Nottingham City Council considered introducing a legal guarantee worth over £200,000 with Nottingham Forest over the expansion of the City Ground. The Labour-run authority still owns the freehold for the Premier League club's stadium and was therefore responsible for signing an agreement crucial to Forest getting planning permission for the redevelopment of the Peter Taylor Stand.
That approval was given at a Rushcliffe Borough Council meeting on June 26, subject to several conditions being met. A new report from the city council now shows options it considered to protect against the small risk that Forest would not meet its obligations under the Section 106 agreement.
Crucial to any major planning application is the signing of a Section 106 deal, part of a planning agreement in which the applicant pays for local infrastructure improvements. Although it is Forest that will pay for the nearly £3 million worth of improvements, Nottingham City Council as the landowner had to approve the deal.
The city council decided to approve the deal on June 24, but its report into the matter has only just been published. The city council says in the report that it considered the option of requiring Forest to provide "an independent bond which could be called on in the event that the council did incur liability."
This would have essentially meant Forest having to pay money to the city council if it ended up being unable to deliver all the promised £3 million worth of improvements. Yet the city council says in its report that requiring a bond would be "disproportionate" given the limited risks involved.
The council also rejected the idea of requiring a deed of indemnity from Forest, which again would have seen the club agreeing to protect the city council from potential financial loss. If the city council had required Forest to take out a legal bond, its report says the cost to the club could have been over £200,000.
The city council's ownership of the City Ground freehold led to a public row between the authority and the club when the former tried to increase rent. A deal was eventually struck for the city council to sell the freehold to Forest and although the council has agreed its side of the deal, Forest said it would only do so when it had been given planning permission for its stadium expansion.
Nottingham Forest have now been given final approval for the first step of their ambitious City Ground expansion plans six years after they were first unveiled. Once all conditions have been met, the club can start progressing plans to demolish and rebuild the Peter Taylor Stand in a move that will increase capacity by 5,000.
The Reds have also been given initial approval on plans for a block of up to 170 apartments next to the rebuilt stand, though this is subject to approval of other details they will have to provide to the council. The Reds first unveiled their proposal to expand the ground on the banks of the River Trent back in 2019 and they were given conditional permission in 2022.
The Section 106 agreements since then have been described as complex, with one of the sticking points having been the need to relocate a historic boat club near theCity Ground. The Britannia Boathouse currently stands in the way of a plaza planned between the new Peter Taylor Stand and the new block of apartments.
Part of the Section 106 agreement states that before any demolition work takes place on the Britannia Boathouse, a replacement site for the Nottingham Rowing Club needs to be found. In a statement after getting planning approval, Forest previously said: "The club is delighted that Rushcliffe Borough Council's planning committee has approved our application regarding the redevelopment of the City Ground.
"We look forward to working closely with our partners on the next steps and will provide a further update in due course." It remains unclear when Forest will agree its side of the deal to take on the city council's freehold.