7 Towards Standards of Provision - The Value of Standards
7.1 The value of setting standards may be summarised as:
a. to establish a baseline level of provision for comparative purposes
b. to establish local and community needs
c. to enable the Council to objectively assess where the worst deficiencies occur and do something about it
d. to set appropriate targets and priorities, for different groups within the community
e. to support fair and even handed internal decision making on priority funding between competing areas of demand, and
f. to support external funding bids
g. to provide a negotiating position for developers, both for on-site provision and commuted payments as part of new development proposals
7.2 There are well known difficulties with this approach, but it still remains the principal tool at present for securing developer contributions through the planning system and must thus be approached rigorously. However, some of the difficulties include:
a. Minor omissions/additions to total hectarage can have major impact on standards and thus the reliability of data is important. Standards do not reflect catchment areas or the quality of the open space
b. It is difficult for standards to reflect open space in a holistic way, rather than as various smaller, separate areas (equipped play areas, pitches etc)
7.3 Developing standards for open space provision is an emerging area of planning and to date no widely acceptable standards or targets exist. The nomenclature and definitions of open space planning is also not yet standardised and with the recent publication of the draft PPG17 and a list of definitions by ILAM, some clarification is required.
7.4 The methodology used for this strategy has approached the subject from a usage, rather than type, perspective i.e. open space has been classified according to its use, rather than the type of use it attracts. All known open space in the district has been recorded on a database, with its main use and features and size, where known. As close estimates as possible have been made of the area of land within each site used for the following:
a. Open Space for Sport, divided into: Playing pitches (excluding schools)
b. School grounds (whether or not community use)
c. Other sports areas
1. Open Space for Children and Young People
Measurement of purpose built equipped play areas (whether NDDC or other, LEAP, NEAP or unclassified) and assessment of facilities for young people such as skateboard and BMX areas.
1. Informal Open Space
Land used for informal recreation and amenity purposes, which includes land used for children for casual play. Where an equipped play area or a sports use forms part of a site, the area of that use has been subtracted from the total site area to give a more accurate estimate of the area for informal open space.
Calculating an Open Space Standard for North Devon
7.5 For each site, a calculation/estimation has been made of the area of land in the above principal use. Areas were totalled on a ward basis and parish basis for all parishes with around or over a population of 1000, and then related to the population to obtain an existing ‘standard’ (see Table B in this report). Estimates were then made of the land required to implement recommendations for new provision to the year 2005, and these added to existing totals to obtain a minimum target standard for provision.
Recommendations for Standards of Provision
FACILITIES FOR OUTDOOR SPORT
Playing Pitches
7.6 Computing the standards of playing pitch provision is difficult, given the fact that the standard should ideally be based on:
a. the area of playing pitches themselves and not the whole site area
b. pitches which have ‘secure community use’ only; an estimate thus has to be made of the amount of school pitches which have community use.
7.7 Tables 5A and 5B in the Technical Appendix present an analysis of playing field provision showing that current levels of provision, if school pitches are excluded, range from 0.21 hectares/000 (hectares per thousand population) in Fremington village, 0.48 hectares/000 in Barnstaple and 0.24 hectares/000 in Ilfracombe to over 3 hectares/000 in a few settlements. If an informed estimate is made of pitches with community use at schools and these are included, the average figure district wide rises to around 0.9 hectares per thousand (81 hectares in total for a population of 89,429).
7.8 This study has undertaken a locally based assessment of deficiencies and existing and latent demand. From this, it is recommended that in addition to the existing 81 hectares with community use in North Devon, a further 22 hectares of playing pitches are required throughout the district as a whole to serve needs up until 2005. This gives a minimum target standard of 1.2 hectares per thousand population, district-wide.
7.9 However, it is stressed that this is a minimum standard of provision and there will be local variations within this as a minimum area of land is required to provide a football pitch. In urban areas, standards of provision are usually much lower; for example, in Barnstaple, existing provision of 18 hectares of playing pitches and a recommended addition of 4 hectares, gives a target of 22 hectares in all or 0.7 hectares/000. In Ilfracombe, the recommended addition of 5 hectares onto the existing 4 hectares gives a similar target. This is balanced by rural settlements where a town such as Bratton Fleming, which has around 3.4 hectares in playing pitch use to serve a population of just under 1000 has a standard of provision of 3.5 hectares/000.
7.10 It is recommended that a minimum interim target of 0.7 hectares/000 should be aimed at those settlements where major deficiencies have been identified and which currently exhibit a relatively low standard of provision (i.e. Area Centres of Barnstaple, Ilfracombe and Braunton, and Local Centres of Fremington and Combe Martin and Swimbridge.
7.11 Elsewhere, the target should be related to the actual pitches recommended, with the aim of 1.2 hectares/000 across the district as a whole. It should be stressed that some settlements which currently exhibit relatively high standards of provision (e.g. South Molton) are still considered deficient in pitch provision because of the local assessment undertaken of supply and demand.
Multi Use Games Areas
7.12 This assessment has concentrated on multi-use games areas, including tennis courts, for which the average area involved is estimated at around 0.25 hectares. It is recommended that around 20 such areas are required throughout the district, giving a land requirement of an additional 5 hectares to the 8 hectares already in such use. This gives a target standard of 0.2 hectares/000.
FACILITIES FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE
Equipped Children’s Play Areas
7.13 It is assumed that an equipped play area can be provided on an area of 0.2 hectares and that, in general, a minimum of one equipped play area should be provided for every 200 children aged less than 14 years. At least 11 such areas are required in Barnstaple, 2 in Ilfracombe and 10 throughout the remainder of the district.
7.14 This gives a total land requirement of around 5 hectares to add to the existing 7.5 hectares in such use, giving a target standard of 0.15 hectares/000.
Facilities for Young People
7.15 It is recommended that provision of such facilities should be considered to cater for young people aged 14 – 24 years in settlements with more than 1000 inhabitants and for settlements in excess of 500 inhabitants where demand has been expressed on the basis of a minimum size of 0.15 . As far as standards are concerned, one could aim for one such area per 300 young people. A total of 15 such areas are required, with a land requirement of around 3 hectares (around 0.03 hectares/000).
7.16 It is thus recommended that a minimum target of 0.2 hectares/000 for equipped facilities for children and young people be adopted.
INFORMAL OPEN SPACE
7.17 As an interim measure, this study has looked at areas of good supply in North Devon, where a figure of between 2 and 2.5 hectares/000 emerges. It is recommended that a target figure of 2.5 hectares/000 should be provided, which includes areas for casual play for children (i.e. unequipped areas).
TOTAL OPEN SPACE
7.17 Together this makes a total of 4 hectares of open space per thousand of the population across North Devon district.
| Hectares per thousand population | ||||
| Playing pitches | Multi use games areas | Equipped facilities for children and young people | Informal open space | |
| District Total | 1.2 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 2.50 |
7.18 However it should be stressed:
a. This is a minimum level of provision across the district as a whole
b. Local variations will occur related to the recommendations made in Sections 3 – 5 and summarised in Table A.
c. This standard does not include land allocated for outdoor sports use other than multi use games areas/courts
d. Informal open space relates to areas within and closely related to existing settlements and does not include the wider countryside.
Supplementary approach: Hierarchy of provision
7.19 There is an implicit acknowledgement that open space and its use is hierarchical. Small open spaces and children’s play areas should normally be provided within 400m of people they are intended to serve. Larger areas of formal and informal open space and specialist facilities can be provided further away.
7.20 Another approach is to recommend provision on the basis of size of settlement and this approach has been used in determining priorities within the rural areas (see Table A), and is set out on the next page.
Suggested hierarchy of provision for open space in North Devon
Hamlet/small village (below 500)
a. community open space: area of accessible informal open space with basic equipped play area where need identified (mini park)
Village (500 - 1,000)
a. community open space: informal open space and mini parks playing field of sufficient size to accommodate a football pitch (together with necessary ancillary facilities such as changing rooms and car parking)
b. equipped play area
c. for settlements of 500+, a floodlit MUGA, capable of accommodating tennis, netball, five-a-side football, basketball etc (priority in settlements of 500+ and provision on an opportunistic basis in smaller settlements)
Local centres (Fremington, Combe Martin, Mortehoe/Woolacombe, Chulmleigh and Witheridge) and other settlements between 1,000 and 4,000 population where appropriate
a. community open space: informal open space, range of mini parks plus community parks where appropriate floodlit MUGA
b. skateboarding/BMX/facilities for young people
c. range of playing pitches for football, rugby and cricket
d. outdoor bowling (if demand proven)
Area centres (Ilfracombe, Braunton, and South Molton)
a. community open space: district park and/or community woodland and range of community and/or mini parks floodlit MUGA
b. skateboarding/BMX/facilities for young people
c. range of pitches
d. outdoor bowling (if demand proven)
Area Centre: Barnstaple
a. Full range of open space and outdoor sports facilities.
