Issue - meetings

Purpose of Report

To present a final draft of the City Council’s Facilities Strategy for approval.

Decision

That the Council’s Facilities Strategy be approved.

Alternative Options Considered and Rejected

None.

Reasons for Decision

In light of recent changes to the future growth plans of the City of Lincoln, a comprehensive Facilities Strategy was required to better understand the need for sporting facilities.

The Strategy, attached as Appendix A to the report, provided the Council with a holistic review of the existing provision of grass pitches, artificial pitches and ancillary facilities across the city. It also provided a detailed, evidence-based, document for pitch provision across Lincoln and its boundaries having reviewed existing provision, current usage from sports clubs, predicted population growth and the demographics of the catchment areas that surrounded the facilities.

The Strategy set out a tiered system to ensure equity across the city in terms of the provision of pitch-based sports, as follows:

·         Tier 1 – large multi-sport venues with indoor and outdoor sports;

·         Tier 2 – single site and single sport venues with multiple pitches and facilities;

·         Tier 3 – small sites with two separate sport or activity offerings, such as a cricket pitch alongside a football pitch;

·         Tier 4 – small single sites with only one sport or activity offering.

Each tier would have a discreet strategy to either invest, maintain or dispose in these assets, which would be reviewed on a periodic basis.

It was recommended that tier one facilities should be strategically located across the city to provide a geographical split, based on demand, population density and available associated facilities. The remaining tiered facilities would then be chosen to support the principal site in that sub-region. This approach would enable the Council to retain control of the budget for sports and leisure facilities and strategically provide venues for sports teams and clubs based on a prescribed priority list. Over the longer term it was envisaged that this would bring about efficiency savings for the Council and a more organised approach to the provision of playing pitches in the city.

Councillor Donald Nannestad explained that this Strategy represented one element of a range of things the Council needed to do and that a key aspect was to find ways of getting more people to become active. Lincoln compared favourably to other districts in the county, but not from a national perspective. In respect of the Covid-19 pandemic, Councillor Nannestad made the point that for some people this had led to them doing more than they usually would, however, some people as a consequence were doing much less.

It was noted that the proposed Strategy had been considered by the Council’s Policy Scrutiny Committee.

Councillor Bob Bushell welcomed the Strategy which provided a good indication of what facilities were available in the city and surrounding areas. He said that encouragement was a significant factor in getting people more active and that the Facilities Strategy should be read in conjunction with the Physical Activity Strategy also scheduled for  ...  view the full minutes text for item 54