Worcester Green Party councillors and campaigners have expressed concern regarding a statement released by Worcestershire County Cricket Club’s CEO Ashley Giles.
The statement describes the situation faced by the club due to the increasing incidences of flooding. As well as resulting in matches needing to be played elsewhere, they are causing costly damage to the ground’s pitches and infrastructure, and putting cricket club staff involved in cleaning up at risk.
Mr Giles explains that the evidence is clear that floods are becoming ever-more frequent and severe. He writes that although extensive research has been undertaken into the possibility of building preventative measures such as walls or embankments, it has been found that the costs would be prohibitive. It would also be unfeasible due to the knock-on effects of flooding on surrounding areas if the water was displaced from the cricket ground, which acts as a floodplain. The overall conclusion is that finding an additional venue that can be used when the New Road site is under water or has been left unusable is essential for the future of Worcestershire County Cricket Club.
Councillor Louis Stephen said “This is very worrying news. Worcester is one of many places hit time and time again by flooding, and failure by successive governments to take meaningful action on climate change means that this has been on the cards for some time. If the cricket club has to relocate matches, this will have a serious financial impact on the city through money lost to the local economy.”
Councillor Matthew Jenkins added “We need people in positions of power to start tackling climate change instead of trying to ignore it. Given how often Worcester experiences flooding, you would hope that our Labour MP Tom Collins might be speaking up about it in Parliament, but so far it seems not.”
St. John campaigner Sarah Edwards said “Cricket is a huge part of Worcester’s heritage and it would be a major loss if the club has to start playing elsewhere. Unfortunately, they don’t have much choice and I have great sympathy with all of the staff and players.”