Comment

Representation ID: 335

Received: 07/01/2010

Respondent: Sport England (East Office)

To address Sport England's concerns with respect to planning obligations for sports facilities (indoor and outdoor), it is requested that the following matters are considered and incorporated into a revised SPD:
* Identification of what the standards are for sports facilities as this provides the basis for justifying and calculating developer contributions for sports facilities.
* What development types in broad terms will be expected to make provision for sports facilities e.g. residential developments, employment developments, tourist developments etc
* What specific development types will be excluded from making provision for sport e.g. nursing homes, replacement dwellings, dwelling extensions etc;
* What are the thresholds for on-site and off-site sports facility provision. Cut off points are important to ensure a balance between major developments making on-site provision where viable and justified and the need to avoid lots of small scale sports facilities being provided as part of developments which are not responsive to local needs when an off-site contribution towards a strategic facility would have been more appropriate;
* Guidance on the occupancy sizes of dwellings to ensure that there is a link between the expected population of a dwelling and the scale of the contribution/provision.
* Details on the methodology for calculating developer contributions and what costs are included in the contributions.
* Details of how the Council will use pooled developer contributions to demonstrate transparency e.g. a prioritised list of community sports facility projects which help implement local strategies.