Leicester City Council Playing Pitch Strategy Assessment Report May 2017 Neil Allen Associates Registered Office: 20 Brook Road, Lymm, Cheshire, WA139AH A limited company, registered in England and Wales no. 616528 Contents Section 1: Introduction 1 Section 2: Methodology 5 Section 3: Strategic Context 11 Section 4: Cricket 23 Section 5: Rugby League 62 Section 6: Hockey 68 Section 7: Bowls 88 Section 8: Tennis 111 Section 9: Football 134 Section 10: Rugby Union 234 Section 11: Conclusion 253 1: Introduction Introduction and Scope 1.1 Leicester City Council (LCC) is situated in the East Midlands and is one of the core cities under Sport England’s Core City’s programme. As such the city is a focus for driving Sport England’s priorities as set out in its 2013-17 Strategy Creating a Sporting Habit for Life, which is focused on increasing participation in sport. 1.2 At the 2011 census Leicester had a population of 329,900, an increase of 17% since 2001. This is one of the fastest rates of growth in England and Wales. The age-profile of the population is young and the proportion of children and young people in the city is larger than the national average. Leicester is a diverse multicultural city with 49% of the population from ethnic backgrounds; of this 23% were born outside the UK, compared to the national average of 9%. These characteristics impact upon the amount and type of facilities that are required to meet the needs of the population. 1.3 Added to the demographic characteristics, the city has some significant health challenges. Levels of obesity, heart disease, respiratory conditions and diabetes are all high and life expectancy in Leicester is below the national average and the health gap between the most affluent and the most deprived areas is significant. 1.4 Despite this, Leicester does have a proud sporting heritage with four professional sports clubs which bring civic pride and tourism to the city. In terms of grassroots sports there is a network of facility provision provided by LCC, the education, private and voluntary sector. There are also around 300 sports clubs playing around 40 different sports. 1.5 To respond to the challenges and opportunities that the demographics of the city bring, Leicester City Council, in partnership with Sport England and Leicester-shire and Rutland Sport, appointed Neil Allen Associates (naa) to support the Council and partners with delivering the vision of developing a long term strategy to determine its clear priorities and pathways for the future delivery of sport and leisure across the city in the context of local, regional and national priorities. 1.6 A Built Facilities Strategy has already been prepared setting out the strategic direction for built facilities across Leicester. Building upon and complementing this, in April 2015, Neil Allen Associates was commissioned to produce a sports playing pitch strategy to provide a framework for the future provision of facilities for football, cricket, rugby, hockey, tennis, and bowls up to 2030. Context and Key Drivers 1.7 One of the Council`s key corporate priorities is to increase the health and well-being of the city inhabitants. This has grown in significance since the elections in May 2015, where a Healthy Leicester is a key cornerstone of the manifesto. The strategy for both indoor and outdoor sports must therefore support the ambitions to establish a new and clear pathway for developing existing and new sports facilities and establishing a direction for greater participation and improved pathways for sport and physical activity. 1.8 Added to this, the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) stresses the importance of access to opportunities for sport and recreation and the contribution this can make to the health and well-being of communities. 1.9 In response to the NPPF, Leicester City Council is preparing a new local plan for the city. This plan, which is expected to be adopted in 2019, will set out a vision and objectives for the growth of the city over the next 15 years. It will replace the 2006 Local Plan and the Leicester City Council: Playing Pitch Strategy Assessment Report 1 2014 Core Strategy and will outline how local priorities will be addressed, as well as how the social, economic and environmental challenges and opportunities that face the city will be met. It will identify broad locations, scale and type of development and supporting infrastructure that will be required in the city. In terms of sports provision the new Local Plan will help safeguard existing provision but will also look at future provision. This will involve joint working with adjacent district councils to consider how sports facilities are used and how future need is accommodated in the greater Leicester area. Each of the districts are working on their own evidence base to support their respective local plans, a list of these can be viewed here. Charnwood Borough Council Harborough District Council Oadby and Wigston Borough Council Blaby District Council Hinckley and Bosworth 1.10 Together, the built facilities and sports playing pitch strategies will inform the policies included within this plan, as well as the Development Management process, incorporating S106 and possible CIL contributions. These strategies will also help advise on the council’s strategic spending priorities. 1.11 The outdoor sports playing pitch strategy will therefore identify core improvements that could be made to create a step change in provision. The Strategy should allow Leicester City Council to shape its core sport and physical activity offer both within its direct provision and that undertaken with partners in the education, voluntary and private sector. 1.12 At the strategic level it will underpin the contribution that sport and physical activity makes to the City’s corporate objectives and approach towards fulfilling national and corporate targets, for example in contributing to the public health, children and young people and adult social care outcomes. It will also help provide a rationale to enable National Governing Bodies to further invest and deliver their working outcomes as outlined in their Whole Sport Plans. 1.13 It is also evident that the above must be achieved in the context of difficult financial times. The Sports Service has been set the challenge of significant budget reductions. Leicester City Council: Playing Pitch Strategy Assessment Report 2 The strategy will therefore use the evidence base collated to set future priorities in the context of these financial pressures. 1.14 The key drivers for the production of the outdoor sports facility assessment and strategy can therefore be summarised as; To fully understand the current picture of supply and demand across the city; i. understanding current participation patterns and the stock of facilities; ii. exploring the role of education sites and identifying any opportunities to increase this; iii. understanding of reasons behind current participation patterns; and iv. understanding any issues with regards sustained access / security of tenure. the need to provide up to date evidence to inform infrastructure requirements in light of the significant population growth that is expected. In particular, information is required to inform the emerging local plan and to ensure that infrastructure requirements for sport and leisure are fully understood; the need to provide evidence to aid decision making in relation to specific sites; to inform decision making in relation to possible CIL and S106; the opportunity to provide evidence to help both the Council and key partners secure external funding; and the need to inform the development of a clear SMART action plan which brings together the priorities of key stakeholders and supports the delivery of sport and health agendas. 1.15 This document is the assessment report for outdoor sports for Leicester City. It summarises the key issues arising from the assessment of facilities for cricket, hockey, tennis, bowls, golf, cycling, football and rugby and informs the preparation of the strategy document (under separate cover). For each of the sports covered, it aims to; summarise the current supply of playing pitches and the characteristics of the pitch stock; outline current demand for facilities and evaluate projected demand up to 2030; evaluate the overall adequacy of provision to meet current and projected future demand; and identify the key issues for the Leicester City Council Outdoor Sports Pitch Strategy to address. 1.16 The strategy document will build on the issues identified and set out strategic priorities and actions for delivery. 1.17 The remainder of this assessment report is set out as follows; Leicester City Council: Playing Pitch Strategy Assessment Report 3 Section 2 – Methodology - this section sets out the methodology undertaken Section 3 – Strategic Context - this section summarises the key issues in the city relating to demographics, health and wellbeing and the facility implications Section 4 – Cricket - this section outlines the current picture for cricket and evaluates the adequacy of existing provision to meet current and projected future demand Section 5 – Rugby League - this section outlines the current picture for rugby league and evaluates the adequacy of existing provision to meet current and projected future demand Section 6 – Hockey - this section outlines the current picture for hockey and evaluates the adequacy of existing provision to meet current and projected future demand Section 7 – Bowls - this section