I want to publish a statement to highlight an issue that might not be on many people’s radar with all that is going on in the news at the moment.
However, as a former Sports Minister, I do think constituents may well feel it is an important issue that could have a very real impact on their local areas, facilities and local teams - protecting sports spaces and nearby playing fields in our communities from weakened planning rules around development.
I was delighted to meet with an icon in women’s sport, former footballer, Jill Scott MBE and my fellow former Conservative Sports Minster, Dame Tracey Crouch DBE in Westminster and show my support on the threats to our sporting facilities and play spaces under this current government.
As some of my constituents may be aware, the Labour Government is currently reviewing the statutory consultee system and Sports England’s long held and important role as a statutory consultee on the impact of development proposals on sports provision is now under consideration although, as Forest Row Cricket Club wrote to me,
‘The current system, which requires consultation with Sport England on planning applications affecting playing fields, is imperative in providing an important safeguard to ensure that expert oversight is applied before any irreversible and detrimental decisions are made.’
On a side note, I have been also asking questions about water companies becoming statutory consultees to ensure they can genuinely raise concerns about their ability to supply and sustain the reliable delivery of water to new housing developments without adversely affecting existing customers. You can read the Government’s response to a previous Written Parliamentary Question here:
Written questions and answers - Written questions, answers and statements - UK Parliament
Sports, recreation and activity are vital to our physical and mental health and our general wellbeing. Local sports clubs also offer social connection and loads of positive opportunities for involvement that go well beyond the physical activities themselves. At a time when we should be trying to get more people of all ages up, about and moving, when mental health issues are affecting so many of our young people and children, when loneliness and fragmentation are plaguing our communities, the Government should be avidly supporting grassroots sport and leisure facilities sites, not getting rid of them or equally leaving the threat hanging over the community. Again, to quote Forest Row Cricket Club,
‘they are the foundation of community participation, health, and youth development.’
The Labour Government’s current unwelcome and unwarranted proposal to remove Sport England as a statutory consultee on planning decisions is therefore deeply worrying. In the past five years, 90 per cent of applications it reviewed resulted in sports pitches being improved or protected for local communities. Without its expertise, and amid local authority budget and capacity pressures, along with as the Government’s disproportionately high housing targets for rural England, safe and sustainable sports facilities, green spaces and recreational grounds are being put at risk.
I am also deeply concerned about this Labour Government’s determination to remove vital legal protections on green belt land, and why, instead, my colleagues and I have called for the swifter redevelopment of brownfield sites. The Government, however, is insisting on tarmacking over swathes of the green belt, despite the critical role it plays in leisure and for sports facilities, as well as for a thriving rural economy.
Over 34,000 people signed the petition to maintain Sports England’s status as a statutory consultee for planning applications involving playing fields to which the Government responded to this petition by saying,
“The government is consulting on reforms to the statutory consultee system. No decision will be made on Sport England’s role until feedback on the proposals has been fully reviewed.”
You can read their full response here:
Do not remove Sport England as a statutory consultee for planning applications - Petitions
While these are warm words, I will, of course, be following up the progress of these proposed Government reforms very closely on behalf of my constituents as once our playing fields and green spaces are lost to development, they are gone for good.
On a wider note, I welcomed that the last Conservative Government put in place a £9 million Levelling Up Parks Fund to help improve places with the lowest access to green spaces. This was alongside a further £30 million to help improve 30 local parks in England with a focus on improving facilities for young families.
