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

Chapter Seven Priorities for Future Provision
• Football and jogging are the activities most participated
in outdoors but these are below the London average
• Cricket, dance studio based activities and basketball are
more popular in Brent than across London as a whole
• 87% of Brent pupils are receiving two hours quality PE
• There are a low number of sports clubs and low sports
club membership in Brent.
Key facts – strategic context
• Wembley is a host venue of the London 2012 Olympics
and paralympics
• Sport England is aiming for 1 million people doing more
sport by 2012.
• Sport and leisure can play a role in achieving many of
the Council’s corporate objectives and priorities
• The Borough’s health and well being strategy recognises
the need to increase the number of people participating
in physical activity
• Local regeneration masterplans recognise the need for
community infrastructure provisions
Implications of key demographic and participation
issues on future sports provision:
• Sports facilities will need to cater for Brent’s diverse
multi cultural population to ensure all communities are
able to participate.
• Provision of public facilities in areas of greatest health
inequalities and social deprivation is more likely to result
in these communities participating in physical activity
than if they had to travel a long way to a facility
• A need for affordable ‘pay and play’ activities in areas
of greatest social need
• Facilities need to be located in areas with very good
public transport access and safe walking and cycling
routes
• Facilities targeting particular age groups should be
focused in areas of greatest densities
• Sports facility provision needs to be backed up by
significant sports development resources to target and
enable Brent’s residents to lead more active lifestyles
• Better quality facilities will increase satisfaction levels
and participation rates
Key facts - Sports Facilities
There has been very little investment in the Borough’s
sporting infrastructure over the last twenty years. This
now means that in general Brent has aging, poor quality
sports facilities, low levels of satisfaction, low levels of
provision in some facility types and some of the lowest
levels of participation in London.
• Over 50% of Brent residents live more than 20 minutes
walk from any swimming pool
• The current location of Brent’s sports centres meets
local demand but four of the five sports centres in Brent
are old and increasingly expensive to maintain
• Sports hall provision is almost adequate but the
majority of facilities are old and located within schools
• There is significant under provision of health and fitness
facilities, both public and private
• The quality of existing local authority pitches and courts
needs to be improved
• There is a need for changing accommodation on more
pitch locations
• MUGA provision should be focused in areas with higher
densities of young people
• Community access to sports facilities on school sites
should be increased
• Provision of specialist indoor sports provision should
consider provision within neighbouring Boroughs and
local participation rates
Future Facility Needs
As a result of the extensive research, facility audits and
consultation, this strategy has reviewed and analysed
future sports provision needs to satisfy current and future
demand.
The following facility needs have been identified:
Sports Centres ‘Wet and Dry’
Using Sport England’s many strategic planning tools the
audits highlight the importance of Brent’s existing sports
centres, at or very near to their current locations, in
providing much needed publicly accessible facilities and
meeting the sporting demands of Brent residents. The
lack of swimming pool provision in Brent is a major issue
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Chapter Seven - Priorities for Future Provision