5th December 2024
A vision for the future of sports and leisure facilities across South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse Districts was top of the agenda last week.
Both South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse District Councils are committed to creating healthy and inclusive communities. The aim is to support wellbeing through increasing opportunities to be physically active – with high-quality, accessible and affordable local facilities near to where people work and live.
The Councils have produced Leisure Facilities Assessments and Strategies and Playing Pitch Strategies that set out the current and future provision of facilities across the two districts.
The reports identify the high level, strategic need to protect and enhance existing facilities, alongside the need to provide new facilities ranging from tennis courts, gym facilities and swimming pools, to pitches for football, rugby union, cricket and hockey.
The Councils appointed external experts to help identify what was already available, what needed improvements and where new facilities could be introduced in the districts.
Each district then ran consultations earlier this year between March and April 2024 asking sports clubs, leisure users and sports enthusiasts, alongside residents and town and parish councils, to have their say on sports and leisure facilities provision – and to give their feedback about what the Councils, in partnership with other organisations, need to protect, enhance, and provide.
South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse District Councils both unanimously approved the strategies at Cabinet meetings in November: View the South reports here and Vale reports here.*
The next steps will be to create action plans linked to the strategies and to work in partnership with sports clubs, town and parish councils, national governing bodies, leisure providers and other organisations to allocate funding and support projects going forward.
Cllr Anne-Marie Simpson, Cabinet Member for Planning at South Oxfordshire District Council said: “We are dedicated to enabling communities where residents can live healthy lives. Planning for and delivering high quality, affordable and sustainable leisure and sports facilities for the wellbeing of our residents remains top of our agenda. These strategies are part of a bigger picture of this work, including our ongoing investment in leisure and sporting facilities.
“I’d like to thank everyone who took part in our consultation earlier in the year to tell us what facilities matter to them, what is working well or what we need to provide more of. We have taken feedback onboard where possible. These strategies will now help us, working alongside our partners, to focus on the project planning and budgeting, and will form the basis of an action plan to make these aspirations a reality.”
Cllr Andy Foulsham, Cabinet Member for Corporate Services, Policy and Programmes at Vale of White Horse District Council said: “Access to leisure and sports facilities is so important to the wellbeing of our communities. They help to improve the health of our residents, of all ages and abilities. We’ve also made sure accessibility and sustainability are at the forefront of all our plans.
“The work we have carried out, supported by experts and refined through our consultation, has helped us to identify where there are gaps in provision, where improvements can be made and what our residents need for them to live healthy and happy lives. We are now in a good position with this ‘road map’ to start making these plans a reality where funding and resources allow.”
In South Oxfordshire, 126 responses were received with 33 per cent of respondents replying on behalf of a user of a sports club.
In the Vale of White Horse, 147 comments were received on the draft strategies, with 31 per cent of responders being users of a sport club.
The Councils listened to feedback from the consultations and have made changes to the strategies such as including recommendations in South for new skate parks in Chinnor and Wallingford, and recommendations in Vale for the modernisation of the swimming pool at Wantage Leisure Centre.
Both Councils have also put an additional emphasis on the needs of people with disabilities and safety issues (particularly regarding women and girls) are addressed through good design and improvements.
The strategies also reflect both Council’s drive to tackle climate change – to fully consider climate change impacts and mitigation against them. They also form a key part of the evidence for the emerging Joint Local Plan (JLP), by identifying the leisure and playing pitch infrastructure that large scale residential-led developments will need to provide.
*Approval of the reports is subject to the standard Council scrutiny call-in period.
