Castleford Tigers ground revamp and employment site given approval

The club had said without the revamp, its long-term sustainability could not be guaranteed

Plans for a major upgrade of Castleford Tigers' ageing Wheldon Road ground have been approved by Wakefield Council.

The planned improvements to the stadium are aimed at bringing the club into line with facilities required for official Super League standards.

The building of a new employment and logistics site nearby, which was expected to fund the stadium redevelopment, was also approved.

The plans must now go to the government for final review.

Mark Grattan, Castleford Tigers RLFC managing director, said its "historic Wheldon Road home" had "long been in need of significant modernisation".

Gaining council approval for the proposals was "another major hurdle cleared", he said.

The planned stadium redevelopment would see the demolition of the east stand, to be replaced with a new all-seater stand.

The ground's overall capacity would be be slightly reduced to 10,020, down from its current space for 12,000 spectators.

The Wheldon Road site has been home to Castleford Tigers since 1926

The development would also include 16 corporate hospitality boxes and a banqueting suite.

Meanwhile, a new club shop, gym, physiotherapy facilities and modern changing rooms were also planned, alongside a new match day fan zone area and artificial floodlit training pitch.

The planned £200m employment and logistics site next to Junction 32 of the M62 would fund the revamp, with owners Axiom Yorkshire contributing £12.2m towards the work, the club said.

A further £2m was being provided by Wakefield Council's Rugby League Resilience Fund.

Axiom said the site would create more than 1,830 permanent full-time jobs in Castleford, with a further 365 "spin-off" roles created within the Wakefield Council area.

Denise Jeffery, leader of Wakefield Council, said: "Rugby league is a very important part of our heritage and of our future. So, we are very pleased this decision has been made today.

"It will help the club to meet Super League standards and therefore help to support top-level rugby league being played in our district."

Axiom Yorkshire plans to build the employment site on greenbelt land next to junction 32 of the M62

A spokesperson for Axiom Yorkshire said because the planned employment and logistics site was within greenbelt land, the application would be referred to the government to see whether further scrutiny was needed.

Castleford Tigers previously held ambitions to leave Wheldon Road and move to a new stadium, with Wakefield Council having approved two separate schemes in 2011 and 2015.

However, planning permission lapsed without any construction work having taken place.

In 2019, renewed planning consent was given for the second scheme, which would have seen the stadium built on the Junction 32 land where the new employment site is now proposed, but that also failed to come to fruition.