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

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of satisfaction, low levels of provision in some
facility types which all contributes to some of the
lowest levels of sports participation in London.
The borough has a significant need for additional
indoor and outdoor sports facilities plus major
improvements and refurbishment to existing
facilities to make them fit for purpose and meet
the demands of a growing population.
Indoor Facilities
Sports Centres
Within the Borough of Brent there are five local
authority owned sports centres. Four of these are Brent
Council owned facilities: Bridge Park community leisure
centre and Charteris sports centre which are run by Brent
Council, plus Vale Farm and Willesden sports centres
which are operated on behalf of the Council by a leisure
management contractor. The fifth, Moberley sports and
educational centre although located in Brent in Kilburn is
owned and managed by the City of Westminster.
Each centre has a key role to play in providing publicly
accessible sports provision and plays an important role in
meeting the sporting demands of residents, particularly
amongst those residents who are unable to access
private facilities. However most of these centres are over
twenty years old and over half were not originally built
as sports centres. A separate report was commissioned
to undertake a strategic review of three of Brent’s
sports centres (Bridge Park, Charteris and Vale Farm)
which proposed a range of options to provide a best-fit
solution for future provision. It is recognised that the
greatest number of people participating in sport will
be at a sports centre and that if the current level and
quality of provision is maintained there is likely to be
little opportunity to significantly increase Brent’s levels of
participation in sport and physical activity.
Swimming Pools
The strategy highlights that the provision for swimming
across the borough is critically low with the provision of
just two community accessible pools. Over 50% of Brent
residents do not live within a 20 minute walk (1.6km)
of any type of swimming pool provision. The strategy
identifies that two additional 6 lane 25 metre swimming
pools are needed within the borough to meet demand
and that additional swimming pool provision that serves
the north and central areas of the borough will have
greatest benefit to residents.
Location of Sports Centres
Vale Farm
Sports Centre
Bridge Park
Community
Leisure Centre
Willesden
Sports Centre
Legend
Sports Centre Locations
1.6km Buffer of Sports Centres
Ward Boundaries
Charteris
Sports Centre
Sports Halls
The strategy has established that current sports hall
provision across the borough is sizeable. The majority of
halls however are approximately 30 years old and are of
declining quality. Whilst there is a good supply of sports
halls, public access to many of these is limited and this
creates problems meeting local demand. There are 9
school sites which don’t allow community access and
therefore there is an opportunity to increase capacity
further by working with schools to allow greater public
use. There is a good spread of sports halls across the
borough but central east parts of the borough have the
furthest to travel to use a publicly accessible sports hall.
With projected population increases there is a need
for an additional 21 badminton courts which should
be provided through a combination of new facilities,
refurbishment of existing facilities and increased access
to existing provision. Any new facilities on school sites
where local authority or government funding has
been used should have affordable community access
arrangements enforced.
Health and Fitness
The current supply of health and fitness facilities is below
the London and national average and there is a lack of
both pay and play facilities and provision by the private
sector. To bring the level of provision to meet demand
and be similar to the rest of London there needs to be
a further 827 fitness stations by 2016 according to the
Fitness Industry Association.
Whilst there is a place for private sector provision in
some parts of the Borough, given the demographics
of the borough there is a need to ensure there is wide
provision of affordable, pay and play health and fitness
Moberly Sports
Centre