Doug Metcalf is reported to have said in the Lancs Telegraph, "Burnley FC is pleased to be working in partnership with Burnley Council and the club is planning significant investment in its stadium in relation to the Premier League Accessible Stadia works, which are due for completion by August 2018".
It goes onto say a formal launch of the new master plan, including plans for work around the Town Centre are expected to take place early in 2018.
My assumption on this is the work the club intend to do, for enabling better access for disabled supporters. They're going to have to be quick to get the work done for the start of next season.
Can anyone else give any clearer information on the plans?.

Top tier on the Bob Lord

Proposed monorail directly from The Boot to the ground. Gets a big thumbs up from me (especially as the council are funding it)

Disabled access.

it's just a signpost pointing the way tut'turf and a wheelchair ramp [or two, depending on what's it the DP store].

Unless the crispy onions are coming back for the hotdogs, I aint interested!

90% of the Turf and surrounding areas need significant improvement, it's a mess.

Buy that cricket club now, whilst we are loaded. Give them a year or 2 to re-locate, whilst we own the land at. It'll need doing sooner or later.

We are going to have the worlds first proper Stadium bowl, with full 360 degree viewing capability.

I've already put my name down for a seat above the half way line.

Canal network from the town centre to the Turf. Venice of the north with gondolas transporting fans to the home of football.

They're running a zip wire from the top of Brunshaw hill to the upper tier of the Jimmy Mac.

Bfc wrote:Can anyone else give any clearer information on the plans?.

What I can tell you is the plans were submitted to EHRC (Equality & Human Rights Commission) for approval and I was told the club were hoping to have a response back from them by September. We could not go ahead with anything until we got that approval.

The work required will now have to be given the appropriate planning permission and then go out to tender and the work is expected to start very early in the new year. I can also confirm the cost of the work is in excess of £5 million which had already been ring fenced by the club for providing improved disabled facilities.

Although this is absolutly 100 percent only the disabled access issues, I still would hope the club are thinking in investing in the stadium.

IMO the cricketfield stand needs either major redevelopment or knocking down and rebuilding. I like the the low roof and the atmosphere it helps to create so I would want to keep that idea. The concourse needs sorting it's way to small. I'd also look at redeveloping the Bob lord and maybe extending it back if able

Inchy wrote:Although this is likely to just be the disabled access issues I would hope the club are thinking in investing in the stadium.

IMO the cricketfield stand needs either major redevelopment or knocking down and rebuilding. I like the the low roof and the atmosphere it helps to create so I would want to keep that idea. The concourse needs sorting it's way to small. I'd also look at redeveloping the Bob lord and maybe extending it back if able

This is absolutely nothing to do with anything other than the disabled facilities. The club have already confirmed they have no immediate plans to make any changes other than this.

do we have enough disabled fans to warrant blowing £5m on making access even easier for them...at this rate it would be cheaper to have them taken to their seats by 4 flunkies carrying a sedan chair

Enough or not, I think the club is legally obliged soon plus its the decent thing to do instead of leaving them to get soaked during bad weather when they cant do much to dry themselves off etc.

Sidney1st wrote:Enough or not, I think the club is legally obliged soon plus its the decent thing to do instead of leaving them to get soaked during bad weather when they cant do much to dry themselves off etc.

£5m would buy a hell of a lot of brollys

It does sound a lot considering that the two new stands cost about £6.5m in total. I'll be interested to see the plans, but if the EHRC aren't happy with them then they must have very high demands indeed.

fatboy47 wrote:do we have enough disabled fans to warrant blowing £5m on making access even easier for them...at this rate it would be cheaper to have them taken to their seats by 4 flunkies carrying a sedan chair

There are legal requirements and a minimum number of spaces we have to provide, determined by the capacity of the ground, so it doesn't matter whether we have any disabled supporters or not, it is something we have to do.

The club are working alongide the disabled supporters group, who are part of Burnley FC Supporters Groups, and, as posted previously, it needs EHRC approval.

As for the numbers of disabled - it is believed that there are disabled supporters who do not come to games because of the poor facilities, particularly the toilet facilities.

dsr wrote:It does sound a lot considering that the two new stands cost about £6.5m in total. I'll be interested to see the plans, but if the EHRC aren't happy with them then they must have very high demands indeed.

The two stands are 21 years old now so wouldn't cost £6.5 million now. Scandalously, there was no consideration for disabled supporters when they were built. It is a lot of money to spend but it is money that we should be spending now to provide decent facilities for our disabled fans.

I think it's worth holding off for any safe standing legislation laws being passed before we think about redeveloping any of the stands

5m pounds?
Wow

That is a hell of alot of money, not sure how they'll spend 5m on improving the disabled facilities without major structural work or changes.

To put it into perspective, it's half of the new training facilities

MACCA wrote:5m pounds?
Wow

That is a hell of alot of money, not sure how they'll spend 5m on improving the disabled facilities without major structural work or changes.

To put it into perspective, it's half of the new training facilities

It is a hell of a lot of money but I'm sure the plans will be made public as soon as it is possible to do so and people will see where the money is being spent.

ClaretTony wrote:The two stands are 21 years old now so wouldn't cost £6.5 million now. Scandalously, there was no consideration for disabled supporters when they were built. It is a lot of money to spend but it is money that we should be spending now to provide decent facilities for our disabled fans.

21 years old already that is a bit scary!

Steve-Harpers-perm wrote:21 years old already that is a bit scary!

Frightening thought - and we still refer to them as the new stands

Okay, we all know the two older stands are going to have to be replaced at some point. I'd have thought putting plans on place to spend £20-30m now would make more sense than complaining of lack of funds in 5-6 years time?

Regardless of that though, I'm sure the directors of the club are blind if they can't see that the outside of the stadium, in particular the focal point for any visiting fan and a from a pride perspective for home fans, is the Bob Lord.

We don't need more seats, but replacing that old cladding, or spray painting it and putting new signage up would be a start. We'd be talking 10's of thousands, not millions.

Claretforever wrote:Okay, we all know the two older stands are going to have to be replaced at some point. I'd have thought putting plans on place to spend £20-30m now would make more sense than complaining of lack of funds in 5-6 years time?

Regardless of that though, I'm sure the directors of the club are blind if they can't see that the outside of the stadium, in particular the focal point for any visiting fan and a from a pride perspective for home fans, is the Bob Lord.

We don't need more seats, but replacing that old cladding, or spray painting it and putting new signage up would be a start. We'd be talking 10's of thousands, not millions.

The info that's come out today is about disabled facilities and nothing else - but regarding the Bob Lord appearance, I'd just watch this space.

It is scandalous there was no consideration when the stands were built and that it has taken a legal requirement or premier league regulation to do something now. 5m is a staggering amount though and from a cost point of view and where in the stadium it will take place I am intrigued to see what the plans are.

Walt wrote:It is scandalous there was no consideration when the stands were built and that it has taken a legal requirement or premier league regulation to do something now. 5m is a staggering amount though and from a cost point of view and where in the stadium it will take place I am intrigued to see what the plans are.

To be fair, the club were putting plans in place before this. The whole thing was held up because of the new regulations. A lot of Premier League clubs are in an even worse position than we are in terms of getting the work ready. We've got until August 2018 to have it in place.

Providing all these spaces is like disabled parking spaces in supermarkets, loads of ethem and most of them empty, overkill if you ask me

IMO 5 million quid is a small price to pay for a facility (which incidentally needs to be implemented)that will service the needs of not only of our most vulnerable supporters,but also more likely than not their carers,for years to come.

A big well done from me

claretandy wrote:Providing all these spaces is like disabled parking spaces in supermarkets, loads of ethem and most of them empty, overkill if you ask me

Let's hope you are never in need of disabled facilities then.

THEWELLERNUT70 wrote:IMO 5 million quid is a small price to pay for a facility (which incidentally needs to be implemented)that will service the needs of not only of our most vulnerable supporters,but also more likely than not their carers,for years to come.

A big well done from me

Absolutely. We've had thread after thread over recent years complaining about the poor facilities so this is very much good news and worthy of saying well done to those involved.

Good that something is finally being done.

The current facilities should be a source of embarrassment for a club with such a high level of income over the past decade.

ClaretTony wrote:Let's hope you are never in need of disabled facilities then.




Absolutely. We've had thread after thread over recent years complaining about the poor facilities so this is very much good news and worthy of saying well done to those involved.

And I've been one of the most vocal at times over the years (ever since the chap who I used to look after got stung by the club after he moved from the away end to the Ill fated bus shelters for our 1st PL season )

claretandy wrote:Providing all these spaces is like disabled parking spaces in supermarkets, loads of ethem and most of them empty, overkill if you ask me

Naivety in the extreme!

ClaretTony wrote:The info that's come out today is about disabled facilities and nothing else - but regarding the Bob Lord appearance, I'd just watch this space.

Heres my prediction. The wall at the front will be removed so the seats reach pitch side adding 3 or 4 extra rows. The stand could be extended back by several rows but this would require a new roof. I'd also expect the changing rooms to be somehow relocated to the Bob Lord. This would make it easier to redevelop the CFS in the future. Not sure where the changing rooms would go but I remember when I use to work behind the bar at the turf there was talks about this. Maybe in what is now the centre spot but that would reduce cooperate income which is a bit daft.

This is only a prediction i have no idea what the plans are but I hope they are what I have said above

Inchy wrote:Heres my prediction. The wall at the front will be removed so the seats reach pitch side adding 3 or 4 extra rows. The stand could be extended back by several rows but this would require a new roof. I'd also expect the changing rooms to be somehow relocated to the Bob Lord. This would make it easier to redevelop the CFS in the future. Not sure where the changing rooms would go but I remember when I use to work behind the bar at the turf there was talks about this. Maybe in what is now the centre spot but that would reduce cooperate income which is a bit daft.

This is only a prediction i have no idea what the plans are but I hope they are what I have said above

You can forget all that - I've already said, the plans are about providing new facilities for the disabled.

Whatever happens will be an improvement and a step out of the 20th Century. I just wonder who will be the first to moan about the new facility because you just know it will happen.

Yes but you also said "watch this space" regarding the Bob Lords appearance implying there is something in the pipeline

Inchy wrote:Yes but you also said "watch this space" regarding the Bob Lords appearance implying there is something in the pipeline

That was just about improving the appearance outside - nothing more than that.

Wasn't there plans to relocate the changing rooms to where the big screen is now at one point?
Or am I imagining that? Might have been around the time of the Breadbin idea.

I'd hope they'll use the gap between the JM and JH stands. Elevated seating, keeps the atmosphere in and uses up what is just wasted space.

Ok. More player photos? A bronze Sean Dyche statue on top of the centre spot roof to coincide with the renaming of the stand to the 'totally ginger Sean Dyche Stand"?

Inchy wrote:Yes but you also said "watch this space" regarding the Bob Lords appearance implying there is something in the pipeline

Sounds like a lick of paint and a jet wash.

ClaretTony wrote:The info that's come out today is about disabled facilities and nothing else - but regarding the Bob Lord appearance, I'd just watch this space.

Is it a deal with Church Paint and Varnish and a return of the CPV Paints Turf Moor sign?

Away area to be reshaped into an octagon for visiting fans from Europe

I wonder how many 'regular' seats that this will displace. Hopefully the impact is minimal and people who have sat together for years are not suddenly told that they have to move elsewhere.

The last time we spent anything like this on a disability related matter was when we signed Joe Gallagher

I am intrigued what work we are doing in the town centre.

Outside of the shop we already have in Charter Walk, what would/could we be getting involved in one wonders? Being so centrally located as Turf Moor is, I doubt it is any kind of shuttle bus provision etc. Some kind of bar/restaurant?

jedi_master wrote:I am intrigued what work we are doing in the town centre.

Outside of the shop we already have in Charter Walk, what would/could we be getting involved in one wonders? Being so centrally located as Turf Moor is, I doubt it is any kind of shuttle bus provision etc. Some kind of bar/restaurant?

I can't find any sign of anything on the LT website but it does say they are working with the council and so I would assume the town centre work falls into the council's remit. Certainly nothing to do with the club shop in town.

ClaretTony wrote:I can't find any sign of anything on the LT website but it does say they are working with the council and so I would assume the town centre work falls into the council's remit. Certainly nothing to do with the club shop in town.

That's not necessarily the case Tony. The council can make improvements in the community a condition of planning permission, and usually do for applications that are considered "major". I think an example in Burnley was Tesco shelling out for the traffic lights and redesigned junction on Centenary Way.

DavePTClaret wrote:That's not necessarily the case Tony. The council can make improvements in the community a condition of planning permission, and usually do for applications that are considered "major". I think an example in Burnley was Tesco shelling out for the traffic lights and redesigned junction on Centenary Way.

Will be interesting to see what it is then. Thanks for that.