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

Chapter six Outdoor Sports Facilities
A desktop study of outdoor sports provision was initiated
by the Council and assessed through a physical audit
of Brent’s outdoor facilities. The audit looked at the
quantity, quality and access to sports pitches, courts, ball
courts / Multi use games areas (MUGA’s), changing and
ancillary facilities, and school and college sports facilities
in Brent.
All Pitches
Quantity
The audit inspected 89 pitches; 46 pitches on 32 local
authority sites (including Queens Park), 30 pitches on
22 education sites, and 13 pitches on 11 private and
1 housing association sites. The audit only included
pitches that were marked out and appeared to be in
use, rather than spaces which were informal and could
accommodate pitch sports. The numbers and types of
these pitches are shown in the table below and, as the
audit was undertaken during winter months, it is possible
that some summer pitches have been excluded.
Table 21: Number of pitches by each pitch type
The majority of playing pitches in the borough are
maintained by the Local Authority, most of which are
located within Brent Parks and open spaces. The most
common type of pitch is football. Of the 29 education
sites visited (nursery, primary, secondary, tertiary and
other), only 22 had some outdoor sports provision.
Very few education sites have their own sports pitches
with only 8 of Brent’s 14 Secondary Schools and 5 of
the 60 Primary Schools having sports pitches. There are
currently 2 decommissioned football pitches at Copland
Community School and Chalkhill Youth Centre.
Brent has a relatively low number of ‘privately owned’
pitches. This number may have been greater in the past
as a number of sites were developed for alternative uses
during the mid 1990s.
Quality
The quality of pitches was also assessed in accordance
with a modified Sport England Visual Quality Assessment
(VQA). The results are shown in table 22. This shows
that the vast majority of pitches in the borough are of
average, below average, or poor quality.
The local authority pitches were assessed to be in the
worst condition, with 89% of pitches being average or
below quality and none rated as excellent. The quality
of education pitches is generally better although 21%
are still rated as below average, and two fifths rated as
average. None are rated as excellent. The private pitches
overall ranked higher in terms of quality. However, the
quality of private pitches varies, with almost a third below
Pitch Type No. of LA Pitches No. of Education Pitches No. of Private Pitches
Football 36 26 + 2 decommissioned 8
Cricket 6 3 4
Gaelic Football 3 0 0
Rugby 2 1 1
Total 46 30 13
average. Only one pitch is rated as excellent being the
cricket pitch at South Hampstead Cricket Club.
Table 22: Pitch Quality Ratings
Rating % LA Pitches % Education Pitches % Private Pitches
An excellent pitch 0.0 0.0 7.7
A good pitch 10.9 36.8 38.5
An average pitch 26.1 42.1 23.1
A below average pitch 54.3 21.1 30.8
A poor pitch 8.7 0.0 0.0
Chapter Six - Outdoor Sports Facilities 70