In 2021, a planning application to turn Aire Valley House, a vacant office building in Crossflatts, in to 139 flats was approved by Bradford Council.

However, the location of the building, next to Crossflatts Cricket Club, led to concerns that future residents of the flats, and their cars, would be at risk of being hit by balls. Accordingly a condition was attached to the consent requiring a cricket ball risk assessment to be submitted to the council for approval to demonstrate how such risk would be managed.

Sport England have questioned whether the risk assessment is truly accurate and as such the development could be in jeopardy.

Given my twin roles as Architect and manager of a children’s cricket team, this story was of great interest to me, especially given that it combines my passions of architecture and cricket.

This is not the first instance of planning schemes being influenced by the proximity of cricket pitches to proposed sites, and given the developments in both power hitting and unorthodox shots allowing players to clear the rope in all 360 degrees from the crease (see Joe Root’s scoop shot for reference). As such, this presents a unique and constantly evolving challenge for residential design in proximity to cricket grounds.

Cricket aside, careful site analysis is always essential on any project to take account of factors outside of the site that could influence the planning process.

Equally where planning conditions are discussed during the planning process, it is essential that the proposed scheme can accommodate the requirements of those conditions and in doing so the scheme can actually be delivered or the measures required to address the condition do not in themselves require the planning approval to be revised.

As a practice we work on both schemes from inception where we take a scheme through the planning process along with those where we perform the Executive Architect role on schemes that already have planning approval. When asked to get involved with the latter we always carry out an initial assessment to identify any potential issues relating to planning conditions, building regulations compliance or third-party issues. For example, neighbours’ trees, rights of light, along with many others and of course including proximity to cricket pitches.

We also assist our clients in assessing whether to purchase sites for development, both for sites without planning permission or looking at consented schemes and any issues that may affect the ease in which the planning consent can be implemented that can in some instances require a new approval to be obtained as the original consent is unbuildable.

In 2025, BB Partnership will have at least five projects in the St John’s Wood Conservation Area, in close proximity to Lords, the home of cricket and also where, in 2004, Andrew Flintoff advised Tino Best to “Mind the windows, Tino!” Fortunately, these projects are well beyond the reach of even the most powerful slog sweep.

I hope you have found this article both useful and mildly amusing, please get in touch with us if you are contemplating a residential development either as a homeowner or a developer that we could assist with.