Playing Pitch Strategy

Overview

The Council has prepared a Draft Playing Pitch Strategy (PPS), which aims to make sure that there is an adequate supply of good quality, accessible grass and artificial pitches in the borough, to meet current and future demands for formal pitch sports.

It covers all Link4Life, council, school, club and
community sports grounds that accommodate the following sports:

• Cricket
• Football
• Hockey
• Lacrosse
• Rounders
• Rugby Football League
• Rugby Football Union

The strategy has been developed in accordance with guidance from Sport England and sports’ National Governing Bodies (NGBs).

Key recommendations

Overall, findings suggest that the borough has a good supply of pitches and sufficient capacity to meet current and future demand.

The strategy sets out the following summarised recommendations and proposals:

• Sports ‘hub’ model with one in each township:

Proposals are for ‘hub’ sits at Heywood Sports Village, Bowlee Playing Fields, Littleborough Sports Centre and Firgrove. Key school sites to supplement the offer should a ‘hub’ not offer the full range of sports and facilities.

If demand in the borough increases as a result of the Spatial Framework proposals then these hub sites will be prioritised for investment.

• A hierarchy of sites to help channel resources and investment:

The proposed hierarchy is

• A number of sites within the borough require improvement and investment.  The extent of this investment is has not been quantified at this stage.
• Resources are available through S106 contributions.  The strategy will help to prioritise how these contributions could be spent and ensure that appropriate amounts are collected from new developments
• The strategy will enable the council and clubs within the borough to seek funding from the NGBs and other sources
• A number of sites could be considered surplus to requirements and released for alternative uses or development.