Stoke-on-trent sport and physical activity strategy 2009-2016

ConsultationElected Mayor’s Green Paper for Sport and Physical Activity224. The responses to the 2009 Elected Mayor’s paper showed strong support formore or better fitness and gym facilities (see Appendix 20). This was the 5 thmost popular answer to the question “What sports facilities and programmeswould you like the city to develop?” The importance of local facilities which arecheap or free to use were also key issues which emerged from this consultation.These results suggest that the current provision of health and fitness suites is notmeeting the needs of local people.Household Survey225. The key issues arising from the household survey are:• More people use a fitness facility on a daily or weekly basis than any otherfacility type;• There is more regular use of fitness facilities in some areas such as the SouthWestern area than others, particularly the Northern area. In the Western areamore than 80% of respondents never or only rarely used a fitness facilitydespite the large number of fitness stations located there;• Opinions about the quantity of fitness facilities vary across the areas. Peoplein the South Western area are the least satisfied with the quantity, and thosein the Northern area are the most satisfied. This is despite the fact that thereare far more health and fitness stations in the South Western area than theNorthern area. This perhaps reflects the fact that all those in the SouthWestern area are registered membership sites;• Overall, the majority of people across <strong>Stoke</strong>-on-Trent are satisfied with thequality of gyms. But around 20% are dissatisfied in the Northern and Easternareas, probably reflecting the higher proportion of pay and play sites in theseareas, since commercial facilities are usually more ‘attractive’;• For all sports, the cost of taking part in exercise was one of the mostimportant barriers to participation. Commercial fitness facilities tend to becostly, and are therefore less accessible to those residents on low incomes,often living in the areas with the higher IMD scores.Nortoft Partnerships Ltd <strong>Stoke</strong>-on-Trent Page | 181Sport & Physical Activity Strategy 2009-2016October 2009