Brilliant summation of the situation and sadly very true in every paragraph and although some people on here won't believe it or want it, personally I think he's 100% on the money unfortunately.

They were using Lightwaves when it was still current and well maintained.

The facilities there now are terrible. They have only used it since September because the college want to sell TP for housing.

The college has no agreements elsewhere and the athletics track was not used by the college, unless hired separately.

Where are the modern facilities you talk of?

The last time i went into lightwaves it was for a beer festival so i'll have to take your word for that. I'll ask my mate who works in the sports department there his opinion on it.

The college hire out places to use, just like it did when I was there with the athletics track. I know they did because i used it many times whilst there.

And they have the use of Croftons facilities now as well where they have just built a shiney new sixth form.

Anyway moving on given its in the same district would Cas getting the ok for their 'community stadium' a couple of junctions up the motorway legally lessen the need for the council to provide sporting facilities? Could they point to that as an alternative to Newmarket?

The college does not have access to the Crofton facilities. They closed TP saying the college would use QEGS...yeah right!

One fitness class at college is taught in a cookery room at F block.

Ask your teacher mate about the 3 "classrooms" they have at Lightwaves, or the building classes that take place next door to the classrooms!

Loving how so many people who do not have current knowledge are writing all this off!

You will all be immensely pleased to know that we have every expectation of delivering something that we can all be proud of - be that at BV or NM - and there is very good reason for our stance on NM which we will not alter - unless all the right conditions are met!

To be fair that does sound very Wakey college-esque from when i was there! They dumped us in the old ings road school for a while! I am though assured that plans are afoot to improve matters. Guess time will tell!

What it does show is that despite better facilities already being available like QEGS or Crofton there is no guarantee that they will actually use them. It comes down to money and budget cuts means that whilst academies can gain extra money to fund improvements, publicly funded colleges are struggling big time and i know that one for a fact! The build it and they will come strapline doesn't add up for a major build at Newmarket i'm afraid as it has to be paid for somehow and that can only be by charging more for its use than many could afford. A smaller development may work out financially but a large one? Doubt it, it will run up too many debts. I also think that it is time to push for the BV refurb and forget NM.

You said that about 4 years ago as well......

Sorry but it is difficult to have any positivity about this anymore. A case of same old same. It's not a go at you or any of you involved but my expectation of seeing anything come out of this is zero.

Hate to say it but I'm in the same boat, I expect nothing to materialise as it seems to always be the case.

I commend the efforts of those beating the drums but until I see a brick laid I'm going to remain pretty cynical about it all.

Can't blame you or anyone for feeling that way, I sometimes feel that way myself but we either just lie down and accept that we are not going to get anything or we carry on with the campaign.

As TRB as eluded to there are things going on that have to remain confidential, at least for the time being and our aim is to get something, be it at Newmarket or Belle Vue that we all can be proud of.

We may end up with nothing, but if that is to be the case, which I doubt, it won't be because we did not fight. If we accept that we are going to get nothing that is what we will get.

Fed up with people saying "there are things going on behind the scenes but they must remain confidential" who or what are you protecting? We know there is no money to build a new stadium and probably not enough to even buy the existing ground. The club have been shafted time and time again be politician's and business people promising things for their own ends we ought to see more leadership and openness from the club. It may get us nowhere but at least we will know the real situation and not be
conned that if we don't ask too many questions and are patient Santa Claus will come down the chimney with a brand new stadium in his sack.

Enough already! You trust us, or come and do the bloody job yourselves! We give our time, we tell you what we can when we can and we are asking you to support us in our efforts! If you lot are anything to go by then you deserve nothing! Fortunately you have people who believe that we can still achieve something out of all this! Be grateful, because if it wasn't for this small group of dedicated people then you would all end up with what you seemingly desire and expect - nothing!

I am on holiday 1,000 miles away, and I can tell you we have something to play for! Giving up now would be the most stupid thing in history! Please, please, have some faith! And yes, faith means believing without knowing!

You miss the point!

The facilities are there due to demand, the demand is there due to aspiring young Rugby League players, the aspiring young Rugby League players are the due to the existence of Castleford Tigers.

What if there were no Castleford Tigers!

15 or 20 years from now who would the young kids of Castleford identify with, who would inspire them to pick up a rugby ball, who would they pretend to be when they were playing in the street against their mates.

Substitute Wakefield for Castleford
That's the scenario Wakefield is facing!

Don't know which schools in and around Wakefield that you're refering to?

Outwood have a new £4M sports hall but their all weather is not 3G and isn't fit for purpose when coaching Football and Rugby.

Other than that I can't think of any other Wakefield City centric schools that have anything but delapedated Victorian standard facilities, the odd tennis court sized 3G apart.

TRB has said it all above but if people are not prepared to trust us I for one can find something else to do with my time. Alternatively if you think you know what needs to be done then come and take over from us, I'm sure we'd be happy to hand over to you.

Oh, and by the way, if you want you can complete the application to have Belle Vue listed as an Asset of Community Value, it should be reasonably straightforward as I have done most of the spade work for you.

Both Horbury and Ossett have invested in their sports facilities in recent times as part of their refurbs and others have likely done the same to differing degrees. Whilst they don't have all weather pitches most have large grassed areas fine for coaching RL and they will use this everytime, they are not going to be paying out to use some other facility, they just haven't got the money thanks to the government cuts.

The same would apply for local clubs. Many would probably love to use 21st century 3G facilities but will use their own ground and facilities purely down to it being cheaper for them to do so. I don't know the figures but with rising insurance costs, rate and rental costs and the amount of kit needed i would imagine it isn't cheap to run an amateur club these days. Is anyone actually signed up to use them?

My question and worry would be how much would the trust be charging for the use of the facilities at NM? They can't just let them use it for nothing, they have to make enough money to pay its way and that won't be cheap on a large complex like the one initially planned. Do the figures stack up or will it end up becoming a noose around its neck, racking up the debts until it is no longer viable? Would a basic plan of a couple of basic pitches up there with changing facilities etc and a refurb of BV be a better option all round? That would be my choice now.

The idea is that whilst the Trust will own the facility and the club lease it, the club will effectively run it, for the majority of its operational time. Therefore there should be minimum input required to operate the Trust as the governing body - we are all free!

Foot-stamping in response to people's cynicism isn't very helpful; especially when the cynicism is aimed at everyone other than the volunteers doing the hard work.

It would certainly help if more information were forthcoming - there are a lot of oblique statements and platitudes in response to genuine questions, but no hard facts; and you're not helped by the fact that the bigger players in this are maintaining a stoney silence - Sir Rodney Walker and the club itself are absent from any discussions for example, which seems strange. The only protagonist to have made their position clear is WMDC, and Cllr Box was unequivocal in his dismissal of the whole project.

You can't blame people for surmising that things don't look good.

It can't though be cheap running a proposed development the size of NM. If Wakey are only paying a peppercorn rent as has previously quoted then where will the rest of the running costs come from given many of the potential users haven't got a spare two bob to rub together as i've mentioned above? I hope our business model is just 'build it and they will come', thats a sure fire way to ensure the financial problems stack up.

And similarly, you can't blame us for being human! You cut us, we bleed, but here we are, sticking our necks out to say that things are happening and no-one wants to listen! I understand that, but here's the rub:

We can't tell you why we can't tell you about what we can't tell you!

It's as simple as that! I have tried to impart what I can and at times I've overdone it and the feedback from what I've put does get back to people - hence my earlier post directed towards Peter!

Things are changing, it may not happen in weeks, but I suspect something will come out in the next few months, but I ain't going to risk what we might have as it may lead to a smile or 2 today but a lot of frowning and head scratching later as to where it all went wrong!

This I not about ego, or 'I know something you don't, nana nana', it's all about a delicate negotiating position, which will all be explained in time!

Question - do you trust us? If not, then we are not the right people and someone else should do this job, if you do, then try and show a little understanding for the position we are in - cos it's seeing posts telling us all there is no hope and we are doomed, when we are dealing with this directly and saying all is not lost!

For those who say we have nothing, I repeat again:

We have a site with PP
We have an agreement that states we get a stadium in return for PP
We hope to have ACV status in BV shortly

We don't have any money just now, but we have a great mentor in Sir Rodney, we are working closely with the club, we believe the council are under some pressure to assist and we can cause delays, if not rejections, on NM should we need to.

It may now seem corny, but it's true - Together we are Stronger - divided we are not.

It was all costed through at the time. It wall need to be reviewed after such a long passage of time, but a new facility, with everything up to date and meeting all regulations, would cost less than the constant drip feed of money to keep BV going. Plus the rent demands of the current landlord are ridiculous!

I don't want to get into a long protracted debate over this because it's slightly off topic but .

Horbury school was almost totally rebuilt about 10 years ago and as such their sports facilities are relatively new but they still don't have a running track, a full sized or even half size 3G which should have been included in any new build in the last 20 years.

Ossett have 3 Tennis court sized 3Gs which are OK for 5 aside football and small drills but are no good for whole team practice for sports like Rugby and football. Other than that their main changing rooms are the original ones from when the first sports block was built decades ago.

Crofton like Horbury is a relatively new build yet still doesn't have modern facilities and a full size 3G.

Wakefield City No
Cathedral No
Thomas a Becketts No
Kettlethorpe No

All the above have grass fields but some are a long walk from the main school block and the changing rooms. None have floodlighting so the grass fields are no good during the winter due to poor light not to mention the mud, frost or standing water due to poor drainage.

It goes without saying that none of the schools have barns with indoor 3Gs, in fact the only indoor options for most are Victorian age sports halls that have seen better days, one or two schools excepted ie Outwood.

Like I said earlier, Municipal facilities in Wakefield are beyond a joke, simply awfull in terms of provision with only Thornes Park Athletic track and the new swimming baths being the exception.

Schools facilities are very poor in comparison with schools from other Districts across the country.

Professional sports stadia and training facilities are perhaps the poorest of any City hosting pro-sport across the country. Belle Vue is THE oldest RL stadium in the world and looks it (much as I love her). Wheldon Rd is no better and Featherstone despite improving massively is still well behind the likes of the LSV in terms of capacity, access, facilities, seating or any other facet you care to compare them by.

Ossett Town and Ossett Albion are just about fit for the level they play at, Unibond D1 and Unibond Premier at a push.

Sandal RU have a small stadium which like the Ossett football clubs is just about fit for their level but wouldn't be accepted as appropriate should they gain a couple of promotions, they too do not have any 3G provision.

Wakefield Hockey Club at College Grove have by far the best facilities of any sport in Wakefield but they only achieved that by hosting one of the International teams during the 2012 Olypics which gave them access to funding, it was nothing to do with WMDC?

Peter Box and his Councillors need to be all over this embarrassing situation instead of hiding from it!

Yours Faithfully

Extremely Embarassed from Wakefield

As TRB has replied and given his opinion, I'll give my disgruntled opinion. I've been involved in SWAG in a very very minor way compared with TRB, Vasty and Jack in the box, I get incredibly frustrated at the pace these things work, but also get frustrated at the apathy/cynicism, you only have to suggest to people on this forum to get involved and I'd guess 99% will have any excuse not to.
I'd love to but I'm too busy
I'd love to but I'm young and have other things to do.
I'd love to but I'm old
I'd love to but I live too far away.
Sorry but i've seen it all before.
Never have I made a suggestion of help and had a reply of, yeah good idea, what can I do.
So please, don't get irate when people like TRB and Sandal cat etc are working their butts off 'cos it really is irritating.

Well I work at Horbury Academy and I can tell you now we do have a half size all weather pitch, the Academy is 7 year old and for the running track this is marked down parker road fields when needed. Horbury has good sports facilities including a international sports hall and gym plus MUGA

Is the half sized all weather a 3G?
Is the running track right next to the school and is it tartan or even asphalt track or is it just lines marked in lime on a grass field