Playing Pitch and Built Facilities Strategy

Castle Point Borough Council is preparing a local plan for its area. This will be called the Castle Point Plan and will cover the period 2023 to 2043.

A vision led place-based approach is being taken to the Castle Point Plan, with the needs of the community and the needs of those organisations providing services and facilities to the local communities being at the fore of what how places change and grow.

A critical component of the Castle Point Plan will be the approach taken to ensuring that residents can be healthy and live well. Sporting facilities and playing pitches have a role to play in providing these opportunities, as well as informal opportunities for recreation such as the use of green spaces.

A Playing Pitch Strategy (PPS) and Indoor Built Facility Strategy (IBFS) were last prepared in 2018 and set out action plans for improving the quantity and quality of pitch and sport facility provision in Castle Point. Updates from sports' governing bodies were collected in 2022 and 2023 to inform updates to the action plans within these strategies.

Additionally, a PPS steering group comprising representatives from different sports' governing bodies as well as Sports England and Active Essex meet bi-annually and liaise outside of meetings to facilitate delivery of actions arising from the strategies. In order to inform the emerging Castle Point Plan, a new Playing Pitch and Sports Facilities Strategy is required that provides a comprehensive update to the work undertaken in 2018. The new strategy should take a place-based approach to the consideration of needs and provision and should be informed by strong community and stakeholder engagement. This strategy is aimed at different stakeholders and the strategy should be adaptable to enable the use of the document for different needs. For example, the council will be preparing a recreation strategy and work from this strategy will feed into that workstream. Quotes are sought from suitably qualified and experienced specialists in the planning of playing pitch and sports facilities to undertake this work.