Dear Members,
I hope you are all well and looking forward to the fast-approaching new season.
I am delighted to confirm that, unless we experience further flood events at Visit Worcestershire New Road between now and our opening home fixture on 25 April, we will begin the season at our iconic city-centre location.
In April 2024, the Worcestershire County Cricket Club Board issued a statement outlining the serious challenges we face as a club, driven by unprecedented flooding that threatens not only the sustainability of Visit Worcestershire New Road but also the long-term future of Worcestershire County Cricket Club. Since then, we have engaged subject matter experts and liaised with local and national agencies to explore every possible option. This work has focused on two key areas: first, what options exist to mitigate or prevent flooding at New Road, including potential redevelopment, and second, what alternatives may be available should we need to consider an additional venue to protect the club’s future.
While our investigations into an additional venue remain ongoing, we continue to work closely with an internationally respected company to assess the critical questions of what, where, how, and when regarding seeking an additional venue for the Club, for use alongside Visit Worcestershire New Road. This would provide a necessary safeguard against the increasing operational and financial risks associated with flooding, ensuring that Worcestershire can continue to thrive.
At Visit Worcestershire New Road itself, our analysis has focused on two possible approaches: learning to live with the water, as we have done for many years, or attempting to stop it altogether.
Flooding at Visit Worcestershire New Road has been extensively studied, with long-standing Worcestershire member and resident flood expert Andrew Thomas providing detailed records dating back to 2002. His data, supported by Environment Agency statistics, reveals a clear and concerning trend: flooding incidents have increased in both frequency and severity, making it almost inevitable for Visit Worcestershire New Road to experience multiple flood events each year. Alarmingly, 19 of the 30 worst floods recorded since 1899 have occurred within the last 25 years, and the situation continues to deteriorate.
This poses an ongoing risk to our business, cricketing operations, and the ability to provide a world-class experience for players, members, and visitors. The financial impact is considerable, spanning flood clean-up costs, match relocations to venues such as Kidderminster, lost revenue from food and beverage sales, and the broader commercial impact of diminished venue confidence. Furthermore, as Visit Worcestershire New Road is designated a functional floodplain, redevelopment is subject to significant restrictions under local and national policies. This makes securing investment in major improvements increasingly challenging.
Apart from the financial and regulatory challenges, our playing and practice facilities are facing long-term deterioration due to ongoing flooding. Expert assessments indicate that all pitches require complete reconstruction, a process that could take up to a decade to finish. Even with such efforts, the long-term quality of our playing surface will remain jeopardised by continued flood events. The human cost must also be acknowledged; repeated clean-ups present health and safety risks for our staff, while the operational disruption affects our capacity to host cricket matches and achieve our commercial objectives.
While we have successfully adapted to flooding for many years, it is becoming increasingly unmanageable. Each season, we face greater disruption to cricket, significant financial strain, and mounting barriers to investment in our facilities.
We have also explored the possibility of entirely preventing flooding at Visit Worcestershire New Road, including the feasibility of constructing a flood defence system, such as a wall or embankment. However, expert analysis has identified numerous challenges. A protective structure of the required scale, likely at least 3.7 metres high, would incur an estimated cost of between £5 million and £20 million, with the likelihood of costs exceeding the upper estimate. Even if funding were secured, access to the site during floods would remain problematic, particularly in ensuring compliance with the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA). The remaining ground would still require substantial redevelopment, utilities may need to be raised, and there would be a significant risk of structural failure under extreme conditions.
Furthermore, national, and local policies prohibit flood defences that increase risks to third parties, and our commissioned flood risk assessment confirms that building a barrier around Visit Worcestershire New Road would significantly impact surrounding flood levels. The structure would also displace a huge volume of water requiring compensation on an adjacent site, an option that is not available. Additionally, the construction of such a defence would fundamentally alter the aesthetic and environmental character of Visit Worcestershire New Road, which sits in a conservation area, while water may still seep through the ground, continuing to interrupt cricket and necessitating a costly and complex pumping system.
Given these findings, engineering a solution to prevent flooding is neither feasible nor sustainable. Visit Worcestershire New Road will continue to experience recurring flood events, and despite our best efforts, we are unable to alter our circumstances significantly.
The outcome of these studies only reinforces the importance of securing an additional venue, ensuring that Worcestershire County Cricket Club can continue to deliver outstanding experiences in live sport, hospitality, and entertainment for many years to come. While Visit Worcestershire New Road remains central to our identity, it is essential that we have a sustainable, long-term solution to protect the club’s future.
I will provide further updates at the club AGM on 31 March, with a follow-up online Members’ Forum to discuss our findings in greater detail. In the meantime, I thank you for your continued support and look forward to seeing you at Visit Worcestershire New Road soon.
Ashley Giles
Chief Executive Officer
