brentwood.gov.uk

The policy is welcomed in principle as it seeks to protect sports facilities and proposes that the Council will seek provision of community and recreational facilities. However, there are the following concerns:
* The policy does not take a positive approach to development proposals for new or enhanced open space, sport, recreation facilities etc which meet an identified need. The Council's emerging evidence base (Sport and Leisure Study and Open Space Study) should inform such needs and provide the basis for assessing which proposals could be supported in principle. This will be pertinent if new facilities are proposed in the Green Belt or in out of centre locations where there may be conflict with other plan policies. In such scenarios, a positive approach to the principle of such proposals supported by the evidence base will help inform such decisions. This approach would eb consistent with paragraphs 70 and 73 of the NPPF. An additional paragraph should therefore be added which supports proposals for new/enhanced open space, sort, recreation, play etc facilities where it would meet an identified need.
* Unlike housing, employment and retail, there are no specific proposals in the plan for meeting existing or future community sports infrastructure needs e.g. any new leisure centres, playing fields etc. While this is likely to be due to the current status of the emerging evidence base, the pre-submission local plan should address this by setting out proposals for addressing identified needs e.g. allocations for new or enhanced facilities which are consistent with the strategy and action plan that emerge from the evidence base.
* The third paragraph should be added to allow the principle of loss of facilities where the proposal is for new open space/sports/recreation facilities where the benefits outweigh the impact. As well as allowing consistency with Government policy in paragraph 74 this would provide those that own/manage/use open space/sports facilities with flexibility to provide facilities which respond to community needs and improve facility sustainability e.g. proposals for the conversion of grass pitches to artificial pitches.
* For consistency with paragraph 70 of the NPPF and to reflect the recognition in the plan of the important role that education facilities play in meeting the sports facility needs of the community the policy should explicitly support the principle of shared use facilities such as the dual use of education facilities for sport and other community uses in appropriate locations.