Organisers of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games have been praised for the 'astounding' progress being made in preparation for the event, according to the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Delegates from the IOC travelled to the capital in order to assess the ongoing construction of new venues at the Olympic Park site on what was their fourth visit to London since the city was awarded the 2012 Games in

Kings Lynn Football Club (KLFC) is to be demoted from the Blue Square North after league officials announced that the club's home ground, The Walks, failed to meet the minimum stadium requirements. The stadium's owner, the Borough Council of Kings Lynn and West Norfolk, has insisted that all necessary work will be carried out in time for the start of the 2009-10 season, but the club will now be forced

Plans for a major new leisure-led development at the Elland Road stadium in Leeds, West Yorkshire, home to Leeds United Football Club (LUFC), have been given the green light by Leeds City Council (LCC). The council has passed a resolution to award full planning consent for the scheme, which will be linked to the venue's existing East Stand but does not involve increasing the stadium's 40,000-seat capacity. Designed by London-based

Delegates at the Russia-Great Britain Olympic Partnership conference, held in Moscow recently, were told that UK business and investors were in prime position to benefit from the Sochi Winter Olympic Games in 2014. Dmitry Chernyshenko, president and CEO of the Sochi 2014 Organising Committee, highlighted the committee's commitment to work with best-in-class partners in all aspects of 2014 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games delivery. The conference - which coincides with

St Helens Council has approved designs produced by architects Pozzoni for a new leisure centre in Merseyside. The £3.6m project will demolish all but the existing sports hall at Queens Park Leisure Centre to make way for a completely new facility on the same site, considered by the council to be more cost-effective than a full refurbishment of the 118-year-old building. The new facility will house a five-lane, 25m swimming

Lord’s Cricket Ground in north London is on track to introduce permanent floodlighting in time for the opening ceremony of the International Cricket Council (ICC) World Twenty20 tournament in June. After two and a half years in the planning, the second of four telescopic floodlighting masts, which are being supplied by Nottingham-based Abacus Lighting, has now been erected. Paul Wilson, a director at Abacus, said: "If someone had said to

Adverse weather conditions and bad light at this year's Wimbledon are set to become less of an issue after it was confirmed that testing of Centre Court's new retractable roof is nearly complete. The All England Club has revealed that final testing of the 5,200sq m (55,972sq ft) roof and air-management systems at the venue are now underway ahead of a ceremony to be held on 17 May in order

Plans for the construction of a new £9.2m leisure centre in Nottingham have been given the green light by the city council, after a feasibility study ruled that the scheme presented the most cost-effective option. The decision by Nottingham City Council's (NCC) executive board now means that the historic Victoria Leisure Centre at Sneinton Market is set to be demolished to make way for the new facility, which could be

A one day international cricket match between Australia and Pakistan has marked the official opening of a new 25,000-seat, purpose-built cricket stadium at Dubai Sports City in the Middle East. The US$100m (£68.3m, 77.3m euro) venue, which has taken three years to develop, was designed by architects Gerkan, Marg and Partner (GMP), the firm behind Berlin's Olympic Stadium and the Commerzbank Arena in Frankfurt. Facilities at the new stadium include

Plans to establish a learning, research and innovation centre in the Olympic Park, which will form part of the London 2012 legacy, have been unveiled by London mayor Boris Johnson and the government. It is hoped that the provision of a specialist, inter-disciplinary centre of excellence at the heart of the Olympic Park will compliment the range of other facilities planned as part of the legacy for east London, including

Yorkcourt Properties has revealed plans to build a new 12,000-capacity community stadium in a bid to secure Wakefield Wildcats Rugby League Football Club's (WWRFLC) Super League status. The proposed new venue will replace the Wildcats' current Belle Vue ground, which has been the club's home since 1878 but no longer meets minimum stadium requirements that form part of the Super League's licence criteria. Plans for the new stadium, which will

Work has now started on the London 2012 International Broadcast Centre (IBC) and Main Press Centre (MPC), the last of the five main construction projects in the Olympic Park to get underway. The IBC and MPC will accommodate around 20,000 media professionals during the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, broadcasting to an estimated audience of four billion people worldwide, before it is converted into 900,000sq ft (83,613sq m) of

A new £23m indoor hub for skiing and snowboarding, which has been constructed on the site of the former Hemel Ski Slope in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, is to open on 6 May. The Snow Centre, which has been built by UK-based company Sir Robert McAlpine, incorporates a 160m (525ft) main slope suitable for skiers of all abilities, a 100m (328ft) lesson slope, a Snow and Rock retail outlet, a café

Morrison Construction has been appointed to build enhanced rowing and canoe sprint facilities for the London 2012 Olympics at the Eton College Rowing School at Dorney Lake near Windsor, Berkshire. The UK-based company was selected by the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) to upgrade the venue in time for the Games, which currently comprise a 2,000m, eight-lane rowing lake, a return lane and associated competition facilities. A new 50m span bridge

Sheffield United Football Club (SUFC) has submitted its plans to redevelop the Bramall Lane stadium to the Sheffield City Council. The plans divide the redevelopment of the ground into two phases, with phase one comprising the extension of the Frasers Property Kop to increase its capacity by more than 3,200 seats – resulting in the overall capacity increasing to 37,000. A further planning application for phase two of the development

A new £6.44m leisure centre, which is currently being built at Forest Fields, Nottingham, has received a £1m grant from Sport England's Free Swimming Capital Modernisation Development Programme (SCMP). Nottingham City Council (NCC) is behind plans for the new complex, which will replace existing facilities at Noel Street as part of its £18.5m Leisure Centre Transformation Programme to improve sports provision across the city. The funding, which is made available

Basildon District Council has appointed Community Solutions for Leisure (CSL) as developer of the £35m Basildon Sporting Village. CSL will now finalise the design – and eventually build – the new centre and its 50m Olympic-size sized pool. The council cabinet’s decision brings to an end a 15-month procurement process. Councillor Kevin Blake, cabinet member for leisure and arts said: “The process that we have had to go through has

Plans to build a 39,000-capacity sports stadium on the site of the notorious Maze prison near Lisburn, Northern Ireland, have been dumped by the Northern Ireland Assembly. In a statement, the Northern Ireland first minister Peter Robinson said that although the redevelopment options for the site will be studied further, all plans to build a multi-sport stadium "will not be taken forward". The stadium, which was designed by HOK Sport

The £30m refurbishment of the 2009 Open Championship venue Turnberry golf resort in Ayrshire, Scotland, is underway. The project, designed by Mary Fox Linton in consultation with Historic Scotland, is led by Dubai-based Leisurecorp – which recently bought the site's 113-room hotel and golf course. Half of the 1906 hotel will be refurbished during the first phase of the project and public spaces are being renovated back to their original

Deeside Leisure Centre in Flintshire, North Wales, may be demolished to make way for a new facility dubbed the ‘House of Sport’. Flintshire County Council is holding an executive cabinet meeting on Wednesday 1 April to decide how best to move forward with the proposals for a 12-court sports hall, a six-lane indoor bowls hall and an outdoor five-a-side football pitch. A dance/aerobics room, a martial arts room and a

Essex County Cricket Club's (ECCC) plans for the £85m redevelopment of The County Ground in Chelmsford are set go before a public inquiry after the government decided to call in the scheme. The scheme will see the complete overhaul of cricketing facilities at the County Ground, including a new pavilion, a new media centre and conference suites, as well as increasing the venue's capacity from 5,800 to around 7,500 seats.

Tottenham Hotspur Football Club (THFC) has unveiled revised plans for the Northumberland Development Project, which includes the club's new 58,000-seat stadium and a new public square. Initial proposals for the scheme released by the club in October 2008 had included a 60,000-seat stadium, but the club has decided to decrease the capacity in a bid to maximise the venue's atmosphere by seating spectators closer to the pitch. KSS Group is

The new Aquatics Centre for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games is starting to take shape after work got underway on lifting the 2,800-tonne wave-shaped roof into place. The lifting of the 11,000sq m (118,403sq ft) roof, which is 160m (525ft) long, is considered to be the most complex engineering challenges of all the Olympic venues. Balfour Beatty is the contractor responsible for building the new aquatics centre, which

A £150m scheme designed to transform the centre of Altrincham, Greater Manchester, is back on track after property firm Nikal acquired the remaining shares in the joint venture for an undisclosed sum. The future of the mixed-use development had been thrown into doubt following the collapse of the David McLean Group, the North Wales-based developer which entered administration in late 2008. Plans for the Altair scheme includes a 3,000-seat ice

Three redevelopment proposals for Forest Hill Pools are due to be the subject of a public consultation this April in Lewisham, London. Lewisham Council's shortlisted leisure centre options come from HLM Architects, Allies + Morrison and Pollard Thomas Edwards architects. It is the second round of consultations to be held on the development, after the council was forced to rethink designs last year. The adjacent Louise House received a Grade

Londoners are being called upon to give their views on the accessibility of the capital as part of a new survey launched by the London Assembly in a bid to improve facilities for people with mobility issues ahead of the 2012 Games. The consultation will seek to improve access for disabled residents, older people and parents with small children to restaurants, hotels and tourist attractions in order to ensure that

Work on the new Handball Arena for the 2012 London Olympics is set to get underway this summer after the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) appointed Buckingham Group Contracting to build the venue. The Milton Keynes-based company will work with HOK Sport on the construction of the 7,000-seat facility, which has been designed by Make Architects with PTW and Arup and is set to become a 6,000-seat multi-sports venue after the