Leisure & Recreation

When are leisure and recreational facilities required?

For new residential development of 10 or more units, and where a need for play space, outdoor sports facilities or open space is identified, a developer will be expected to provide or contribute towards these facilities.

Where the site area is 1Ha or more native tree planting will be required.

A developer may be required to restore facilities, resources or amenities (to a quality equivalent to that existing before the development) if:

An existing feature or resource (e.g. an open space, right of way or landscape feature of biodiversity interest) is lost or damaged as a result of the development.

How are leisure and recreation facilities provided?

i) Play Space

a) 10 – 49 residential units

A developer will be expected to make a commuted payment for the provision, maintenance and upgrade of play facilities within 0.87km (average walking distance from home to access provision for young people) of the site (taking into account inflation and increased costs at the appropriate time)

The financial contribution will be calculated as follows:

cost of providing and maintaining 2.5 sqm of equipped play area per person (a)
multiplied by the average number of people per household in Thanet (2.5) (b)
multiplied by the number of units proposed (c)

Example calculation: a x b x c = £17,500

a = £350 (current average cost of 2.5 sqm of equipped play area)

b=2.5 (average no. of people per family home in Thanet)

c = 20 (no. of dwellings provided)

b) 50 or more residential units

A developer will be expected to provide 0.7 hectares per 1000 population (based on 2.5 persons per dwelling) play space on the site, made up of:

36% equipped play area
64% casual or informal play space.

The play space should be:

Within a maximum safe walking distance of 200 metres from any family dwelling within the development
Made available before occupation of the first dwelling.

The legal agreement should identify who responsible for the maintenance and management of the play area is (which may be the council if a commuted payment is made).

In exceptional circumstances, where it would be impractical to provide adequate and suitably located play space as part of the development, the council may consider a commuted payment from a developer. This would offset the cost of additional use and need for increased maintenance of existing play spaces within of 0.87 kilometres of the application site.

ii) Outdoor Sports Facilities

The type and amount of outdoor sports provision (or contribution towards provision) required will depend upon:

The scale and nature of development proposed
The quality and quantity of facilities provided in the vicinity

The contribution will be based on:

Current costs of provision and maintenance at the time of the application
Guidance set out in national planning policy

iii) Open Space

Where tree planting is required on sites of 1Ha or more, this shall:

Consist of native tree species
Cover 10% of the site

Adequate arrangements for continued maintenance of this landscaping will be required.

iv) Youth facilities:

The type and amount of youth facilities provision (or contribution towards provision) required will depend upon:

The scale and nature of development proposed
The quality and quantity of facilities provided in the vicinity

What is the need for leisure and recreation facilities?

There is strong evidence that high quality sport and physical activity delivered in the right settings can:

Create a healthy, safe, strong and sustainable community;
Tackle health inequality
Improve economic vitality and workforce development
Meet the needs of children and young people

Thanet District Council’s vision for sports facilities is:

Broaden the range of active leisure facilities
Improve existing provision
Engage a wider audience through increased choice
Contribute to greater participation within the local community

(As set out in the Sports Facilities Improvement Plan: 2010)

This can be achieved by:

A range of high quality facilities accessible to the whole community and to encourage people from outside the district to visit
Supporting well run sustainable sports clubs working in partnership with public and private facilities

The 2006/7 Active People survey shows that participation in sport is lower in Thanet than in Kent, the SE and England. In addition to Thanet’s elderly population structure and significant levels of deprivation, satisfaction with sports and recreation facilities is lower in Thanet than in Kent, the South East and England.

i) Play Space

Currently there are 33 play areas across the district providing equipped play, ball play, wheeled play and teenage shelters. The current level of provision equates to 0.2 hectares per 1000 population (based on 0-15 age group population of the district of 25,200). This is well below the national recommended standard of 0.8 hectares per 1000 population.

The quality of these play areas is ‘below average’. There is clear evidence that the number and quality of play area facilities needs to increase. The council aims to provide 0.7 hectares of play space per 1000 population of children and young people, and raise the quality of sites to ‘good’.

ii) Outdoor Sports Facilities

The Thanet Sports Facilities Improvement Plan identifies a need for the following outdoor sports facilities:

Junior football pitches – insufficient supply of junior football pitch provision
Outdoor tennis courts – poor quality sites, uneven distribution of facilities, improvements needed to surfacing, fencing and ancillary facilities, and increased floodlighting needed.
Synthetic turf pitch – insufficient quantity and full size pitch is of poor quality, poor accessibility for residents in Margate, Broadstairs and the villages
Five a side pitches – poor accessibility for Broadstairs residents
Skate parks – well-used but in need of some refurbishment/modernization
Changing provision for football and cricket facilities – only ‘average’ standard and significant scope for improvement

iii) Open Space

There is an existing level of provision 0.95 hectares per 1000 population of ‘Natural/Semi-Natural’ green space. This is well below the minimum standard set by Natural England of 2 hectares per 1000 population (excluding beach areas, coastal paths and SSSIs). This equates to 4% of Thanet’s land, which does not compare well with other districts in Kent.

A number of natural/semi natural sites, mainly within Birchington, Westgate, Broadstairs, and Margate, fall below the council’s ‘good’ quality rating.

iv) Youth Facilities

Kent County Council have identified that there is a significant deficit of youth facilities locally to accommodate the need generated by housing development in Thanet.

In the long-term a new youth centre is planned to address this identified deficiency. In the interim youth buses will be provided for young people to improve access to existing centres with a wider range of facilities.

What is our leisure and recreation policy?

The planning system has a role to play in preventative measures to address the causes of ill health by developing and shaping healthy, sustainable communities. This includes community access to amenities such as parks, open spaces, physical recreational facilities and cultural facilities.

Policy S5 of the South East Plan encourages:

Provision for increased and sustainable participation in sport, recreation, and cultural activity
Improvement of overall fitness
Enhanced cultural diversity
Improvement of overall quality of life.

The Corporate Plan (2007-2011) aims to increase the future opportunities for exercise and play by: