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

73
Supply and Demand
There are currently 70 football pitches in the borough,
half of these are either on school sites or in private
ownership. 70 pitches is equivalent to 0.25 football
pitches or 0.3ha per 1,000 population. However, there is
no London-wide capacity ratio to compare this figure to.
5.7% of Brent residents (16yrs+) played outdoor football
in the 4 weeks preceding the Active People Survey,
which equates to roughly 12,400 people (GLA 2006 yr
population projection). Brent football participation rates
are similar to both London and national levels suggesting
there is significant local demand for football pitches
within the borough.
Despite comparable participation rates, Football
Association (FA) records of teams playing in Brent indicate
far fewer teams playing in the borough than elsewhere in
London. This may be explained in part by a small number
of teams that are not affiliated to the FA and therefore
do appear on their records. However, the poor quality of
pitches and lack of associated changing facilities in the
borough may mean that demand for pitches is displaced
to neighbouring boroughs as teams choose to play
elsewhere in London.
In order to calculate local demand for football which
allows for the latent demand, London-wide conversion
rates are used to calculate demand for pitches in Brent.
Conversion rates are expressed as the proportion of the
population playing football calculated by multiplying
the number of teams by the average number of players
on different types of team. Brent has characteristics of
both inner and outer London boroughs and has football
participation rates comparable to London (5.7% and 6%
respectively) such that a London-wide conversion rate is
appropriate.
Table 26: Demand for football pitches
Estimated
number of Brent
teams
Number of
pitches needed
during peak
demand period
Demand for pitches is calculated based on the following
assumptions:
• Half of matches will be played at home and half away
• Temporal demand for adult pitches is 50% of matches
played Saturday afternoon, the remainder on Sunday
morning with a very small number of matches played in
the afternoon. All Youth matches and mini soccer are
played on Sunday morning (Brent Club Survey 2003).
Using this method and calculations, Brent is deficient in
all forms of football pitches, the greatest deficit being
for adult full size and mini soccer pitches. [Please note
however that the 7 football pitches currently being
improved at Gladstone Park (2 senior and 3 mini)
and King Edwards VII Recreation Ground (2 senior) in
Willesden were not included in this calculation as at the
time they were not in use.]
An existing deficit of 25 senior football pitches as well
as a deficit in junior pitches represents a significant
challenge for the council particularly as opportunities for
increasing the number of pitches are restricted by the
highly urbanised character of the borough. There are
however, a number of opportunities to increase capacity
in Brent parks where pitches are not currently laid out
including King Edward VII Park, Wembley, GEC Pellat
Road, Roundwood Park, and Roe Green Park. There is
also additional capacity at the decommissioned pitch at
Chalkhill Youth Centre.
There are also opportunities to increase the intensity
at which existing pitches are used, through drainage
improvements and floodlighting. Drainage improvements
are needed at John Billam, Northwick Park and Silver
Jubilee Recreation Ground. Reinstalling the floodlighting
at Vale Farm and Alperton will greatly increase capacity.
Brent supply of
pitches
Adult football 172 43 18 -25
Youth football 104 52 47 -5
Mini Soccer 53 26 5 -21
Surplus/Deficit
of pitches during
peak demand