Draft Regulation 18 Sandwell Local Plan

Sport England supports part 1 of the policy which accords with paragraph 99 of the NPPF and Sport England's Playing Fields Policy.

As set out in our comments on policy SHW4,we would strongly recommend that policy SHW4 and its associated justification be amended to make it clear that SHW4 does not apply to playing fields and built sports facilities, and that the relevant policy for such provision is policy SHW5.

Sport England supports part 2 of the policy which relates to provision of new built sports facilities to meet identified needs that are well-designed and in accessible locations.

Sport England supports part 3 of the policy that relates to securing developer contributions to address the needs of new housing developments, through proportionate planning obligations or CIL.

Sport England supports part 5 of the policy that promotes the wider community use of school playing fields and other school sports facilities such as sports halls to help meet identified needs. We would advocate that the policy wording is strengthened to reference that where appropriate this will be secured via a suitably worded community use agreement.

Sport England supports reference in para 6.58 to using Sport England's calculator tools as a basis for determining appropriate level of contributions since this draws from data collected for the PPOSS.

There is a lack of detail to identify the scale of development for which such developer contributions would be sought and so the Council may wish to address this in the policy and reasoned justification.

Notwithstanding that the justification draws from the headline findings of the 2022 PPOSS in paras 6.59-6.64, it is recommended that a further paragraph is added to the justification to explain that the Council will review and replace the PPOSS so as to keep this evidence up to date through the Plan period.

Sport England supports the various measures set out in this policy to promote walking and cycling as an easy choice for Sandwell's local communities, and are pleased to see the reference in paragraph 11.46 to the associated benefits to health and well-being. We would advocate the importance of part 2) which could be strengthened in terms of the ensuring that links from new developments to the network are high quality and accessible to all.

Sport England supports Ambitions 2, 4, 8 where they relate to protecting, enhancing and providing places and spaces for the local communities across Sandwell to play sport and be physically active, as this is proven to enrich peoples lives and benefit their physical and mental health and well-being.

Sport England supports the Vision set out in para 1.4, particularly the references in para 7 to enjoying longer and healthier lives through a range of interventions including promoting active recreation.

Sport England supports Objectives 10-12 under the priority of improving the health and well-being of residents and promoting social inclusion. We also support the objectives relating to good design (13), active travel (16) which relate well to our Active Environments Big Issue as set out in our strategy (Uniting the Movement) and to our Active Design guidance. We support objective 18 which relates to meeting infrastructure needs for active travel.