Protecting Playing Fields

Sport England’s funding programme, Protecting Playing Fields ( PPF ) is part of our Places People Play Olympic legacy mass participation programme and is investing  £10 million of National Lottery funding in community sports projects over three years from 2011-2014.

The programme is being delivered via five funding rounds with around £2 million being awarded to projects in each round.

Confirmed dates for funding rounds are:

• Round 1 closed on 6 July 2011 and we made conditional awards to 48 projects worth £2.1m 
• Round 2 closed on 12 December 2011 and we made conditional awards to 61 projects worth £2.6m
• Round 3 closed 09 July 2012 and we made conditional awards to 54 projects worth £2.4m
• Round 4 closed on 18 February 2013 and decisions will be made May 2013
• Round 5 will open on 10 June 2013 and close on 05 August 2013.  

Delivering a mass participation legacy for sport from the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games is a top priority for the Government and Sport England.

To help us achieve this, PPF will focus on protecting and improving playing fields and developing community sport.

Through this programme, we intend to fund up to 300 projects for playing field improvements that will contribute to both retaining and increasing participants in sport across England at the local level.

The programme will fund capital projects that create, develop and improve playing fields for sporting and community use and offer long term protection of the site for sport.

Projects are likely to involve the construction of new natural turf pitches or improvement of existing ones that need leveling or drainage works.

Advice and guidance

These webpages contain all the information and guidance you need to find out more about Protecting Playing Fields including how to apply, how your application will be assessed and what we're looking for.

If you prefer you can download the same information as a prospectus and FAQs document.

The aims of Protecting Playing Fields

We believe that the improvement and protection of playing fields will help retain participants and achieve sustainable increases in participation.

Successful projects will be those where organisations can demonstrate future management, maintenance and sporting use at the site along with the site being protected for 25 years or longer.

This means that organisations must own (or intend to own) the freehold or have a lease for the field for that length of time.

Projects which can offer protection of playing fields “in perpetuity” are likely to be further prioritised and will be put forward to Fields in Trust for dedication as a Queen Elizabeth II Field.

We are also particularly keen to improve and protect playing fields in community ownership. As such we will also look to provide further support to those where ownership of playing fields sites are being transferred to the community from public ownership.

Why protect playing fields?

Playing fields are one of the most important resources for sport in England.

Indeed, there are over 59,200 playing pitches at 29,236 sites in England and over half of these grass pitches (33,200 or 56%) are marked out for football. ¹

They provide the valuable space required to maintain and enhance opportunities for people to participate in both formal team sports and other more informal activities.

Along with sporting benefits, good quality accessible playing fields can also contribute to healthy and active communities and secure wider reaching benefits.

Sport England’s statutory role

We believe that the best way to protect and enhance playing fields is for all local authorities to have a robust and up to date Playing Pitch Strategy ( PPS ) in place for their area, backed by appropriate management and maintenance arrangements.

An up-to-date Playing Pitch Strategy or local needs assessment is a key requirement upon which applications need to be based.

• See FAQ: Where can I find out if my local authority has published a playing pitch strategy or other relevant local needs assessment?)

Sport England has been a statutory consultee on planning applications affecting playing field land since 1996. On average we receive around 1,300 planning application consultations a year, although this figure has risen over the last couple of years.

• Find out more about Sport England’s statutory consultee status and the development of Playing Pitch Strategies here
  

Fields in Trust Queen Elizabeth II Playing Fields Challenge

2012 has been an exciting year with two great events - Her Majesty The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the London 2012 Olympics.

The Queen Elizabeth II Fields, headed by its patron Prince William, is a programme which seeks to protect 2,012 outdoor recreational spaces in communities all across the UK as a permanent living legacy of these landmark occasions.

Sport England has entered into a partnership with Fields in Trust ( FIT ) to support the protection of playing fields as part of the Queen Elizabeth II Fields.

Successful applicants to the PPF programme who accept a Deed of Dedication of their playing field in perpetuity will have their project details passed to FIT to undertake the registration and branding of the project as Queen Elizabeth II Field.

• Further information can be found at http://www.qe2fields.com/

¹ Active Places database January 2011