Ryeish Green

RYEISH GREEN

PROPOSED SPORTS HALL REFURBISHMENT AND PAVILION DEVELOPMENT

FOR

WOKINGHAM BOROUGH COUNCIL

TRANSPORT STATEMENT (REVISION A)

APRIL 2017

RYEISH GREEN WOKINGHAM

PROPOSED SPORTS HALL REFURBISHMENT & PAVILION DEVELOPMENT

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1. The scope of the development at Ryeish Green and the subject of this planning application is the refurbishment of the existing four court sports hall; the demolition of the adjoining single storey changing block and nearby former music block; the construction of a new changing pavilion with reception, club room and fitness suite; along with associated access and car parking improvements.

1.2. The purpose of this development is to re-establish Ryeish Green as a venue for sport and recreation through the renovation of the currently 'mothballed' sports hall. The new build elements of the proposal aim to provide facilities that support the recently completed fenced and floodlit artificial grass pitch (AGP) development (planning ref: 161250) and improved natural turf pitches as well as serving the needs of the sports hall.

1.3. The site of the proposed development centres on the currently boarded-up sports hall and changing facilities along with the nearby abandoned music block originally used by the former Ryeish Green School. The newly opened Oakbank School did not take these leisure facilities under its management but will become a user of the new facilities including the natural grass playing pitches to the west of the development site which have recently been improved.

1.4. The OS extract below shows the location of the development site in the context of the surrounding neighbourhoods (grid ref X: 472,997 Y: 167,458). The post code for Oakbank School off Hyde End Lane adjacent the development site is RG7 1ER.

READING M4 NORTH

SHINFIELD

PROJECT SITE A33 ARBORFIELD SPENCERS WOOD

Ryeish Green, Wokingham BC - Sports Hall Refurb & Pavilion Development - Design & Access Statement 1 1.5. Because the floodlit AGP will allow continued use during all bar the most inclement weather for weekday evening training as well as weekend match-play, and the newly improved grass playing pitches will now be able to sustain greater use, the provision of quality support and changing facilities is essential.

1.6. These facilities will serve the needs of the growing local community (including schools) where quality indoor and outdoor facilities for coaching, training and competitive sport as well as casual active recreation are in significant demand.

1.7. The refurbished sports hall along with new changing, a large club room, a reception and a separate fitness suite will meet and exceed Sport England and FA design guidance.

2. CURRENT USE

2.1. Oakbank School opened as a free school in September 2012, growing year on year with a four-form entry to a current student complement of over 400. The recently constructed AGP is used regularly by the school for curriculum PE as will be the improved grass pitches and refurbished sports hall with new changing provision.

3D Aerial View of the Site Showing its Context to the School

Ryeish Green, Wokingham BC - Sports Hall Refurb & Pavilion Development - Design & Access Statement 2 2.2. Other than school's use during the term-time weekday, the natural grass playing fields and the AGP will be extensively used by two local football clubs who are partners if the Borough Council's application to the Football Foundation for additional financial support.

2.3. Spencers Wood Football Club is a FA Charter Standard Development Club currently with 16 teams from 'mini kickers', u7s through to u15s (boys and girls), plus a men's open age team, a vets team and a new women's team.

2.4. Shinfield Rangers Football Club is a similarly sized FA Charter Standard Community Club currently with 12 teams from 'mini all-stars' (for 4-8 year olds), through u7s to u16s including separate girls' teams at u11s and u13s, plus one open age team.

2.5. Both clubs will grow as part of the Football Foundation development plans and based on their shared use of the recently developed and proposed facilities at Ryeish Green.

3. TRANSPORT CONTEXT

3.1. The development is located on an existing sports centre site which sits between Shinfield and Spencers Wood. Road access to the site is appropriate for the scale of the scheme with direct access being taken from Hyde End Lane.

3.2. This application covers the redevelopment of the changing facilities on site, along with the provision of a fitness suite which aims to support the Council’s healthy lifestyles objectives. With the exception of the fitness suite, all of the sports facilities that will draw people to the site are already in existence. These facilities comprise:

. a full size artificial grass pitch . 5 no. football pitches of varying sizes to suit different age groups . a rugby pitch . a cricket pitch . a four court sports hall

3.3. This application therefore does not seek to increase significantly the use of the site or intensify its use by attracting more people to the site apart from those attending the new fitness suite. With this in mind, this application is designed to provide improved changing facilities that support the existing site use along with the final car parking scheme that will provide an appropriate level of facilities for visitors in its peak period of use.

3.4. Significant residential development is taking place around the site which will support the future sustainability of the facility. Given that many of these houses are relatively close to the site, it is envisaged there will be a small shift away from car journeys to the site towards people arriving by bicycle or on foot.

Ryeish Green, Wokingham BC - Sports Hall Refurb & Pavilion Development - Design & Access Statement 3 4. PARKING CAPACITY

4.1. The development is supported by substantial car parking proposals which are designed to accommodate maximum capacity of the use of the key elements of this site (including the recently constructed AGP). The following table shows the likely maximum occupancy in numbers of participant for all facilities on site in any one hour during a two hour peak times period on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings, and on Saturday mornings.

RYEISH GREEN SPORTS HUB - PEAK TIMES MAXIMUM OCCUPANCIES

FACILITY TUES-THURS EVENINGS NOS. SATURDAY MORNING NOS. TIMING 17.00 to 19.00 hrs 10.00 to 12.00 hrs AGP junior football training 60 4 games of 5v5 on AGP 40

Grass term time school match 30 2 games of youth 11v11 44 pitches Sports 4 games doubles badminton 16 children's multi sports 25 Hall activities Fitness 30 users at any one time 30 25 users at any one time 25 Suite TOTALS 136 134 NOTES double the numbers at changeover but use car occupancy ratio of 2:1 (i.e. 2 participants to 1 car) PARKING SPACES REQUIRED 136 134

4.2. It should be noted that some of the younger footballers using the AGP for early evening weekday training live locally and will walk to site. Otherwise, calculations assume a participant to car ratio of 2 to 1 and that parking provision needs to allow for double the number of visitors at changes in session times.

4.3. Programmed sessions on the AGP will normally be on the hour every hour, however, some grass pitch matches will kick off on the half hour, while fitness suite users will come and go throughout the day.

4.4. Having carried out the weekly usage plan and identified the areas of peak demand detailed above, a car park design has been evolved which provides a total car parking capacity on site of

. 138 car parking spaces . 4 no. disability accessible car parking spaces . 4 no. minibus parking spaces . 5 no. motorcycle parking spaces . 6 no. hoops providing capacity for 12 no. bicycles.

4.5. It is envisaged that this car parking capacity will provide an appropriate scale of parking on site to accommodate the peak time demand around the changeover times on site.

Ryeish Green, Wokingham BC - Sports Hall Refurb & Pavilion Development - Design & Access Statement 4 5. PUBLIC TRANSPORT

5.1. There are 2 no. bus routes within a mile of the site which run along the Basingstoke Road or the B3349 from Hyde End Road. These bus routes might be used by site visitors, although given the distance from the bus stop to the facilities on site, they probably would not be a preferred solution and therefore we do not envisage high levels of bus transport use on this scheme.

5.2. We have provided cycle parking for twelve bikes on site and we do believe this will get some use by local residents which is only likely to increase in time given the scale of housing development currently being constructed adjacent to the site.

5.3. Surveys of current site use show that very few people arrive on site on foot, but given the significant residential development highlighted previously within this document, it is envisaged that this will change in favour of more people walking to site from their nearby homes. Paths exist around the site to provide access from the Spencers Wood end of the site which is undergoing the greatest residential development at this time.

6. CONCLUSION

6.1. In conclusion, the proposed scheme does not significantly increase the use of the site nor intensify vehicle use and movement around site. The facilities that will attract users to the site currently mostly exist and this scheme provides improved changing room accommodation to support the existing facilities. This application does not therefore generate any significant increase in vehicle movement to and from the site and the existing highways infrastructure is appropriately scaled to handle the existing site use.

6.2. This application seeks permission to complete the car parking provision on site that is appropriately scaled to support the use of the facilities in peak demand conditions. This is important as there are limited capacities for off-site parking in the local area.

6.3. The new development of housing around the site will lead to more people visiting the site on foot and the site has appropriate path linkages to enable this to happen.

6.4. We envisage a limited number of bus users visiting the site because of its relationship with existing bus routes. However, cycle use by visitors will again probably increase due to the residential development taking place nearby.

6.5. In conclusion, the proposed scheme is designed with an appropriate transport strategy to support its development and future use.

Ryeish Green, Wokingham BC - Sports Hall Refurb & Pavilion Development - Design & Access Statement 5