Steve Wells BA (Hons) DipLD FCLI FCIMSPA MCIHort
Twenty years’ experience in local government culminating as Head of Leisure Services. Responsible for the design, development and management of all facilities for sport, play and active recreation, as well as the management of urban and country parks, libraries, castles, museums and galleries.
Established Steve Wells Associates in 1995 with a particular focus on the design and development of facilities for sport and active recreation, including funding, strategic planning, sports development, and business modelling for sport.
Over the years, the consultancy has a proud record of working successfully with a wide range of clients including all tiers of local government, the full spectrum of education providers from primary to HE, most National Governing Bodies for Sport, Sport England, as well as dozens of individual sports clubs and community groups.
The practice has been singularly successful in developing and managing a number of high-profile projects including a number of ‘firsts’, sports facilities for a Sterling Prize winner, and a TV advertisement. For many projects, the practice has attracted substantial grant aid, drawing down significant sums from all major funders.
Brenda Grace BEd (Hons) MA
Brenda joined Steve Wells Associates in 2003 bringing 20 years of experience in the education and community sports sectors to the company. Her previous professional roles have included School Improvement Teacher for PE and Sport with Hull Advisory Service and Manager of the Centre AT7 Community Sports Trust in Coventry.
Brenda is Lead Bid Writer and has developed over a hundred successful funding bids for sports facility projects. Her skill set includes community engagement and sports development planning and sports facility business and management planning. She works with a range of clients and project partners including education providers, local authorities and the voluntary sports clubs. Brenda is a lifelong participant in a range of swimming disciplines and an active club volunteer.
Dean Woodward BA (HONS) DIP ARCH RIBA
Dean Woodward is a Chartered Architect who has worked on a wide range of projects and has acquired particular expertise in the design of sports facilities and education projects. These schemes have been developed using both design & build and traditional contracts through which Dean has gained a detailed knowledge of how to deliver best value, high quality design solutions.
Jon Wells LLB (HONS) MA
Jon played over 250 first grade games for the Castleford Tigers and London Broncos in the European Super League scoring over 80 tries in a top-flight career spanning over a decade.
Following his retirement in 2009 he joined Sky Sports as a presenter and analyst on their Super League coverage, a position which he holds to this day. In addition, Jon has hosted many after dinner events and is regularly employed as a host at sporting and corporate events.
Jon has also been a member of the Sky Sports Sustainability panel since 2020 and has contributed in their drive to raise awareness in the company’s launch of the Sky 0 programme.
Jon joined Steve Wells Associates in 2017 as a contract administrator. In the subsequent four years he has become a key member of the specification development and tender evaluation arm of the business, and now splits his time between the broadcast studio at Sky Sports, the office desk, and the many development sites that SWA oversee across the UK.
Jon Wells BA (Hons) DMS
Chris has worked in sports facility management, sports development and project funding in local government for over twenty years. He rose to the level of Sports Development Manager for Wakefield MDC in the mid 1980s, responsible for a team of over twenty staff, and later took the lead as Wakefield MDC’s Project Funding Manager, responsible for attracting external funding for many local authority and community based projects. Successes included numerous sporting projects, including a regional water sports centre and many school and community based schemes.
Chris left Wakefield MDC to join Steve Wells Associates Ltd. where his responsibilities have included the preparation of funding bids to a wide range of sources (e.g. to Sport England, NOF, the Football Foundation, the Coalfield Regeneration Trust, and many others), undertaking feasibility studies, strategy development and project management.
Individually, Chris’s clients have spread across the whole spectrum of public, private and third sector employers, but his particular interest and expertise is with sports clubs and in club development.
Pam Stenton BSc (Hons) MA (Hons) MLI
Pam provides specialist advice with Steve Wells Associates on ‘landscape for sport’ and ‘active landscapes’. Pam has worked with the practice on a wide variety of projects including several local authority commissions, education sector projects, and a number of private developer and housing schemes.
Pam’s experience as a public sector Landscape Architect allowes her not only to design and implement a wide range of soft and hard landscape schemes in urban and rural settings, including housing, highways, urban parks and open spaces, country parks, industrial developments, education sites, land reclamation, art in the landscape, and conservation areas, but to develop particular specialism in children’s play and outdoor sports facility provision.
Established in 1995, Steve Wells Associates is a multi-disciplinary team of professionals who have long-standing experience in…
- public, private and voluntary sector provision and governance in the sport, leisure and education sectors;
- the design and construction of sports and leisure facilities;
- sports development planning;
- managing sports facilities and using sports facilities.
Because we have managed and used a wide variety of facilities for sport; because we not only design them but oversee their construction; and because we understand good teaching, coaching and learning, we can offer deliverable and quality solutions that will make a real difference to people’s lives.
We know that quality facilities and innovative programmes have an impact well beyond the playing field or sports hall. We believe that first class and welcoming environments for sport and active recreation inspire a lifelong commitment to physical activity and well-being.
We also know how facilities for sport are used (and abused), what they cost to build and run, how they can be staffed efficiently, and how they can work to serve the needs of a wide range of users, stakeholders and partners.
This knowledge allows us to advise on the most appropriate design and development solutions to create robust and cost effective but first-rate facilities that are easily managed and fit for purpose.