Nottingham Forest chairman Nicholas Randall KC has addressed the ‘frustrating and difficult to understand’ delay to the club’s City Ground redevelopment plans.
Forest had been hoping to have planning permission to expand the capacity of the Peter Taylor Stand in place by May.
But recent planning documents pointed to an agreement between Forest and Rushcliffe Borough Council, the authority that will have to give approval, to work towards an approval date of September 16.
The delay obviously pushes back the point at which work can begin, but Randall believes progress towards an agreement has been made.
“I think we're very much hoping we're going to land the planning permission in September,” he told BBC Radio Nottingham.
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“We seem to have everybody pretty close to being on the same page, maybe some people on the page before the page we want to be on, but I think it's going in the right direction.
“Look, it's a must do for us, it's quite clear that the developments at other clubs as well show that you can't really be a sustainable Premier League team for the long term if you've only got 30,000, so we're hopeful and we keep pushing.
“I accept that some of the problems are a consequence of living in a democracy, you have to go through various processes. Sometimes it's frustrating and difficult to understand, but we've just got to keep calm and keep moving forward.
“We know what the goal is. We think the plans are fantastic. We know that the vast majority of people in the area and the community want it to happen, so we've just got to keep pushing and we have to trust the process.”
To be fair part of the delay is down to the fact Forest had planning permission in place last year, before submitting a more ambitious proposal in December.
Randall explained: “I think what's happened is we did secure plans and planning permission, but that was with the aspirations, I think of when we were probably in the Championship.
“I think that we've always had faith in the fans, but the support has been even more remarkable than we envisaged, and we have to make sure that the plans fit that aspiration when we actually go ahead and knock something down and start building something.
“So actually on one level, it's a reflection of how fantastic the journey has been, and the fact that I think we know and we believe and the owner certainly believes that for the big games, we can get 50,000 and we need to push to do that.”
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