A working party is taking shape to drive forward Leicestershire Country Cricket Club’s ambitious £60m redevelopment plans.
LeicestershireLive revealed back in March that the club wanted to transform its Grace Road ground over the next five years – with radically redesigned stands to take capacity from the current 6,000 to 10,000 or above. Changes could also include opening up the site to more events on the back of concerts by Elton John and Little Mix.
Rob Day, who runs Ashby-based workplace consultancy and commercial office fit out specialists Blueprint Interiors, is the latest expert to share his knowledge with the team behind the plans for the Uptonsteel County Ground.
Other members of the working party include Steve Kind, who was instrumental in Leicester City moving to the King Power Stadium, Bruce Cruse, who is director of facilities at the England and Wales Cricket Board, Tom Lomante, head of capital at Leicester City Council, Ian Kendall, director of leisure projects at the cricket club, and club chairman John Thorpe.
Rob has a background in commercial property and expertise in implementing the international WELL Building Standard –the world’s first evidence-based system designed for measuring, certifying, and monitoring building features that impact on health and wellbeing.
He will work with the group to ensure the standard forms part of the planning and design.
Leicestershire County Cricket Club chief executive Sean Jarvis said: “It’s great to have Rob on board to help the ambitious plans we have for the club.
“He brings some really important insights to the team which will prove invaluable as we move into the next stages of the development.”
Rob said: “When the ground redevelopments were announced it definitely piqued my interest and when Sean approached me to ask if I’d like to be a part of it there was no doubt.
“Leicestershire has a phenomenal asset there in terms of the ground itself and it is clear there is a strong team coming together with representation from ECB and the city council.
“I think we’re all inspired, and we’re all driven by that shared passion for the club and the desire to see it succeed.
“At Blueprint we’ve evolved into more of a workplace consultancy-led business and that’s because we have a clear understanding of what people need to function and that undoubtedly will be of value to the club.
“We work to the WELL standard which is a global standard that concerns itself with the suitability of a building being for the people that are using it and because our own approach to the workplace is so human-centric, I'll be able to feed this in through the working group to help create a space that is designed entirely around the people using it.
“I absolutely see the opportunity for Leicestershire as both a club and a business.
“There’s a real opportunity there to develop relationships with local schools and students that are surrounded by some particularly challenging demographics and cricket has got terrific potential to help us overcome that, I'm excited to get stuck in.”
