Classic Box tactics at yesterday`s council meeting held at Ossett. So when the question of the stadium was raised he acknowledged that there were several Trinity fans in attendance and advised that the council was working withe club to try and resolve the issue, so that`s a lie for a start as there has not been any contact since April. He then advised that as there would be many questions he had arranged for his planning officer to be at the meeting, one Mr Rogers ( Box`s new poodle ), who would be available at the end of the meeting to answer any questions the Trinity fans had. Brilliant tactic from the oily snake to resolve himself of any involvement so that when everything that Yorkcourt want is granted by the Council, which it undoubtedly will be, he will be at arms length and simply shrug his shoulders and say I did my best.
Now the planning officer Mr Rogers is hand picked by Box, he his a very unimpressive man , lacks personality, lacks any sign of strength, is not the man you would want on your side leading the fight against streetwise Showmen like Yorkcourt and their army of sharp legal advisers. ................................(You can't say that bit Belly, Libel issues there. Poptart)
Rogers did confirm when questioned that there is not a cat in hells chance of the Newcold factory ever counting towards the trigger point of land developed and that the extension to Newcold will also not count. He did also confirm that he has been talking to the Trusts, please note Trusts plural, when questioned if one of those Trusts involved the snake oil salesman Rodders he would neither confirm or deny. So it is blatantly obvious that Rodney is involved he is the person that the planning officer is been told by Box to deal with. Can someone on the official Trust confirm if the pathetic Mr Rogers has had any contact with them. I think I know that the answer will be a big fat no.
So as we all probably knew the facts are that Box is doing nothing to assist the community get a stadium, he is not talking to the club, he is through his pet poodle planning officer Rogers liaising with Rodders and Yorkcourt to ensure that Yorkcourt get their planning with no financial commitment to fund a Community stadium. We are I am afraid dealing with a bunch of low life lying scum bags and that is been kind to low life lying scum bags.

Succinct as ever Belly. Nice one.

You answered your own question, its a big fat NO.

Do we know for sure he hasn't been talking to the club? Would MC be able to confirm this as fact?

I was in attendance at yesterday's meeting. Mr Box spoke to a group of us prior to the council meeting and said he had spoken with the club that morning. Asked us not to bring the stadium up during the meeting as Mr Rogers would have a meeting with us at the end. Rogers said they could only ask the developer to contribute to the stadium. Didn't have much faith on him being strong enough to assist in our fight. What was surprising was his statement that they were working with the 'Trusts'. Rogers was reminded that we weren't only talking about a stadium for Wakefield Trinity, but a Community Stadium for the whole of the Wakefield district.

Interesting. Not talking to the Wakefield & District Community Trust and will not reveal who the other Trust is.

A community stadium for the whole Wakefield District - wonder if the community stadium for the whole Distict will end up in Glasshoughton - no surely not. The PI was clear, it was a stadium primarily for Wakefield Trinity in order to maintain its place in SL and sustain its future which would also be available for community use.

WHEN HE said 2 trusts he meant Sir Rodney’s trust as well

I thought he spoke well, interesting when he said the council didn’t sign the original agreement. Any reason anyone from the trust or the club didn’t attend?

Because it’s a Unilateral Undertaking and not a Multi-Party Agreement. A UU is given by one party (Yorkcourt) to a beneficiary (WMDC). The Council are party to the UU but not a signatory as they did not need to sign it.

No Trust Board Members were in attendance as we felt it inappropriate but we had eyes and ears at the meeting.

Interesting just been to watch the cabinet meeting at Ossett on line ,suprising it cant be watched.Wonder why ?

I can't understand why when a public opportunity arises neither the club or the Trust is present to give as much grief as possible,
its then beggars belief the group that was there was requested by Box to stay quite through the meeting as they would get a moment with someone at the end that had been primed ready with enough info for them to fob of yet again.

Last year we even had an opportunity to publicly embarrass the council in front of the cameras, its not my position to get in he councils face but at some point the club if they want too progress have to pick up the anti.

As a support I've sat and waited patiently while the in and outs have been discussed behind closed doors trying too find the slightest bit of information that give us all hope of what should be sorted years ago is gradually fading away

I too was at the meeting & asked questions about the stadium. I too attended the meeting with planning officer who I thought spoke openly and honestly & answered directly anything asked of him (the exception of naming the second trust). The view given on here is incorrect & unfair on the guy. He was sat and prepared to talk & I was surprised that the trust wasn’t there to ask direct questions. Not knowing the whole sequence of events in detail then how could you question what he said?? I’ve been a fan 40 years and probably will be for 40 years but don’t slate the bloke who sat there and answered everything he could especially around new ground, bv and the occupation of newcold & kitwave.

you probably can't slate the bloke who sat there answering your questions but you can slate the bloke who put him there knowing full well you'd get nowhere with him, so this spokesman had now knowledge of the sequence of events in detail, does that ring alarm bells for you that the council put up a muppet in front of you

I think you are way off the mark here. First of all let me remind you the trust is an official legal entity registered at companies house. Also to be brief they are an extremely important component in all of this and their role is clearly defined in the inspectors report. In fact this proposed scheme will not function without the trust.


I would suggest you look at the official trust twitter feed and it will tell you how long it has been since the council even bothered to talk to them, Are you seriously suggesting the trust should have to come to a contrived briefing like the one you attended in order to find out what was going on! If the council and rogers were such honest upfront people they would be in touch with the trust at every opportunity. The fact that they are not even talking to them raises serious concerns in my opinion. However on your own admission Rogers refused to enlighten everyone to who he had REALLY been in discussions with. The fact alone tells you all you need to know. OK he may have spouted all the stuff which is mostly known our can be guessed by everyone and that may have given you a false impression as to his honesty. But don't be fooled by that.


Just one other point I am also informed he was asked another very pertinent question which he again failed to answer and looked uncomfortable about, perhaps you missed that !


Sometimes you should not be blinded by what people seem to tell you, its the things that they refuse to answer that give you the biggest clue about their true intentions.

Maybe because we have asked all the questions before over the last 6 years and now is the time to give them grief in a Court of Law.

I have said on here and I will say it again, our Lawyers have been instructed and unless we get what we have repeatedly asked for and indeed been promised in Full Council Meetings then we will take this to Court. We have had enough of talking over the last 6 years, look where it has got us.

Who’s he REALLY been in talks with? What was the question he failed to answer and looked uncomfortable with?

Before the council meeting started and he was speaking to us I asked Box a question - last year at the council meeting when fans attended he said he had papers relating to Yorkcourt at Newmarket that he said he would pass on to the Trust and a week later he back tracked. I asked what had happened during that week to change this. He looked puzzled and didn't reply.

Sandal cat yes it's time for legal action

Totally agree.

so the gloves are off

So is there a deadline before we take them to court are we talking days weeks or months? Best thing we can hope for is a new finance agreement for stadium build ( council planning officer touched on it yesterday) with the council, could be like MC mentioned a while ago. Everyone saves face (council/Walker/Trust) without going to court.

Correct, I and others have given years of our lives fighting for this. We have had more meetings than I have had hot dinners, been promised new 106 Agreements, the inclusion of Newcold and seen the Developer waving a contract to buy Belle Vue at us amongst other promises and we are no nearer a stadium than where we were almost 6 years ago when outline Consent was granted. Actually we are further away because in December 2012 when the SoS granted consent after the PI we believed that the Council would enforce the condition ande the Developer would deliver what he promised the Planning Inspector and the SoS - how stupid were we.

I for one have had enough of this taking over my life and my wife would like me back which is a bit surprising so the time for talking is at an end and all I can see now is Legal Action which will settle this once and for all and the Trust is up for this. So ask yourself why do you think the Council want a new Trust.

Well at the moment if that's the best thing then there is no hope. Finance is money and there is only one place on this planet where it will come from and that is yorkcourts pocket. They have made it quite clear where they stand on that issue. A full legal hearing is the only way, even then it would not surprise me if yorkcourt just upped sticks , cut their losses and went to live in some off shore tax haven where they could not be touched. They have made more than enough out of our city in order to do this over the years in their dealings with our benevolent council.

All I can say is “I wasn’t informed” - I was there asking questions & found a whole lot of stuff out that have never been on the trusts twitter feed. The bloke was fair & reasonable in my view - indeed whilst possibly put in N awkward position by box. I would encourage you to attend the next one if you want to know what was said.

Everything hangs on the current planning application (Kitwave).

The Council can pass it with a new 106 that guarantees the delivey of the stadium. Unlikely if you have seen Gaitley's letter. So they pass it ignoring our objections, no 106, no stadium so we seek a Judicial Review in the High Court.

The Council can refuse consent. Yorkcourt then likely to appeal the decision to HM Planning Inspectorate, the very body they made a promise to build a stadium. We make representation to the Inpector putting our case.

Looks like Legal action either way unless the Council pull a rabbit out of the hat which we will be more than happy for them to do so. We do not wamt to go to court but we will if we have to.