THE bulldozers will be rolling into New Road early next month as phase two of the redevelopment of Worcestershire’s historic headquarters gets under way.

The County have been playing cricket at their picturesque New Road base since May 1899, but the club have been forced to move with the times to ensure the club can become a 365-days-per-year, profitable business venture.

The perennial problems posed by flooding have also played a significant role in the need for changes and the initial stage of the modernisation work also saw the creation of the Graeme Hick Pavilion.

The second stage of the development will focus on creating an impressive glass-fronted entrance to the ground as well as enhancing the club’s ability to generate revenue away from cricket with extra conference and banqueting facilities.

The £10million scheme has been in the pipeline for a long time with revised designs having to be submitted on more than one occasion, but County chief executive David Leatherdale is eagerly looking forward to the new-look ground beginning to take shape.

He said: “It has been three or four years in the planning and we are all very excited to be at this stage.

“It will enhance our facilties, just as the Graeme Hick Pavilion has, and mean that we can operate as a business 365 days of the year.

“The idea is to be sustainable and viable in terms of our non-cricketing facilities, so we can generate money to ultimately invest back into cricket, which is the reason why we are all here.“ Leatherdale added: “The demolition work will begin on the week commencing September 10, so we will be relocating our offices on September 8 and 9 to what is now the Kenyon Room, so we will still have a membership office accessible from New Road.

“The demolition team have been chosen by us and Premier Inns and the tenders for the redevelopment work went out to the six preferred bidders yesterday.

“The area to be demolished at this stage will be our current office space, the executive suite, what was the old shop as well as the current shop and reception area.

“It is still a 12-month build for the whole project, including the 120-bed hotel, and our section will be built first, so I would like to see us back into our new offices by May next year.

“The rest of the build will feature the glass-fronted atrium and a walkway up to it, as well as new bar facilities, executive suite and a conference room on the top floor of the building.

“All of these will be pitch-facing, will have balconies looking onto the ground and will provide us with three new conferencing facilities to generate income from.”