Spatial planning is bringing a new perspective to providing for sport and recreation. By making connections between the physical provision of facilities and a range of other aspirations, including health improvement, economic regeneration and the enhancement of peoples’ quality of life, spatial planning holds the potential to act as a reference point. The following set of examples demonstrate how, through planning practice, the challenges associated with these new agendas can be tackled. The examples gathered here begin a process of assembling an evidence base which might help to inform and inspire planners and others in making the most of the potential of spatial planning to genuinely connect land use planning with the wider soci-economic agendas of which it is a part. The suite of tools employed by planners are illustrated by these examples, including policy and strategy development and policy application through such means as attention to design issues, securing planning obligations to meet community needs for sport and recreation facilities.

The examples are organised around the six spatial planning principles which are guiding Sport England’s engagement with the planning system. The character of many of the examples cited means that they demonstrate other spatial planning principles in addition to those under which they are grouped. The 6 principles are listed below. Click on the title to down load the individual pdf:

1. Environmental Sustainability – sport and recreation can demonstrate and contribute to the sustainable use of natural resources.
2. Community Safety – sport can help to directly reduce social exclusion and disaffection.
3. Local Economic Viability – sport directly and indirectly contributes to local and national economic vibrancy.
4. Quality of Life and Well-Being – physical activity contributes to peoples’ perceptions and experience of well-being and sense of attachment to their surroundings.
5. Health Improvement – physical activity should be a natural part of everyday life.
6. Raising Standards in Schools – the foundations of life-long health and sporting excellence lie in early opportunities for taking part in sport and active recreation.

Some examples of Supplementary Planning Documents are also set out.