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Hereford United chairman Graham Turner has given Richard Prime of the Hereford Times an update on how the proposed Blackfriars Development at Edgar Street is progressing.
“It has been a long-drawn out process but we now have an application in for a grant and have been assigned a programme manager,” said Turner.
“He will review the application over the next month and, I imagine, pay some site visits.
“We are tied in with the Richardsons for the £1m plus loan arranged by the previous board and that has not gone away. Obviously they want to make something out of it but we have reached an agreement of what we want for the football facilities.
“It looks likely that we will get a stand with at least 1,500 seats, new canteens, toilet blocks and disabled facilities. There will probably also be new facilities for visiting supporters in the far corner.
“We have to give one-hundredth of the seating capacity to disabled facilities.
“There is some tweaking of the plans which we hope will be done by January 7.
“We will then have a meeting with the Richardsons and Herefordshire Council on January 14 - because of the size of the grant we are seeking, it will have to go to the Football Ground Improvement Fund full board which will meet in March.
“It is estimated that from the time they get on site, it will be completed within six months.
“It will still be touch-and-go for the start of next season.
“We hope that, come early January, we will be applying for planning consent. It has been long-drawn out - I was very optimistic when I first thought it might have been done by the end of the season.”
Later in the interview Turner revealed that the capacity of Edgar Street was now 5075
