Just as an aside, can anyone remember how much the Council were proposing to put into the pot for the Newmarket development, was it around £2M?

Also, were the Trust planning on raising some cash via Sport England, Lottery etc?

Yes that figure sounds correct

Hello there DA.


Yes you are correct WMDC did pledge a £2M contribution to Newmarket and also matched it to the now failed Glasshoughton project.


The trust back then was headed by Walker and as far as I can recollect he made numerous vague remarks regarding funding but nothing specific. In fact he was always quick to point out his contacts and past projects and business connections where possible funding could be sourced. However despite of all this bluster he never raised a single penny to the project.

The council have publicly stated they would fund a whole new stadium, irrespective whether Trinity would be part of it. Funnily enough I've not seen them mention it again.

Whilst YC solicitor's have played their card on this I can't help think it's limited to this development alone and the proposed funding mechanism. No doubt they will push planning law to show why they are not legally obliged to contribute to the community facilities but I'm sure the council could revert the change in classification of the site back to greenbelt as the facilities were the only reason it was deemed appropriate to build on it in the first place.

I highly doubt any ace cards have been pulled out of any sleeves.
All the cards have been on the table for a long time, everyone knows who has got what hand, its just a question of playing them officially.
At least positions are finally "official" and not just obfuscation conjecture.

That is also what I understand to be true. However they would need a will to do that and moral backbone. It may als0 be detrimental to a stadium getting built up there, but its never going to happen anyway, that's obvious now. So we get nothing but those greedy sods who have already made millions also loose out, I could live with that.

What's Eric Pickles doing these days?

That would surely only be the case though if the developer was found to be in breach of its responsibilties. Should they throw the kitchen sink at the legal process and find one of the many sub-clauses and loopholes that absolves it of any need to build a stadium then the council wouldn’t have any recourse to change the classification back.

Here’s how i see it panning out. The council actually refuses the application based on the lack of community facility contribution. Yorkcourt take powerful legal action and using one of the aforementioned get-out clauses get the descison overturned after the council, repeatedly reminding everyone how cash-strapped they are, meekly defend themselves in court. Yorkcourt crack on with developing the Newmarket site without paying a penny towards the stadium and with no funding forthcoming 88M kick us out of Belle Vue and redevelop it for something more profitable than a rugby ground, possibly including a MUGA pitch or two to get around a couple of planning clauses and funded by renting to Wakey College. Wakefield Trinity are screwed, Yorkcourt get rich and the council makes a mint through the extra business rates.

Does anyone remember not so long ago, cllr Box being under pressure from the national press & conservatives pressure, he bent with the wind. He held an open invitation to the press & supporters to be present in a full meeting of the council in the county ball council chamber. He made statements that day that he held forecourt to agreements & saved papers he said he had agreements with forecourt to change the unilateral 106 agreement to a full local authority 106 agreement & await further developments above the aggregate figure. He stated forecourt agreed but because of confidentiality saving the papers he could not make them public.
Everyone thought great now we are getting somewhere !
Time has shown lies and deceit -- after the meeting i spoke to the conservative councilors and they said they would monitor and keep up the pressure ! Well here we are, game time now ??? !!! GAME ON
My one regret in all this is that our brilliant owner Michael Carter who is the best owner we have had but listened to others & deflected him from buying belle vue. He would have owned the land & therefore have a ''fixed asset'' to develop or make liquid for funds of a new ground. He did nothing wrong but trust people speaking lies to put him off.
My main point/s to this is use all actions & in-actions including this episode against them because they can be proven, recorded ( WAKEY express ) & council minutes of meeting to show their miss behaviour. !!
Problems are courts are costly & you can win the Ratio decidendi, which pleases the plaintiff - Trinity, but the guilty party being a civil matter still don't pay & close the business change name & still trade.
We are in a strong position to prove & a week position to a positive productive outcome.
I would however maximize publicity to degrade their public standing to ziltch..

Has anyone updated Aaron Bower yet...he seems to be one of the few fighting our corner ??

Wrting is autobiography " Pies i have known and loved"

Guys, just hang fire. The Trust has instructed its Lawyers and at the appropriate time we will launch a crowd funding platform to raise the funding to take legal action if that is what our legal team advise.

Rest assured we will not give up the fight.

Thanks Sandal Cat. This whole debacle leaves an extremely bitter taste in the mouth.

I have a terrible feeling that my ever unreliable car is going to have a serious breakdown on my commute home. I really worry that even though I'll be able to pull off a major A road, it will end up breaking down in the middle of an industrial estate road. This would obviously be a shocking event, and even after attempting to fix it for a while, I'll still be in the middle of this road when the AA van turns up. I truly hope that this breakdown doesn't affect wagons accessing their facilities. I also hope it doesn't happen repeatedly in the same place as that would be awful

House of Lords, Baron Pickles of Brentwood - Lord Pickles


in short, probably not a lot

If we don’t get a community stadium in the City of Wakefield are we going for a judicial review in the councils incompetence of not enforcing the 106 correctly. Is this letter from Yorkcourts solicitor confirming they’ve not enforced the section 106 correctly?
Up the Trin

I am not a cllr Box fan, but he did make a public statement about Yorkcourt, I quote "" Yorkcourt have no intention of providing a stadium, they should walk away, we can then look to someone else to provide one'' unquote, therefore what do we believe now ? ?

Box had his fingers crossed at the time he said this.

Is anyone thinking about objecting to the letter? Adding comments?

I have instructed my solicitors to inform you that I am the love child of Elvis Presley.

The above statement has the same validity as that of Yorkcourt solicitors statement.

If you pay them enough they will say it but it doesn’t make it correct or even mean they believe it.

Yorkcourt are fishing, they are testing the resolve of the opposition. They are doing so because the opposition is annoying them by stopping them doing what they do best - buy ridiculously cheap then sell at huge profits.

However there comes a point where they need to move the goods and it looks like we are now at that point. To me this is a good thing because at least we know where we stand and can fight fire with fire.

That site has great value and if Yorkcourt can’t make it work it won’t be long before they are under pressure from those who can and who in turn may be a little more reasonable.

Also as an aside Box is now under real pressure for numerous reasons so hopefully this will only speed his demise.

So not bad news imho.

I imagine the council will eventually just throw their hands up and say 'sorry, our fault' (probably some blanket statement, not Box obviously) and blame it on some error in not seeing the loopholes in the original agreement. Then say legally there's nothing to stop Yorkcourt with other applications and just carry on letting them do what they wish. The council gets the blame and labeled inept which we already know, and nothing changes...

Human error is always a good one, and strangely enough the solicitor for WMDC resigned a few weeks since, scapegoat anyone?

I tend to agree - these letters, whilst they sound authoritative, are often just statements of intent; what this does do however, quite aside from the legal complexities, is make YC's attitude and intentions entirely clear - as predicted, they do not intend to contribute a brass farthing to a community stadium, and will instead continue to obfuscate and circumvent the agreement until the site is built-out.

WMDC's response will be interesting - I would imagine they'll desperately be looking for some kind of compromise, as if this goes fully legal, several parties will have skeletons that they'd much rather stayed firmly in the closet - not least Mr Box and his cohorts.

If the solicitor who resigned ever gets subpoenaed, who knows just what will come out.

There must be a Deep throat in this saga , my best guess would be Jeffries and her relationship with Rodders