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

The Crystal Palace National Sports Centre in London will shortly reopen following an extensive refurbishment. Spearheaded by the London Development Agency, the 18-month project will lengthen the main 50-metre swimming pool and the diving pool to meet current specifications and upgrade the arena, exercise studios and all changing rooms. The listed building is also being extensively repaired with new plumbing and rewiring. The centre is scheduled to reopen next month.

Plans for a £45m mixed-use leisure scheme in Bishop Auckland, County Durham have got the go-ahead from Hazel Blears, secretary of state for communities and local government. The project, now formerly approved by the Government Offices for the North East, is led by developer Terrace Hill and will result in vacant land being redeveloped into a 150,000sq ft (13,935sq m) leisure park. The park is designed by Lister Associate Architects

Designs for a £10.3m Sports, Culture and Leisure Village in Heywood, in Manchester, are currently the subject of a public consultation. The proposed development, designed by KKA Architects, includes a sports hall, a six-lane, 25m swimming pool, a learners' pool, a dance studio, a 90-station fitness suite and a youth gym, training rooms as well as indoor and outdoor changing rooms. There will also be an additional floodlit artificial turf

The white water rafting and canoeing course at the National Water Sports Centre at Holme Pierrepont, Nottingham, has reopened to the public following the completion of upgrade work at the facility. Improvements at the course have included improved flow and water depth, a more flexible layout and use of features and the creation of a new intermediate paddler and rescue area, as well as new concrete platforms to provide launch

The Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) has confirmed that the Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich, south east London, will remain as the host venue for shooting events at the 2012 Olympics. Both the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham and the National Shooting Centre at Bisley, Surrey, had put themselves forward as alternative venues for the events, but the ODA has now decided that it will pursue a planning application for

Portsmouth Football Club (PFC) has announced that its plans for a new stadium have been put on hold due to the economic downturn and will instead extend its existing Fratton Park ground as a short-term solution. The club has been working in partnership with developer Sellar and Portsmouth City Council (PCC) on the proposals for a new 40-45,000-seat stadium at Horsea Island near Port Solent, Hampshire. But PFC has now

Leicester Tigers Rugby Football Club (LTRFC) has been granted conditional planning approval for the £100m redevelopment of the former Granby Halls and Fosse Day Centre sites. The project, which was given the green light by Leicester City Council, will be situated on land adjacent to the club's Welford Road stadium, and includes the construction of a new four-star hotel. New facilities for the University Hospitals of Leicester (UHL) and the

The London Borough of Barking and Dagenham (LBBD) has put forward its case to the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) to host shooting events at the 2012 Games. Rising costs have cast doubt over whether the ODA will continue with plans to build a temporary 7,500-seat venue at the Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich, with LBBD arguing that the development of a venue at Barking Riverside would save £10m. The borough

Designs for the new London 2012 basketball arena, which is to be the third largest venue on the Olympic Park site, have been approved by the Olympic Delivery Authority's (ODA) planning committee. Plans for the temporary 12,000-seat arena, which will host basketball and handball events during the Games, as well as wheelchair basketball and wheelchair rugby, will now be referred to the Government Office for London. The venue, which will

Chesterfield Football Club's (CFC) plans to build a new £13m stadium at Whittingham Moor have taken a step forward after the club acquired 10 acres (4.05 hectares) of land from Wilson Bowden Developments (WBD). The new 10,500-seat stadium forms part of a wider regeneration scheme, which also includes a Tesco superstore and a mixed-use retail and business development on the the former Dema Glass industrial site. Planning permission was granted

The University of Worcester (UW) has announced that it has acquired a 47-acre (19-hectare) site on the outskirts of the city, which it intends to transform into a new business, science and sports park. An indoor sports complex and playing fields is included in the 10-year scheme, which will be situated at Grove Farm in St John's, more than a mile from the university's St John's campus. Former landowner Tesco

Work is set to get underway on a new £21m pavilion at Headingley Carnegie Cricket Ground in Leeds after Yorkshire County Cricket Club (YCCC) and Leeds Metropolitan University (LMU) signed-off the scheme. BAM Construction has been appointed to build the new 4,000sq m (43,056sq ft) facility, which has been designed by architect Will Alsop to comply with the England and Wales Cricket Board's (ECB) requirements for Test match venues. Plans

The redevelopment of Westminster Lodge Leisure Centre and the construction of a new facility in London Colney, Hertfordshire, are now underway following the appointment of a design team. Developer Drivers Jonas has selected S&P Architects, landscape architects CBA and consultants Strategic Leisure to move the project forward. Stephen Jepson, a partner in Drivers Jonas’s specialist DJ Sport team, said: “We are delighted to have won this commission. We put a

The Peter Perkin's Swimming Pool at the Fitzalan High School has opened following a £300,000 revamp. Work on the pool facility, which is open to both pupils and the general public, included the refurbishment of the 20m pool and the transformation of a disused classroom into a fitness suite and multi-gym facility. The new fitness suite has been fitted with a selection of CV stations – including treadmills, cross trainers

Demolition work has got underway at the Old Trafford cricket ground in Manchester in preparation for the first stage of Lancashire County Cricket Club's (LCCC) £200m redevelopment of the venue. The initial phase of the project, which has been designed by BDP Architects, includes the creation of a new £12m glass-fronted conference and events facility overlooking the cricket pitch, which will be able to cater for up to 1,000 people.

Plans for the multi-million pound redevelopment of the Rodney Parade rugby stadium in Newport, South Wales, have been given the go-ahead by Newport City Council (NCC). A new 15,000-capacity stadium is at the heart of the three-stage scheme, which will be home to both Newport Gwent Dragons rugby team and Newport Rugby Football Club (NRFC). S & P Architects are behind the designs for the development, which also incorporates new

Designs for a new 300,000sq m (3,229 sq ft) mixed-use sports complex in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, have been unveiled as part of the country's preparations for the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. The state-funded development, designed by UK-based Wilkinson Eyre Architects, will be used as a training facility and reserve site for the Olympics and will include five Olympic ski jumps encased in a 125m-high structure with spectator grandstands. There will

Archial — formerly SMC Charter Architects — has unveiled its designs for the £46.5m Life Centre in Plymouth. A full planning application has been submitted to the city council for the massive leisure scheme, which will be located in the city’s main parkland. Paul Weston, director of Archial, said: “This building is a major architectural statement in Central Park and will act as a catalyst for the regeneration of the

The team behind a new £55m golf resort is hoping the project could establish Angus as one of Scotland's foremost tourist destinations. Plans for the development in the village of Wellbank include an 18-hole Darren Clarke signature golf course, Scotland's first golf youth academy and a five-star hotel and spa, as well as a housing development along the course edge. The course will be designed by renowned architect, Graeme Webster,

Peebles High School is to get new dual-use sports facilities following Scottish Borders Council's (SBC) decision to commit £4.8m towards the scheme. The school is currently the only high school in the Borders region that does not have its own sports facilities, and the new centre will form part of the council's £40m investment in local education over the next five years. Plans for the new sports centre include a