The council hopes to secure new sports facilities in Scarborough. (JPI Media / Richard Ponter)
On Tuesday, July 20, the agency’s cabinet supported a new playing field strategy aimed at providing additional sports facilities and putting older facilities back into operation.
The strategy, which covers the period up to 2038, was approved by Scarborough Council with contributions from North York Moors National Park, Every Active, Sport England, Rugby Football Union, Rugby Football League, England Hockey, North Riding County FA, Football Foundation, North Yorkshire Sports, England & Wales Cricket Board, Yorkshire Cricket Board and England Athletics.
Speaking at the Cabinet meeting, Cllr Jim Grieve, Portfolio Owner for Quality of Life said, “There has been a large amount of community consultation that has helped shape this strategy. There was a lot of discussion about what is needed in the individual districts.
“The great opportunity this strategy offers us is the opportunity to acquire third-party funding for the development of facilities throughout the district.
“Without this strategy, people wouldn’t come in and get on board, and it just gives us the framework that tells people, ‘This is our pursuit, this is our goal, and this is what we try.’ and it helps us to really include that additional external funding.
“But what it really does is that it gives us this tremendous opportunity to improve the quality and participation of residents in sports facilities across the district.”
The strategy examines ways in which the current and future demand for new playing field surfaces can be met, not only through the provision of new facilities, but also through better use of existing resources.
Objectives include protecting playing fields, helping schools and colleges make their spaces available to the community, and helping the voluntary sector provide new spaces.
Contributions from the planning development are to be used to finance the project.
The strategy will also aim to eradicate the inequality between men’s and women’s sports in the county, as less than 5% of the teams in the Scarborough county are registered as women.
The agency will also assess the potential of restoring the former Oriel Cricket Ground in Scarborough and the strategy supports the provision of a floodlit synthetic track and field facilities in Scarborough, as the next is currently in Guisborough.
The strategy will not be submitted for approval to the full council of the agency, which will meet in September.