Mansfield Town ask fans for patience over stand redevelopment work

Club director Sid Pepper has a long history in the steel business and is leading the redevelopment.

At last week's Evening with John & Carolyn event, Pepper told the audience: “What fans have to understand is that this stand has been closed for an awful long time.

“It was built in the 1930s and, unfortunately, what was built then is not acceptable now.

“So when we started looking at the quickest way to generate capacity, it was clear to me that Bishop Street Stand should be refurbished. So that's the route we went down.

“But then we discovered lots of ground problems – I can't tell you how unstable the ground is underneath that stand.

“We spent a lot of money and time on bore holes and now we are piling, so the whole stand is going to be concreted from beneath.

“The stand that exists as a frame remains intact and we are putting new foundations in to support the terracing above.

“The next problem is that you look at it and say, that's nice, it is already terraced.

“But you find it does not comply with the Safety Advisory Group and they are obviously very important in this.

“So what we are trying to do now is find ways of making the existing terracing work and that is why John (Radford) has changed his mind.

“It was originally going to be all-seating but it's now going to be safe standing.

“But it still doesn't quite comply.

“So we have employed yet another specialist who is doing drawings at the moment that we can hopefully sell to SAG and then we've got something to work to.”

Pepper, now 74, worked in steel from the age of 16, so is the ideal person to drive the project forwards.

“This is taking up a lot of our time, which is time I am willing to give,” he said.

“You have to understand that all the directors bring something with their role, they all have a speciality.

“The reason why I was invited to the club is not because of my football knowledge but because I am a specialist in this field and it needed someone to motor this on.

“Someone said why did the club not look at this before now? The reason is that it is frightening.

“You look at it and think – we can't do that. So no one bothers. No one wants to grasp it by the nettle. I still have blisters from the nettles!

“But we are getting there. John is supporting it because it is going to cost more money than it should have done.

“But we have to see it through as it's the quickest way to release some capacity.

“Phase two is an extension to that stand. And at that point we need to go for planning consent.

“At the moment we don't need planning as we are refurbishing, So there is no issue with ground conditions or a problem with size or anything. We've cracked it.

“But the second phase will need planning consent, and the third phase – which to me is the most exciting – is two years away as it is an immense scheme.”

Pepper said the stand will never look as good as the club would like.

“One thing you need to bear in mind is that it is not a particularly attractive stand,” he said.

“The reason for that is that it has no width to it as that is the width of the land it sits on.

“No matter what we do we are stuck with a narrow width. So it will never look great.

“But we will clean it up, make it look better, and with digital advertising on the front fascia, it will look a lot better.

“I'm sorry it's not further down the line.

“We have pilers coming in next week and it will start to move once they've been in.

“So we ask for your patience. John is supporting it and that's all that really matters.”​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​