Cofton Park takes shape for the Pope

This is the site where Pope Benedict XVI will celebrate mass and beatify Cardinal John Henry Newman in front of tens of thousands of people in Birmingham on Sunday.

The main stage at Cofton Park will act as the chapel for Pope Benedict XVI's mass, with 300 priests to sit on either side of the Pope on top of the raised platform.

The Pope will travel amongst the crowds in the Popemobile, which will also be used along the Hagley Road on the way to Birmingham Oratory later on in the day.

But church bosses today revealed the take-up of Papal passes for the event at Cofton Park is lower than anticipated and dioceses in England and Wales are thought to have reported thousands of unfilled places for the service in Cofton Park.

It is reported that just 50,000 of the 65,000 passes on offer have been allocated.

Councillor Alan Rudge, who is Birmingham City Council's organiser for the papal visit, said: "The setting is very beautiful and it's completely at one with nature.

"You've got a top line of coppices and trees and rolling hills which will act almost like a picture frame for the view of the Pope.

"It's very appropriate when you think the person we will be beatifying, Cardinal John Henry Newman, used to walk across these grounds to meditate."

Around 1,000 choir singers will sit in grey seats on either side of the main stage, backed by two large screens to relay close-up views of the mass and the beatification to eager onlookers.

There are 16 towers dotted around the site to help guide the earliest pilgrims, who are expected to arrive from 3am and two platforms serving wheelchair users on site, the outlines of which can be seen at the bottom of the photograph.

Scores of portable toilets are also being stored on the Longbridge site nearby.

They will be moved to Cofton Park for Sunday's event.