Colchester City Council Preferred Options Local Plan Regulation 18 Consultation 2025

The policy is welcomed as it seeks to protect, enhance and deliver new and improved sports and leisure facilities to encourage active lifestyles and increase participation in recreation. This would be consistent with Sport England’s Planning for Sport Guidance principles. The policy on protection of outdoor sports facilities is broadly welcomed as it would broadly align with Sport England’s Playing Fields Policy and paragraph 104 of the NPPF and would be supported by the Council’s evidence base. The approach to sports provision in major residential development is also broadly welcomed and would be supported by the Council’s evidence base. However, the following amendments are requested to the policy:

• While the scope of the policy is ‘Sports Provision’ the wording of the policy focuses on outdoor sports facilities and playing fields. The policy therefore does not provide clear guidance on the approach to indoor sports provision. As Government policy in paragraphs 103 and 104 of the NPPF and Sport England’s policies are the same on indoor and outdoor sports provision it would be advocated that indoor sports facilities be included in the scope of Policy CS4 rather than other policies such as CS1/CS2 which refer to ‘Community Facilities’. The wording of the policy would need to be reviewed to address this including reference to the Indoor & Built Facilities Strategy Strtegy as well as the Playing Pitch Strategy.
• While criteria a-d of the policy are based on Sport England’s Playing Fields Policy criteria, as the scope of the policy is the protection of sports provision rather than just the protection of playing field provision, the wording is not considered to be appropriate for this policy because the criteria would not be applicable if a development was proposing the loss of an indoor sports facility or an outdoor sports facility that was not a playing field such as a MUGA, games court, bowls green, athletics track, golf course etc. To address this in the light of the above comments about indoor sports facility provision, it is suggested that that the wording of this part of the policy is similar to paragraph 104 of the NPPF as this is more generic and appropriate for the scope of this policy.
• It is suggested that ‘major’ is removed from the policy in relation to residential development because major is not defined in the policy and all residential development proposals regardless of their scale will generate a need for new sports provision. There is potential that the policy in its current form could be misinterpreted by applicants so that only strategic scale residential development would be expected to make provision for sport.
• It is suggested that ‘Active Essex’ is included in the list of bodies that the Council will work with in the policy as they play an important strategic role in protecting/enhancing/providing sports facilities plus deliver Sport England’s priorities locally.
• The policy or the reasoned justification should set out what will be used to inform financial contributions e.g. SPD, Playing Pitch Strategy/Built Facilities Strategy.

Policy PC2 is supported for the following reasons:
• It gives priority in new developments to active travel modes.
• It requires developments to be designed to be attractive for active travel.
• It supports the infrastructure required to encourage active travel.
The policy would therefore support physical activity by encouraging developments to be designed to support active travel modes. The above policy requirements would accord with Sport England’s Uniting the Movement Strategy and Active Design Guidance and would also be consistent with Government planning policy especially in paragraphs 96 and 129 of the NPPF.

The policy is supported as it includes principles which encourage health and wellbeing including physical activity. Principles c) d), f), g), k) and l) are particularly supported in this regard and it is welcomed that principle k) specifically requires developments to demonstrate that Active Design principles will be integrated. The policy would also be consistent with Government planning policy especially in paragraphs 96 and 129 of the NPPF. It is considered that the policy could be improved by the following amendments being made:

• Principle c) could encourage the co-location of community facilities in new developments. The provision of facilities such as schools, shops, workplaces and strategic open spaces in close proximity to each other reduces the number of trips people to have to make and thereby encourages active travel.
• Principle f) could support creating opportunities for physical activity as well because safe and secure environments will encourage people to be active in them.
• Principle l) should refer to a network of multi functional green infrastructure, open space and landscape in recognition that multi-functional spaces will encourage use of them and thereby support physical activity by a range of groups within the community.

The policy is supported as it includes requirements for major residential developments on greenfield sites which will encourage health and wellbeing including physical activity. Principles a), b), c) and h) are particularly supported in this regard as the requirements for open space and active travel would accord with Sport England’s Active Design guidance. The policy would also be consistent with Government planning policy especially in paragraphs 96 and 129 of the NPPF.

Place Policies - General Comment

It is noted that the majority of the Place Policies do not include specific requirements for financial contributions to be made towards enhancing off-site community sports facilities where it is not possible to make on-site provision. It has been assumed that the provisions of Policies ST7 and CS4 would be applied to all residential allocations in relation to this. However, it is noted that a small number of the allocations where off-site provision is proposed, notably PP23 and PP24, identify in the policies specific sports facility sites for contributions to be directed towards. For consistency, the Council is therefore requested to consider whether all sites where off-site sports provision would be appropriate should have projects identified in the policies for directing contributions towards. If so, such projects should be informed by consideration of priorities in the Council’s Playing Pitch Strategy and the Indoor & Built Facilities Strategy and consultation with the Council’s Sports Facilities Delivery Group.

A site of approximately 2,000 dwellings which is one of the largest allocations in the plan should make on-site provision for sports facilities like allocations PP17 and PP18. The additional demand associated with the scale of development will be difficult to be met by improving the capacity of nearby facilities in the local area especially as this is located close to the Garden Community which will not be able to meet all of its demand on-site. An additional policy requirement is therefore requested which requires formal and informal sport and leisure provision to be provided on-site. An open space, sport and recreation strategy should also be prepared to support development proposals which aligns with an approved masterplan in order to provide a strategic framework for considering open space, sport and recreation provision in future planning applications. This approach would be justified by the Council’s sports evidence base, Policy CS4: Sports Provision and Government policy in the NPPF especially paragraph 103.

A site of 875 dwellings should consider on-site provision for outdoor sports facilities like allocations PP17 and PP18 due to the scale of additional demand generated. If this is not possible, financial contributions should be identified towards local strategically important projects identified in the Council’s Playing Pitch Strategy in consultation with the Council’s Sports Facilities Delivery Group.

The provision of public open space to accommodate formal and informal sport and leisure as required by requirement b) of the policy is supported as a development of 1,500 dwellings would justify on-site provision for sports facilities. The additional demand associated with the scale of development will be difficult to be met by improving the capacity of nearby facilities in the local area. The policy could be improved by requiring the provision of an open space, sport and recreation strategy to be prepared to support development proposals which aligns with an approved masterplan in order to provide a strategic framework for considering open space, sport and recreation provision in future planning applications. Such a strategy could also consider the needs of potential longer term growth outside of the Local Plan period. This approach would be justified by the Council’s sports evidence base, Policy CS4: Sports Provision and Government policy in the NPPF especially paragraph 103.

The provision of public open space to accommodate formal and informal sport and leisure as required by requirement b) of the policy is supported as a development of 1,000 dwellings would justify on-site provision for sports facilities. The additional demand associated with the scale of development will be difficult to be met by improving the capacity of nearby facilities in the local area. The policy could be improved by requiring the provision of an open space, sport and recreation strategy to be prepared to support development proposals which aligns with an approved masterplan in order to provide a strategic framework for considering open space, sport and recreation provision in future planning applications. Such a strategy could also consider the needs of potential longer term growth outside of the Local Plan period. This approach would be justified by the Council’s sports evidence base, Policy CS4: Sports Provision and Government policy in the NPPF especially paragraph 103.

A site of 600 dwellings should consider on-site provision for outdoor sports facilities like allocations PP17 and PP18 due to the scale of additional demand generated and the expected lack of opportunities for providing new capacity in the local area e.g. provision for cricket as there are no cricket pitches in Tiptree. The opportunity to create such provision in the proposed Tiptree Country Park could be explored. If this is not possible, financial contributions should be identified towards local strategically important projects identified in the Council’s Playing Pitch Strategy in consultation with the Council’s Sports Facilities Delivery Group.