Leicester City Council planning committee has unanimously approved Leicester City Football Club’s application to expand the east stand of its King Power Stadium, which will increase the capacity from 32,261 to “around 40,000”.

The application, with designs by KSS Architects and structural engineering from Buro Happold was submitted in October 2021, but the planning committee delayed its decision on three occasions this year.

The reasons behind the cancellation of three successive planning meetings in February and March has not been revealed by the council, but that delay meant the first deadline of 10 February was missed. The committee reconvened on 20 April, the new deadline, but the backlog of applications meant that the stadium decision was pushed further. The final deadline of 31 July was again missed as four more planning committee meetings in succession were cancelled between May and July, again the reasons behind these cancellations has not been shared by the council, once again creating a backlog. Despite missing these deadlines for the decision, the committee remained committed to assessing the application and had given it a thorough review before approving it at the meeting on 14 September.

The expansion will see the construction of a new upper tier over and behind the existing east stand. Within this extension will be facilities including hospitality suites, catering facilities, a sensory room and a first aid room.

The dimensions of the new stand are approximately 152m in length, 30m in depth and 47m in height. The extension will encroach on land to the east of the current stand, which is currently a concourse used by the public to gain access to that part of the stadium and its surrounds. The extension will also extend over the site of the National Grid Building, which is to be demolished. The new stand will wrap around the north and south stands, enlarging the concourses of both.

The roof and the façade of the stand expansion will comprise a grid of inflated triangular Ethylene Tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE) pillows. These will be blue in colour. Other materials used on the stand will include aluminium cladding, stainless steel mesh, curtain walling comprising a mix of of solid and perforated aluminium panels, louvred panels and glazing.

The proposal includes the creation of an external fan zone and public realm immediately adjacent to the extension. This will feature hard and soft landscaping, including four individual areas of tree planting.

Other additions to the public realm include a new two-storey club shop, a 220 room hotel, a 20 storey block of flats, a 6,000 capacity arena, a multi-storey car park with 525 spaces and an 80 space cycle hub, an office building and a new pedestrian and cycle route. Matters of layout, landscaping and scale are to be determined at a later stage, but the committee has agreed in principle to these parameters. The council will look to liaise with the club about community events in these public spaces in due course.

As part of the proposal, Leicester City requested to increase non-sports events like concerts from five times a year to 10. The club also applied to increase the capacity for these events from 36,000 to 48,950.

The development is required to provide a biodiversity net gain of 10% as per the National Planning Policy Framework.

Leicester City Council planning committee chair Vijay Singh Riyait said: “This is a significant development, not only for the club but for the city, which will provide […] an enhanced destination and further development of that area – which for a long time has needed that further development. Not only that, it’s a contribution to the cultural and social life of this city, which I think also is an important consideration.”

The planning committee voted unanimously in favour of granting the planning application.

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