Last year, Knight, Kavanagh & Page (KKP) was appointed to undertake a PPG17 compliant sport and recreation built facilities assessment for Bournemouth and Poole. This year, it has been re-appointed to produce the two boroughs' playing pitch strategies.

KKP's in-house research team will conduct in-depth community consultation and site assessments, incorporating the classification of pitches, facility quality ratings and identification of current and unmet demand.

Tim Roberts will conduct much of this work. He said, "I am looking forward to re-visiting many sites that were included in the previous built facilities assessment. The local people I met were friendly and approachable. It is great to see different groups of people working together with the Council and other partners to improve sports facilities across Bournemouth and Poole."

This consultation and fieldwork will inform the production of an assessment report and accompanying strategy and action plan, including:

• A strategic framework for improvement and development and, as appropriate, rationalisation of the playing pitch stock in the area.
• Clear indication of the pitch requirements of schools in Bournemouth and Poole, linked to the Building Schools for the Future programme and other relevant initiatives.
• Robust evidence and standards to support work on Local Development Frameworks.
• Planning guidance to assist in the determination of development proposals affecting playing fields/recreation grounds, with specific reference to planned housing developments.

KKP has a strong and recent track record of work in Bournemouth and Poole and is in the ideal position to deliver this project. In addition to the recent assessment of sport and recreation facilities in the conurbation, KKP has also assessed the involvement of national governing bodies of sport (NGBs) in the local BSF programme.

Jonathan Woods, Manager of KKP's South West Office will lead on this project. He said, "Through our recent work we already have a strong basic knowledge of key playing pitch sites and good working relationships with key stakeholders, especially NGBs. This will enable us to ‘hit the ground running' and make significant progress in a short space of time."

For further details, please contact Jonathan Woods, Principal Consultant,
Email: jonathan.woods@kkp.co.uk