Lord's housing plans go back to drawing board

The home of cricket is to come up with new plans for developing the club and its facilities following controversy about earlier proposals for new residential schemes connected to its prestigious St John’s Wood home.

Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) decided not to even put residential development proposals for its leasehold land to the vote at this week’s annual general meeting.

Instead, its committee said members would be presented with “a holistic masterplan” to be drawn up by the club’s ground working party.

Club president Phillip Hodson said the strength of feeling surrounding residential development at the ground had made it unnecessary to table a resolution on the topic and that the working party would have a free hand to develop the new plan.

“MCC needs to look to the future,” he said.

“I want Derek Brewer our new chief executive and Colin Maber, who worked so well together developing Trent Bridge, to produce a development plan dove-tailing with the club’s strategic plan,” he said.

“I have total confidence in the ground working party because it has already done a substantial amount of valuable work. It has a good and equal balance of talents - two from estates, two from finance and four from the executive, and has already done considerable work to look at the club’s options.”

MCC chairman Oliver Stocken said the need to ensure Lord’s remained “the very best place to play and watch the game” would be “central” to any masterplan.