In March 2009, Bassetlaw District Council commissioned Knight Kavanagh & Page (KKP) to conduct its PPG17 Open Space Study and Playing Pitch Assessment.

PPG17 Open Space Study

We used the findings of our extensive research, consultation, site assessments, data analysis and GIS mapping to provide an audit and assessment of both quantitative and qualitative open space, sport and recreation facilities in accordance with PPG17.

Via this comprehensive assessment, we identified the key issues for each typology, objectives for future improvements and set locally derived open space provision standards.

Amenity greenspace is most commonly located in residential areas. It includes informal recreation spaces and greenspaces in and around housing; this has a primary purpose of providing opportunity for informal activity close to home or work or to enhance the appearance of residential or other urban areas.

In the Bassetlaw assessment for this typology, an accessibility standard was set with the aspiration that all residents should live within 10 minute walk of high quality provision. On this basis, a number of more rural settlements that do not enjoy such access were identified; the most notable gap being in Elkesley.

Within the strategic framework for improvement, KKP recommended that the Council give priority to improving the quality of its amenity greenspace and developing new provision in Elkesley. This may be achieved by making existing spaces more functional and visually attractive via, for example, provision of seating and/or landscaping plus ensuring that, as appropriate, new housing developments provide sufficient allowance for amenity greenspaces.

Built sports facilities and outdoor sports/playing pitch assessment

Complementing the open spaces study, KKP delivered an assessment of indoor and outdoor sports facilities in accordance with Sport England methodologies. This provided a quantitative summary for the provision including football, cricket, rugby and hockey pitches, athletics tracks, bowling greens, tennis courts, golf courses, sports/community halls, swimming pools as well as health and fitness provision.

Tied to the over-arching aim of increasing participation in sport and physical activity, the assessment was commissioned to help the Council meet the following objectives:

• Maximise community access - securing greater use of school sports facilities to cater for expressed and future demand, piloting a school-club formal community use agreement and establishing a working group to help implement the increased use of school facilities.
• Improve the quality of facilities - reducing levels of overplay, increasing changing provision and prioritising improvements at sites with most teams playing.
• Ensure sufficient facilities to meet current and future demand - protecting current provision, accommodating future increase in demand for mini and junior pitch provision and continuing to take account of future national trends such as mini soccer.
• Adopt a strategic tiered management approach - investigating the potential for more pitch sites leased to sports clubs/organisations and applying a tiered model approach to aid identification of investment and management priorities.
• Enhance pitch provision through effective use of developer contributions - ensuring that s106 funds are directed to areas of need, ring fencing capital receipts from facility disposals and establishing a ‘central pot' for developer contributions to invest in provision and maintenance.

The assessments have armed the Council with a robust evidence base to enable it to develop planning policies for its local development framework (LDF) and related documents. The Council's planning team is keen to use recommended quantity and accessibility standards as evidence within planning applications and to seek developer contributions to improve provision.

"Sport England's Planning Manager has recently advised that both the Playing Pitch Strategy and the PPG 17 Study satisfy the requirements of Sport England."

Natalie Cockrell, Planning Policy Officer at the Council said,

"We are very pleased with the assessments that KKP has delivered. Claire and her team provided great support and advice over and above delivering the needs assessment enabling us to ‘own' the work and to have the confidence to use it as evidence. We have had no hesitation in retaining their services to undertake the subsequent action planning."

KKP will now expand on its recommended strategic framework to develop a site by site action plan to further guide investment.