Planning for Sport and Active Recreation Facilities ... - Brent Council

Foreword from Sport England
In June 2006, the Audit Commission’s report; “Public sports and recreation services
– making them fit for the future” made a number of criticisms regarding the
strategic planning of facilities, resulting in poor provision in terms of location,
quality and failure to meet changing needs and customer expectations. The report’s
recommendations identified a need to ensure that Local Authorities improved
their strategic planning of sport and recreation provision by assessing current and
future needs, collaborating with other sectors and working across boundaries in the
procurement, planning and delivery of services. In addition, there was a need for
Local Authorities to appraise options for facility provision in a transparent way, testing
the market to ensure that the best options were identified.
Traditional means of facility funding, such as the Lottery is diminishing. Although new
investment is occurring via Building Schools for the Future (BSF), Planning Gain and the Private Finance Initiative (PFI),
without a clear strategic vision and direction at the local level, the impact of such investment will fail to be maximised.
Sport England’s Facilities Improvement Service aims to help local authorities improve the ways in which they plan for
sport and recreation, enabling them to use key strategic planning tools such as Active Places Power which will allow
authorities to develop a robust understanding and assessment of need which will then underpin Local Authorities
planning for sport.
In order to launch the Facilities Improvement Service in London, Sport England made an approach to the London
borough of Brent and offered the opportunity to help pilot the service. Sport England is extremely grateful to Brent,
for not only taking on the Service as a pilot authority but particularly for the highly professional approach made by the
Council in it’s dealings with Sport England and Sport England’s selected contractor, Genesis Consulting. We are very
conscious of the pressures being placed on Local Government during these difficult times, so we congratulate Brent for
not only stepping up to this challenge, but also for producing a very comprehensive piece of work that will serve Brent
well in it’s future planning for sport and active recreation in the lead up to 2012 and will act as a case study for other
authorities to follow and to learn from this good practice.
Andy Sacha
Head of Investment: London Region