Leisure strategy

About the parish schedules for our Leisure Strategy

What are the parish schedules?

To show how the Leisure Strategy requirements relate to local provision, we’ve created a parish schedule for each settlement or group of settlements in Central Bedfordshire. Each parish schedule provides detailed local information on how much green space and outdoor sporting infrastructure there is and this enables us to help safeguard current facilities and address future needs.

When new development applications are received the standards in Chapters 2 and 3 of the Leisure Strategy will be used to seek either on-site facilities or, where on-site facilities are not appropriate, developer contributions may be sought for specified projects.

To seek new facilities or developer contributions from new development we need to understand the local projects required for recreational open space and outdoor sports facilities so that we can evidence our requests for contributions.

Outdoor Sport Priority Project List

The Playing Pitch Strategy identified a range of facility needs for local and strategic sports facilities in Central Bedfordshire.

The Outdoor Sport Priority Projects List has taken those needs and worked with Sport England and the National Governing Bodies for Sport (NGB) to highlight facility priorities.

The parish schedules list the sports facilities available in each settlement but, due to the cross-parish-boundary catchment and membership of many sports facilities, we have taken the sporting information from the schedules and created the Outdoor Sport Priority Projects List to provide a comprehensive sports list showing all identified needs and projects.

Maps

View our online map, which shows the open space and outdoor facilities. This supports the parish schedules and Outdoor Sport Priority Projects List

Updating the schedules

We asked for feedback in 2017 from parish councils, clubs and countryside organisations in order to:

  • check and validate the sites information on the schedules and maps
  • ask each organisation to provide details of facility projects which they need to deliver to address current and future demand

Future updates

The parish schedules, Outdoor Sport Priority Projects List and maps will be updated annually, when parish councils, sports organisations and countryside bodies will be consulted. In the interim, project information can be provided at any time.

Impact of the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) Regulations

The Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) Regulations 2010 introduced a new way for us to secure developer contributions to help deliver infrastructure to support the development of our area. The CIL regulations require that real, costed projects are identified to allow a contribution to be requested from a developer.

We need to know about the locally planned recreational open space and outdoor sport projects to understand what facilities and/or developer contributions we can seek to support new development. Without details of the planned projects of parish councils, sports organisations or countryside bodies, we are unable to seek contributions from new developments.

Find out more about the Community Infrastructure Levy (GOV.UK)