Local Plan adopts standards recommended by the National Playing Fields Association
and the
Sports Council. These are as follows:
The National Playing Fields Association (NPFA): for every 1000 people, between 1.6
and 1.8
hectares should be devoted to sports pitches, greens, courts and miscellaneous items such as
athletics' tracks, putting greens and training areas. (This standard excludes provision
associated with schools and other educational establishments, unless full dual use is available to
the public. It also excludes HM Services grounds, golf courses, indoor facilities, large areas of
water and commons and formal parks, apart from where these are marked out and consistently
used for sports purposes).
The Sports Council: a minimum of 1.2 hectares per 1000 people should be set aside
for organised
competitive games. That equates to the sports' pitches element in the NPFA standard.
The Plan's objective is to meet at least, those minimum standards by 2011. During
the intervening
period the City Council will keep its assessment of local demand and supply of sports pitches
under regular review and consult with local sports organisations to enable it to make informed
decisions about the types of additional provision to be made.
To improve its understanding of the needs of sports pitch provision in Lincoln, the
City Council has
undertaken an assessment of the demand for and supply of pitches for the more popular games
locally (soccer, rugby, hockey and cricket). The method used has been recommended by the
Sports Council and is based on a survey of local leagues and clubs. It takes into account not just
the demand generated by league matches but also latent demand within clubs to field additional
teams, and demand for friendly and casual games.
School and Other Educational Establishment Provision
Lincoln's schools and other educational campuses include large areas of open space,
used as
playing fields and sports pitches. These appear to be adequate for educational purposes, although
opportunities for dual use (i.e. use by the rest of the population as well) are limited. The growth
of
Higher and Further Education may well generate additional demand for sports facilities, and
Universities and Colleges will be asked to consider opportunities for additional sports facilities
which they may provide to be made available to the community at large as well.
Floodlighting
Floodlighting would help the City address its shortage of playing pitches by ensuring
that more use
is made of existing facilities. However, floodlighting can also be a contentious issue - particularly
through the effects of illumination and the noise and disturbance generated by extended playing
hours.
Priorities for Playing Field Provision
These are:
•
to secure and improve existing playing fields and sports pitches, as a base from which
to expand provision;
•
to safeguard educational establishments'playing fields and sports pitches, to meet
educational needs and, explore opportunities for dual-use by the general public.
Additional Provision
Apart from unpredictable gains which may accrue from the negotiation of dual-use arrangements,
opportunities to make additional provision are limited by:
•
Lincoln's highly urbanised character (which also restricts the planning system's ability to
match provision to population distribution geographically);
•
land which might be suitable for playing fields, being subject to difficult or intractable
ground conditions caused by previous tipping, other industrial contamination, surface water
drainage problems and flood risk;
•
the weight attached to competing planning priorities, such as safeguarding existing
amenity, "' landscape character and nature conservation interest.
Having taken the above into account, several sites where additional playing fields
and sports
pitches could be provided have been identified. Those sites are listed in Policy 48B. Developers'
Contributions to the Provision of Playing Fields and Sports Pitches
Planning Policy Guidance Note 17: "Sport and Recreation"- emphasises the
role of the planning
system in ensuring that adequate provision is made for recreational space to meet the community's
need for both organised sport and informal activities. It is a long-standing, accepted principle that
new housing development should include provision for public open space, at the developer's
expense, and at a standard approved in Development Plans.
While it may be relatively easy to implement that sort of approach in areas such as
Skewbridge,
where sufficiently large and usable space can be allocated within the development area, the same
is not necessarily so in smaller schemes. Nevertheless, virtually all new residential development
will generate demand for playing fields and sports pitches.
Therefore, where it is impracticable for developers to contribute in kind to the provision
of playing
fields in the locations proposed in Policy 48B (PPF1 to PPF8 incl.), or they choose not to do so,
contributions will be sought, commensurate with the scale of the development concerned, towards
their provision. Contributions will be based on the cost of acquiring land, carrying out groundworks,
laying out and equipping sites, including ancillaries such as pavilions, changing rooms and parking
(see Appendix D).
