Warwick District Council Indoor Sports and Leisure Strategy Needs and Evidence Report March 2014 Neil Allen Associates Registered Office: 20 Brook Road, Lymm, Cheshire, WA139AH A limited company, registered in England and Wales no. 616528 Contents 1. Introduction and Context 1 2. Strategic Review 4 3. Participation Profile 12 4. Supply and Demand Analysis 35 5. Facility Analysis 69 6. Options Analysis 87 7. Future Needs 90 8. Conclusions and Recommendations 195 Appendices Detailed Facility Listings Financial Performance Data Stock Condition Surveys FPM Background 1. Introduction and Context Introduction 1.1 Warwick District Council is one of five district and borough councils within the county of Warwickshire. The district covers four towns; Leamington Spa, Warwick, Kenilworth and Whitnash, and numerous villages. The population served is almost 140,000. 1.2 In April 2012 the Council appointed Neil Allen Associates (NAA) to support them with delivering their vision of developing a long term strategy for the provision of indoor and built sports facilities within the district. The strategy will be used to guide the future provision and management of both new and existing indoor sports facilities in Warwick District in the context of national and regional policy and local sports development needs. 1.3 At the time of the NAA appointment a study of playing pitches was well-advanced by the Council and there was a desire for the indoor strategy to complement the emerging playing pitches strategy, in order to develop an overall strategy for indoor and outdoor sport across the district. This work subsequently stalled and has been picked up additionally by NAA as part of the process, thus ensuring an integrated approach will be developed. 1.4 This report sets out the needs and evidence for indoor sport and built facilities. An additional report sets out the needs and evidence for playing pitches and outdoor sport along with a strategy and action plan. Both pieces of work together provide a coordinated and long-term approach to sports facility provision and planning across Warwick for both indoor and outdoor sport. Context 1.5 In developing the strategic work set out, one of the Council`s key corporate priorities is to increase the health and well being of the District’s inhabitants. It is intended to achieve this by working to ensure all sections of the community have access to participate in sporting activities appropriate to their needs and enjoy the associated benefits of a healthy lifestyle. 1.6 The efficient management of the Council’s assets is also a key priority (in terms of land and buildings) the proposed strategies together will enable the Council to prioritise its future financial commitments to its existing assets. The Council owned leisure facilities are all managed directly by Council staff, in addition, the Council are in dual use partnerships with two local secondary schools for the out of school management of their sports facilities for community use. The future of these will need to be explored as part of the work. 1.7 At the time of the commission the Council was also in the process of consulting on the development of a Local Plan to manage the development of the District to 2029. The provision of community facilities and health and wellbeing of the population have been identified as key issues and draft objectives were prepared as part of the Local Plan process to address these. Indoor Sports Facilities Audit & Strategy 1 1.8 The Council’s decision on the level of growth and subsequent preferred options on sites for development is subject to ongoing consultation. What is evident is that the Local Plan will be putting forward a case for growth, on the basis of a Plan that will support growth in the District in the region of 550 homes per annum on new allocated sites over the plan period 2011-2029. The map below shows the Preferred Options for growth and development, which went out to consultation in May 2012. The Council’s ultimate decisions on growth, in 2013, will undoubtedly have a significant impact on the level of demand for sports facilities. 1.9 To further inform the preparation of the Local Plan, the development of an indoor sports facility strategy was seen as essential to help plan for the future of indoor and built sports facilities throughout the district. Report Structure 1.10 The work has been undertaken and the report structured to address the key drivers of the Council and ensure compliance with new national planning policy. At the time of commissioning of the work the new National Policy Planning Framework (NPPF) was just emerging. Indoor Sports Facilities Audit & Strategy 2 1.11 The needs assessment work has been produced in line with NPPF, which requires that (Paragraph 73, page 18): ‘………planning policies are based upon robust and up-to-date assessments of needs for open space, sport and recreation facilities and opportunities for new provision…..’ 1.12 The needs assessment has therefore considered the sports participation profile across the district, looked at supply and demand of facilities across Warwick, built in consultation and utilised Sport England planning tools to develop the needs and evidence base and subsequent strategy recommendations. Similarly the Playing Pitch Strategy (PPS) work utilises the newly emerging PPS methodology. 1.13 In order to meet the key drivers set by the Council, the report is structured as follows: Section 2 Strategic Review - This section explores further the key strategic drivers for future facility provision across Warwick Section 3 Participation Profile - This addresses the issue of increasing health and well being across the district and the facility implications Section 4 Supply and Demand Analysis - This section considers the supply and demand for facilities across Warwick utilising Sport England strategic planning tools and building in local consultation Section 5 Facility Analysis – This section looks at the capital and revenue issues surrounding the current facility stock and implications for future facility provision Section 6 Options Analysis – This section explores the options for facility provision across Warwick based on the needs and evidence set out in the previous sections and current needs Section 7 Future Needs – This section looks at future needs based on the Local Plan timeframe and uses Sport England’s Facilities Planning Model (FPM) to look at future needs based on population projections Section 8 Conclusions and Recommendations – The final section concludes by setting out the long-term strategy and priorities for sports facility provision across Warwick and the subsequent planning policies to deliver. This section draws together the conclusions from the data sets above to form the basis for the development of a strategy and planning policies. The next section looks in further detail at the key strategic drivers for indoor sport and built facility provision across Warwick. Indoor Sports Facilities Audit & Strategy 3 2. Strategic Review Introduction 2.1 This section considers in further detail the key drivers for the work, set out previously. Table 2.1 below sets out the key Warwick District documents which provide the strategic context for the Indoor Sports Facilities Audit, Assessment and Strategy. The first column of the table describes the key content of each strategic document, whilst the second column sets out what this content means for the development and delivery of the indoor sports facilities audit and strategy. 2.2 The findings from the document review will be used to inform the development of the strategy itself and ensure that the policy proposals contained within the strategy are consistent with approved Warwick District policy documents. Table 2.1: Key Documents Name of Document and Key Key content/implications for the facilities strategy Content A Shared Vision” Warwick District’s Document references the former core strategy as Sustainable Community Strategy one of the delivery plans for the SCS. This is now 2009 – 2026 superseded by the development of the new Local Plan up to 2029. Vision is to make Warwick District a great place to live, work and visit. The local plan preferred options addresses the key priorities and cross cutting themes of the SCS. 4 key priorities: The health priority possibly reflects sport and active Safer communities recreation as being promoted for health benefit as Health and well being the leading rationale for sports and active Housing recreation participation. This is consistent with the Economy, skills and Active People market segmentation findings that 5 employment of the 6 top six market segments in terms of numbers of population are within the 35 – 54 age Approach to deliver the priorities group and do sports/active recreation for through 4 cross cutting themes: recreational purposes, health benefit and keep fit, rather than for organised competitive sport. Narrowing the gaps Embedding sustainability – There are no explicit details of the actions to families at risk removing barriers and increasing access. The Engaging and strengthening analysis of the Sport England 2012 spatial data has communities shown that over 90% of the Warwick population Rurality lives within the catchment area of a sports hall or swimming pool. Reducing access barriers based on The SCS is supported by a delivery pricing and programming of sports facilities will be plan and locality plans which sets assessed as part of stage 2 of the project. out the approach to improving specific areas of the district. The economic priority/reference to sport could be a higher priority/value for Warwick District as the Sport England local borough profile for 2012 shows Indoor Sports Facilities Audit & Strategy 4 Name of Document and Key Key content/implications for the facilities strategy Content Sport and active recreation is within that Warwick District has a higher number of sports (1) health and well being and (2) businesses than in West Midlands Region and economy, skills and development.