A LOCAL cricket club which is already a huge hub for the community is hoping to take it one step further after submitting plans to improve its facilities.

Higham Cricket Club have seven junior teams, five adult teams, two women’s teams as well as two disability teams.

But the club has become more than somewhere people play cricket - it’s become a community hub for a whole host of events.

Kingstone Runners use the facility, there are craft fairs and also music artists who perform.

The internal pavilion area of the club has already been redeveloped but the club - which has turned into a focal point for the community - have now submitted plans for an extension to both ends of the pavilion.

This decision is fuelled by the increase in usage and the growing demand from community groups eager to utilise the facilities.

If plans are approved, they will be able to start construction this autumn with a planned completion date set for 2027.

Club chairman Dan Bamforth told the Chronicle: “We’re going to do two extensions to each side of the building and what that’s going to do is open it up into a space where we’ve got more community space for some of the other initiatives that we do.

“On matchdays, it can get quite busy with people coming to watch and there’s not really enough space to be able to house everybody.

“We’re desperate to try and increase the footprint of usable space that we’ve got.

“It’s great to see that it’s something nice for the village now, that it’s grown far beyond what cricket pavilion is.

“Most of the years in our 150-year history have been about cricket but it’s more than that now.

“It’s a place where people come to meet, where community groups come and gather.

“It’s transcended cricket and it’s become a focal point for the community.”