Leicester Rugby Union Football Club

Leicester

Phased redevelopment of Leicester Tigers Rugby stadium in the heart of the city to almost double the capacity of the current ground. The development includes supporter and conference facilities to enhance revenue streams for the club and an associated hotel and multi-storey car park on an adjacent site.

Location: Welford Road, Leicester
Status: Planning permission granted; the first phase of development is due to open August 2009.
Size: Increase in capacity of the stadium to 30,000, with ancillary club
facilities, a 120-bed hotel and college building
Scale: City

Leicester Tigers is one of the most successful RUFC clubs in the country, playing in front of maximum capacity grounds and with a waiting list for season tickets. The club has had to make use of temporary seating to increase capacity, yet the ground is still too small to accommodate major cup games which need to be played at the nearby Leicester City FC ground.

Working closely with the club and Leicester City Council, We devised a planning strategy that would enable a phased redevelopment of the ground, thus ensuring that the club continue to play at the ground and spread the cost of the works over a period of years. The first phase comprises the single-tier north stand with a capacity of 17,000, which is larger than the existing Kop stand at Anfield.

We successfully negotiated with the LPA to screen out the need for an environmental statement and then coordinated the preparation of all of the relevant technical reports; including the preparation of a statement of community consultation and sustainability statement.

Leicester City Council has an adopted policy requiring the provision of 11% renewable energy on site, increasing by 1%pa to 15%. We worked with the M&E consultant to negotiate a scheme ensuring the council's standards will be met over the phased development period. Full planning permission was granted within 13 weeks.

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