Nottingham Forest’s plans for a major expansion of the City Ground have been given the green light.
Rushcliffe Borough Council’s planning committee met on Wednesday evening (September 16) to consider one of the most monumental developments to pass through the authority.
Back in 2019, Nottingham Forest Football Club first revealed its plans to expand its capacity by thousands, with the council giving permission for a smaller 5,000 capacity expansion in the summer of 2025. The capacity currently sits at around 31,000.
Months later, in December 2025, the club revealed its ambitions to drive its capacity up to more than 50,000, with two applications detailing a total stadium capacity of 52,500 in future.
The first application discussed concerned the full demolition of the existing Peter Taylor Stand and the filling in of the Trent End corners, which will take capacity to 45,000. This was given conditional planning permission on the night.
The temporary corner module between the Brian Clough Stand and Trent End will also be demolished to facilitate this part of the project.
Under the plans, the Champion Centre, Club Shop, Nottingham Rowing Club’s Britannia Boathouse and Sims Boathouse buildings, along with six homes, would be knocked down. A new club shop will be built as part of the project.
The redeveloped Peter Taylor Stand will bring the total stadium capacity up to 45,000, where it will be organised over multiple levels, including general admission, hospitality suites, media facilities and a restaurant with an independent entrance for use outside matchdays.
The existing Trent End Stand and concourse will be retained, where new tiers will be built over the existing roof to maintain capacity during the construction period.
The six residential properties on Rosebery Avenue and Colwick Road, near the City Ground, will be demolished to allow for the creation of a new public plaza alongside reconfigured car and coach parking.
Rushcliffe councillors also approved a further extension of the Reds’ ground through the redevelopment of the Brian Clough Stand to deliver an extra 7,500 seats – though this application was an ‘outline’ plan, meaning further details need to go through Rushcliffe planners before work can begin on this.
Speaking during the meeting, a spokesperson for the 375-plus-member Nottingham Kayak Club expressed concerns for the vehicular access to the club during and after construction works, adding: “If we can’t get vehicle access after it would be the death knell”.
Councillor Sue Mallender (Green) suggested NFFC should consider giving fans free public transport with their tickets or season tickets on home matchdays to reduce cars travelling to and parking near the ground on the day.
She said residents living nearby “already suffer a huge amount” from parking problems due to the “huge amount” of fans who come by car and park “illegally”.
There was floating support in the room for a new potential pedestrian footbridge over the River Trent to deal with the increased footfall from the stadium expansion.
This is not a formal plan at this stage, would require its own separate planning application and is not included in Forest’s developer contributions.
While Cllr Matt Barney (Con) acknowledged the bridge plan is not currently formal, he speculated a new footbridge could be “highly likely” in future.
Charlotte Thompson, planning officer at the council, responded that if there was to be a new bridge one day, “we don’t know where it would be” at this stage.
Once all works across both extensions are complete – which the club aims to have complete by 2033 – the total capacity of the stadium would be 52,500.
The Reds’ expansion plans mean the Peter Taylor car park will be reduced down from 143 spaces to just nine, where on-site parking will be limited to operational staff, accessible guests and VIPs.
To mitigate the parking loss, shuttle buses from existing Nottingham park and ride sites are included in plans.
The new public plaza will connect Pavilion Road to Trentside North to allow free pedestrian movement between the two and will partly feature on the site of the reduced Peter Taylor car park.
Forest is set to pay about £4.17 million in developer contributions for the wider community, including £1.75 million towards bus services and £990,000 towards a parking restriction zone, £424,900 towards walking and cycling and £386,397 towards the Queen’s Drive and Colwick Road park and ride sites.
Councillors requested that a community liaison group be added to the developer contributions list, which would include a local representative and would feed into the transport working group.
Before the expansion takes place, the club will need to submit a plan for how it will build a new flood defence barrier by the Trent End, with the Environment Agency saying the required 25.17 metre height may need to increase in future.
By Lauren Monaghan (Local Democracy Service)
