3. Results And Analysis – Towards a Playspace Standard for South Cambridgeshire

Introduction

3.1 This chapter begins by briefly summarising the results of firstly, the Audit and, secondly, the Needs Assessment. At paragraph 3.22, A Standard for Outdoor Sport and paragraph 3.31, A Standard for Children’s Playspace, the findings of the Audit and the Recreation Needs Study are brought together and examined in detail. This analysis produces the justification for the standards for Outdoor Sport and Children’s Playspace.

3.2 The analysis that has been carried out in order to derive a standard for Informal Open Space is detailed at paragraph 3.40. The standard for Informal Open Space is also set out in that section.

Results of the Recreation Audit

Outdoor Playspace

3.3 Existing recreation standards in the Local Plan 2004 provide a starting point for the review of the results of the audit and needs assessment. The standards in the Local Plan 2004 are as follows:

3.4 The Recreation Audit shows that 44 villages meet the Local Plan 2004 standard of 2.4 hectares of outdoor playspace per 1000 population. However, this “headline” statistic hides a multitude of shortcomings in provision. It is mainly the larger and smaller villages in terms of population in the District which fail to meet the standard. 72% of the population of South Cambridgeshire lives in villages where provision does not meet the standard.

Outdoor Sport

3.5 The Local Plan 2004 standard for outdoor sport is 1.8 hectares per 1000 population. Around half the villages in the District fail to meet this standard. 30 villages (mainly the smallest villages in the District) have no formal outdoor sport provision at all. Of the villages with a population of over 3000, 12 of the 14 villages fail to meet the standard for outdoor sport.

Children’s Playspace

3.6 The Local Plan 2004 standard for provision of children’s playspace is 0.6 hectares per 1000 population (Local Plan 2004 states that provision should be 50% formal, and 50% informal).

3.7 In comparison with the 0.6 hectares per 1000 target, few villages have sufficient playspace. 61 villages fail to meet the standard.

3.8 A further issue is that the balance between formal and informal provision is very much skewed towards informal provision, with formal equipped playspaces only forming a small proportion of the land area. In the District as a whole, approximately 80% of the total Children’s Playspace provision is Informal, with only 20% Formal Children’s Playspace.

Formal Children’s Playspace

3.9 There is approximately 14 hectares of Formal Children’s Playspace across the District. 72 villages in the District have some kind of formal playspace provision.

3.10 Very few of the formal playspaces fit exactly the requirements of any of the definitions of LAP’s, LEAP’s & NEAP’s as defined in the NPFA standard. Hence the following figures are based on a ‘best fit’. There are a preponderance of LEAP’s in the District, a total of 75, compared to 26 LAP’s and 16 NEAP’s. These formal play areas are predominantly in the larger villages, with many small villages having no formal play provision.

Informal Children’s Playspace

3.11 There is a total of 58.1 hectares of informal playspace across the District. However, the availability of informal playspace in housing areas varies greatly across the District. 48 villages lack any kind of Informal Playspace provision, and the majority of villages fall short of meeting the Local Plan 2004 standard of 0.3 hectares per 1,000 population.

3.12 Many village recreation grounds provide opportunities for informal play, although this may cause conflict with their use for formal sport. These spaces provide a vital form of playspace, allowing informal play in safe locations close to where children live.

Children’s Playspace - Accessibility

3.13 As outlined in the methodology section, accessibility is a crucial aspect of Children’s Playspace provision. The Council supports the NPFA’s recommendations for provision of formal playspaces concerning accessibility to different types of children’s play areas, offering various levels of equipment and catering for different age groups.

3.14 While provision varies village by village, the majority have only one play area. It is estimated that under 1/3 of housing within village frameworks lies within the recommended walking distance of any village’s equipped children’s play area. There are currently no villages with coverage as recommended by the NPFA, and in most villages there are areas of housing where a significant distance (over 600m) must be travelled to reach a formal playspace.

3.15 Historically this may reflect local circumstances and management decisions. Many South Cambridgeshire villages have relatively small populations at relatively low densities, making comprehensive provision difficult. Many local managing bodies also prefer to provide services centrally, rather than split sites that may have increased maintenance costs. The audit revealed that the quantity and quality of play equipment available on sites also varies greatly.

Results of the Needs Assessment for Outdoor Sport

3.16 The key findings from the Needs Assessment are as follows:

• A total of 42 villages were found to have adequate pitch provision (see Appendix 1),
• while 35 villages had a particularly small population, and demonstrated no evidence of current need for formal pitches.
• This provides a total of 77 villages that have currently adequate provision.
• A total of 21 villages demonstrated inadequate pitch provision to meet local need (see Appendix 2).

3.17 While a variety of pitches are needed in the District (for a breakdown by village, see Appendix 3), the most common type of pitch shortfall is in mini soccer pitches. There are a number of clubs across South Cambridgeshire which have growing junior memberships and are introducing teams in new age ranges and also girls teams.

3.18 In addition, a major issue for clubs across South Cambridgeshire is the fact that cricket outfields and football pitches often overlap. This negatively affects both sports and means that seasons have to be shortened. Surveys indicated that the relocation of football or cricket to an additional pitch elsewhere in the village is often felt to be very beneficial in principle but too difficult to achieve in practice.

3.19 The audit of Parish Council pavilions and changing facilities found that there were 36 that required new or refurbished facilities to meet local need. The pavilions were each given a quality rating as follows:

3.20 The rating was based on the age and condition of the building, disabled access and whether there were sufficient facilities (toilets, showers, changing rooms, officials’ rooms) to meet local need. Results for ok/poor/very poor pavilions, and requirements for additional facilities or improvements are attached in appendix 4.

Results of Needs Questionnaire on Children’s Playspace

3.21 Surveys identified 11 Parish Councils currently looking to improve or add to children’s play provision. At time of survey a total of 23 Parish Councils were investigating the provision of outdoor youth facilities, mainly skateboard facilities and basketball areas.

A Standard for Outdoor Sport

Outdoor Sport: Current Provision and Identified Need

3.22 A standard sets a target as to the minimum needed to meet the needs of the population. New developments should provide new outdoor sport at least at that rate where existing provision would not be adequate to meet the needs of the development. As detailed earlier PPG17 requires new standards for provision of playspace to be developed through a comparison between existing provision and an assessment of need. In respect of Outdoor Sport, this study has established the existing provision through the Audit, and has assessed need by means of the Needs Assessment. The existing provision can be seen as the supply of land for Outdoor Sport, and the need can be seen as the demand for land for Outdoor Sport.

3.23 However, setting standards to achieve this is a challenging task in such a varied rural District. A starting point in analysing the results is to group the villages by population, in order to analyse patterns of provision and identified need.

Small Villages

3.24 In the very small villages (with a population of 600 or below; totalling approximately 13,000 people), many have no formal outdoor sport facilities (29 of 43 villages), and in those which do, facilities are predominantly based around village cricket.

Medium-sized Villages

3.25 Villages between 600 and 2000 population (34 villages) have relatively large amounts of outdoor sport provision. This is due to the land required for village cricket, compared with a relatively small population. Only a small number of villages of this size expressed a need for new facilities, mainly diversifying into courts for other sports, with a limited land requirement.

Large Villages

3.26 Need was very much more apparent in the larger villages in District (i.e. those villages with a population of 2,000 or above – there are 19 such villages, with a total population of 80,000). These villages accommodate a greater diversity of sporting activities, acting as recreation service centres for surrounding rural areas. These villages have accommodated the majority of population growth in the District in the last ten years, and this population growth has outstripped the provision of outdoor sports facilities.

Developing a Standard for Outdoor Sport

3.27 In order to quantify the land required to accommodate the need identified for additional pitches in the study, it was necessary to assign a land area to each pitch or court.

3.28 The size of each pitch used is based on recommendations of governing bodies (including the Cambridgeshire F.A), and also takes account of guidance in the NPFA Six Acre Standard. An additional area of 50% was added to each to allow for seasonal movement of pitches, and run-on of the ball. Pitch sizes used are attached as Appendix 9.

3.29 The variations in provision highlighted in this report mean that considering District wide figures may be problematic. In developing a standard, it was decided to focus on larger villages, where growth was more likely to take place. Focusing on the villages with a population of over 2000 (where the need for additional facilities was predominantly identified), the need for an additional 24.3 hectares of outdoor sport was identified. The total existing provision in January 2004 is 90 hectares, equating to 1.11 hectares per 1000 population. If the current identified need was met fully, the average village figure would be around 1.6 hectares of outdoor sport per 1000 population.

3.30 This is slightly lower than the Local Plan 2004 standard for outdoor sport, but within the range recommended by the NPFA.

A Standard for Children’s Playspace

3.31 As explained in the methodology, developing a standard for Children’s Playspace is a more challenging task than developing a standard for outdoor sport. This is principally because of the difficulties involved in accurately establishing the need for children’s playspace. For the reasons explained in the methodology section the study utilises the NPFA Six Acre Standard.

Current Provision – Comparison with NPFA and Local Plan 2004 standards

3.32 In terms of the current provision of Children’s Playspace in the District, there are some 74.5 hectares of Formal and Informal Playspace. This gives a figure of 0.57 hectares per 1,000 population. The Local Plan 2004 standard is that there should be 0.6 hectares of Children’s Playspace (Formal and Informal Playspace combined) per 1,000 population.

3.33 The current provision of Children’s Playspace of 0.57 hectares per 1,000 population is therefore very close to the standard of 0.6 hectares per 1,000 population set out for new developments in the Local Plan 2004. The current provision is also very close to the range set out by the NPFA of 0.6 hectares to 0.8 hectares per 1,000.

3.34 However, as with the overall figure for Outdoor Playspace, the closeness of the figure for existing provision at the district-wide level to the standards suggested by the NPFA and by the Local Plan 2004 is deceptive. Children’s Playspace in many of the villages falls short of the standards. The main deficiencies in provision are discussed below.

Villages with Inadequate Provision

3.35 Only 28 villages meet the Local Plan 2004 standard of 0.6 hectares per 1000 of Children’s Playspace. The majority of these are smaller villages, with a population under 500.

3.36 The Children’s Playspace Needs questionnaire was not a comprehensive assessment of need. However, the responses from the Parish Councils suggest that there is some quite significant demand for new Children’s Playspace in South Cambridgeshire. In total, 34 Parish Councils expressed a desire to either improve or add to children’s play provision.

Balance between Formal and Informal Children’s Playspace

3.37 A further issue is that the balance between formal and informal provision is very much skewed towards informal provision, with formal equipped playspaces forming only a small proportion of the land area. In the District as a whole, approximately 80% of the total Children’s Playspace provision is informal, while only approximately 20% is formal.

3.38 Given this imbalance, there is unsurprisingly a significant shortfall in terms of the amount of Formal Children’s Playspace in the District relative to the NPFA standard of 0.3 hectares per 1000 people. The total provision of Formal Children’s Playspace in the District amounts to 13.87 hectares, or approximately 0.1 hectares per 1000 people.

Developing a Standard for Children’s Playspace

3.39 This significant shortfall in Formal Children’s Playspace, when combined with the accessibility problems outlined above, suggest that it would be sensible to establish a high standard for the provision of Formal Children’s Playspace in new developments. The higher figure of 0.8 hectares per 1000 population is therefore selected. A split between formal and informal should also be maintained at 50 % each where appropriate.

A Standard for Informal Open Space

3.40 Informal Open Space provides opportunities for a different type of recreational activity to outdoor playspace. Informal Open Space comprises unstructured, informal areas for activities such as dog walking, informal meeting areas, and general recreation to meet the needs of varying ages and abilities. These areas could range from formally planted parks and gardens, to less formal green linkages. The following definition for Informal Open Space has been developed:

Informal Open Space: Space used by people for informal unstructured recreation activities such as walking and relaxing, ranging from formal planted areas and meeting places to wilder more natural spaces, including green linkages.

3.41 While a full audit and assessment of need has not been carried out for Informal Open Space, it was considered important to develop a standard to provide greater certainty for both developers and the Council. Informal Open Spaces have been required on housing developments in South Cambridgeshire for a number of years, and have successfully enhanced developments. This has been achieved without a formal standard, but instead using landscaping requirements from Local Plans and good urban design principles.

3.42 In order to develop a standard, this study examines some examples of good practice achieved in this District, but also standards being utilised successfully in other Districts.

3.43 Planning Policy Guidance Note 3 – Housing (2000) advises local authorities to apply flexibility in the application of informal standards. Flexibility is undoubtedly important, particularly in areas where there is great pressure on land available for development. However, it is useful to have a standard to provide clarity for developers in preparing applications.

Examples of Good Practice from other Local Authorities

3.44 Many local authorities have adopted standards for the amount of Informal Open Space to be provided in new developments. During the course of looking at examples of Supplementary Planning Guidance adopted by other local authorities, particular importance has been given to those granted Beacon Status for their approach to providing public open space.

3.45 Chelmsford Borough Council, which was awarded Beacon Council status for Quality in the Built Environment in 2003-2004, and has been particularly successful in securing high quality public open space within developments, has adopted a standard of 0.4 ha per 1,000 population for Planning Informal Space.

3.46 Leicester City Council, awarded Beacon Council status in 2001-2002 for Maintaining a Quality Environment, has an informal (amenity) open space standard of 1.6 ha per 1,000 population.

3.47 The table below summarises the standards that other Councils have adopted for informal open space.

3.48 There is a significant degree of variation in the provision standards that local authorities apply. There is no identifiable relationship between the variation in standards and the extent to which the authorities are urban or rural in character. It is possible that the high standards applied by some of the authorities reflect particular local circumstances, or variation in definition or implementation. Unfortunately, no data is available concerning how successfully the individual authorities’ standards have been met within developments. However, a very high minimum standard could be difficult to achieve in all new developments, particularly given requirements to achieve minimum housing densities. Setting a minimum standard of 0.4 hectares still allows local circumstances to be reflected in a new development if additional space is required to achieve a successful design, or take account of the local landscape and biodiversity.

3.49 In South Cambridgeshire, where the density of residential development within Village Frameworks is required to be a minimum of 30 dwellings per hectare, and higher in more accessible locations, it is considered that a standard in the range of 0.4 to 0.6 ha per 1,000 population can be reasonably achieved in the vast majority of developments, to the benefit of the design and the eventual residents.

3.50 The following section of the study examines a number of developments in South Cambridgeshire where informal space was provided on site.

Developments in South Cambridgeshire

3.51 Two recent developments in South Cambridgeshire provide good examples of what can be achieved in terms of the level and nature of provision of informal open space. The examples listed illustrate where land use, recreation and connectivity were considered as key issues in the design, to ensure that well thought out, attractive informal spaces are achieved.

3.52 In both examples below, the landscape and urban design has plans or implementation of a series of open areas interlinked by green footpaths and cycleways, enabling safe play, walking and sitting areas, well related to the adjacent housing, adding to the character and legibility of the area.

College Meadows, Highfields Caldecote:

3.53 The College Meadows development comprised 123 homes and was completed in 2003. In terms of informal open space, a total of 0.17 hectares (1700 square metres) were provided on site in three separate areas. This amounts to around 13.8 square metres of provision per dwelling, or 0.57 hectares per 1,000 population.

3.54 The section 46 agreement (previously known as section 106) attached to the planning permission for the development also secured the provision of 1.74 hectares of land to be used for outdoor sport and formal and informal children’s playspace for the benefit of the village as a whole.

Home Farm Development, Longstanton:

3.55 The first phase of a 500-home development on land to the north-west of the village of Longstanton has recently been approved. The plans for Informal Open Space provision for the first phase of this development are a good example of what may be sought in new developments in villages in the District.

3.56 The first phase of the development at Longstanton comprises 91 dwellings on a residential area of 3.3 hectares. A village green with an area of 0.5 hectares is included, that will serve the whole development, and the wider village.

3.57 Discounting the outdoor playspace, the first phase of development at Longstanton has areas of Informal Open Space totalling approximately 0.19 hectares. These spaces provide linkages, areas of informal planting, and useable structural landscaping. Given that 91 dwellings are planned for the site, a population of around 220 people would be expected in the area covered by the Longstanton Home Farm Phase 1 scheme. There will therefore be around 0.19 hectares of informal open space for 220 people. This figure equates to 0.86 hectares for every 1,000 people, or 20 square metres per dwelling.

3.58 In view of successful examples of amenity open space provision in new developments in the District, and best practice examples from other areas, the standard of a minimum of 0.4 hectares of informal open space provision per 1,000 population is proposed.