Sport and town centre improvements: Chelmsford Town Centre AAP
As part of a comprehensive town centre regeneration exercise, the opportunity to improve the quality of sports facility provision in Chelmsford is being explored. Proposals include:

• Improvement of existing facilities, notably Essex County Cricket Ground, using riverside residential and commercial development;
• Relocation of the Riverside Ice and Leisure Centre, using the site for mixed use and riverfront commercial activity;
• Enhancement of facilities on Central Park; and
• As part of a new Waterside development, promotion of the use of waterborne sport and recreation will be promoted.

These proposals are in part a response to the recommendations of an indoor sports and recreation facilities assessment carried out as part of the development of the evidence base for the Core Strategy. The study found that:

• in general terms the quality and provision of indoor facilities in the Borough is good;
• there was recognition that although the most-well used facility, Riverside is in need of investment to upgrade;
• there was a need for improvements to existing sports halls and provision of specialist sports halls;
• there is demand for an indoor tennis facility;
• there is a lack of publicly accessible squash courts; and
• there is a need for higher quality indoor cricket facilities.

Also material to the development of the AAP proposals was an Open Space Assessment which sets out standards for travel times for access to specific kinds of facility. For outdoor facilities, for example, a catchment area of 4-6km or drive time of 10-15 minutes is recommended. The Sustainability Appraisal (SA) of the AAP recommends that these standards are adopted within the AAP. The SA also cites the East of England Plan for Sport and recommends that SA objectives are tailored to promote aspirations in this document for locally based sports facilities which seek to promote healthy lifestyles through increased participation.  

www.chelmsford.gov.uk

Sport and recreation provision in new settlements: AAPs in South Cambridgeshire

Two AAPs have been developed as frameworks to guide significant development planned for South Cambridgeshire: the new settlement of Northstowe and the urban extension of Cambridge East. Both AAPs have established that a strategy for sports provision be prepared and set out detailed policy guidelines regarding the expectations for access to sport and recreation opportunities. For Northstowe, the specific objectives set for the aspiration of meeting recreational needs (D11) are to:

• Provide adequate sports facilities;
• To ensure adequate public open space for play and informal leisure;
• To create a town park to serve as a focus for the town's outdoor activities; and
• To provide opportunities to access and enjoy the surrounding countryside.

Sport England supported the policy because of the requirement for preparation of a strategy to assess the facility needs of the new community; accessibility of those facilities to the whole community; and the early phasing of facility development.

A key aspect of the sport and recreation facility provision is the development of dual-use facilities, centred on a main facility at the proposed secondary school, identified through a Formal Sports Strategy. Standards of distance to facilities, open space and play areas have been set (e.g. 1000m [10/15min walk time] for formal facilities), along with the development of a network of green infrastructure (green corridors) that serves as a multifunctional resource for informal recreational opportunities, landscaping and biodiversity.

The importance of good accessibility to informal and formal facilities is emphasised: “Northstowe's residents should be able to find that their sport, leisure and recreational needs are met locally so that they can lead a healthy lifestyle and enjoy a high quality of life and leisure time. Whilst some higher order and commercial leisure activities can only be met in Cambridge as the sub-regional centre, every opportunity should be taken to allow people from Northstowe and the surrounding villages to meet as many of their needs as possible without the need to travel further afield” (para D11.1).

www.scambs.gov.uk