Playing field protection has entered the planning consultation, after Sport England reminded everyone that a pitch is not unused land simply because it has grass on it. One developer has called this disappointing news for the luxury shrub concept.
Sport England must be consulted on proposals affecting playing fields. It says communities need places to play and stay active. This has surprised a brochure that identified the goalmouth as “a flexible outdoor amenity zone”, presumably with a premium for south facing nettles.
The consultation concerns reforms to the statutory consultee system. That sounds procedural until somebody notices that reform can mean deciding who gets to object before a patch of grass becomes a drawing with tiny parked cars on it.
The Department of Recreational Boundaries has placed cones around this point. A consultant has asked whether the cones have planning consent. The cones have declined to comment because they are awaiting their own statutory consultee.
Inspector Rita Corner Flag gave the position plainly. “A playing field serves a community,” she said. “It is not a pause between phases of a masterplan with a coffee cart.” The coffee cart has appealed on the grounds that it was promised an outlook.
Sport England has welcomed the ambition to deliver housing and stimulate the economy while warning that access to playing fields still needs protection. Almost half of the fields it mentions are on school grounds, which makes the argument awkward for anyone proposing to replace a football pitch with flats named after the football pitch.
One architecture model has proposed a rooftop five a side pitch. The goalkeeper immediately asked where the ball goes after a clearance. The architect said this would be addressed in phase two, alongside sunlight, stairs and the radical discovery that children require somewhere to stand.
Chief grass liaison Colin Mower supports growth. “Build what people need,” he said. “Just do not call every field empty because it has not answered an email.” The pitch has declined to set up an inbox, but remains available for football, cricket and the annual ritual of retrieving a ball from a hedge.
Playing field protection is not a sentimental objection to building. It is an objection to treating the only free place for local sport as a gap in a spreadsheet. A spreadsheet cannot head a corner. It has tried, and now requires a column explaining the mud.
The developers have been invited to consider compromise. They may build wherever they like, provided the pitch is moved somewhere equally accessible, equally affordable and not currently occupied by a motorway. The search has entered its third consultation and is expected to be found beneath a luxury shrub, where the goalposts will finally enjoy the only thing the plan has consistently provided: a premium outlook.
Source: Sport England.
