Box seems to be deliberately working against the City and the Club. His statements that the 106 was between the developer and the club, bringing in Walker and the false Trust, asking MC to keep out of the bidding for Belle Vue all strike of there being an ulterior motive but surely there isn't enough personal financial gain available to make this worthwhile and even less if Walker gets his snout in the trough.

- The Belle Vue development had the benefits of kickstarting the process, provided 88M with a focal point for their development, showed the Council in a positive light (even if only a flickering candle) and achieved progress on Newmarket's commercial site which has stalled due to Council mismanagement.

- Financially the development will be funded by the Council raising funds in The City in the same way Leeds Council has done for Headingley and they can place a charge against Yorkcourt to gain repayment from future developments. Additionally, there is the £2m granted by the Council and contribution from 88M for their planning gain. Presumably, Trinity will have to pay for the fixtures and fittings within the Stadium.

- The Stadium will be owned by 88M and a 99 year lease granted to the Community Trust to manage the stadium for the benefit of the City of Wakefield. Trinity will be sub tenants (anchor tenants) and need to be able to make a viable business within the stadium.

- A figure of £100000 annual rent has been mentioned and seems to be a sticking point but surely this is not an unreasonable figure as the Trust would have to fund:-
Insurance
Stadium maintenance and cleaning
Stewarding
Pitch maintenance
Create a fund for future development and extension of the stadium
Pay for staffing to manage this process.

Am I missing something?

I was aware that previous meetings under RW hadn’t been minuted. But I would have assumed that all meetings since he left the trust would have been?
If this hasn’t been the case it’s naive to the point of negligence by the club and trust given the history of this project. It’s just shocking business practice not to keep a record of meetings.

Please do not forget the council or Yorkcourt bearing in mind these were providing the resource funding the club would be a Tennant the Trust I agree if meetings were not minutes as I have pointed out before it's rediculous considering the funding streams and profits involved. There must be scrutiny and transparency.

Worth waiting for the response... but I don't believe the club have walked away... I believe the council have issued a press statement, timed to coincide with MC departure from the country...which is based on the HOT document. I would be VERY suprised if there has been any face to face meetings o the past two or three weeks.

I think this is all about manoevering the opinion of people that the failure of a plan (which was never designed too be implemented) is the club's fault and not the councils failure. And so far it seems too he working!

Maybe Cas' negotiators had a bit more business nous? And, the trigger point for their build (ie letting enough retail space) has still yet to be reached despite all the changes made from the original plan. Lateral seem to be getting more desperate to find tenants as time goes on and their website seems to have become much more 'sp' than it used to be. Rumours of the small works team currently on site being ordered off doesn't suggest things are going to progress anytime soon either.

I think you'll find that he is called Box