Sport and Leisure Strategies
Indoor Sport Facility Strategy 2023
In April 2023 Dover District Council adopted a new Indoor Sport Facility Strategy (ISFS) to 2040, replacing the previous 2016 version. You can view the new Strategy here:
Indoor Sport Facility Strategy
The Indoor Sports Facility Strategy (ISFS) examines the current and future supply and demand for indoor sports facilities across Dover District. The purpose of the strategy is to help guide potential decisions around rationalisation and investment of facilities including encouraging community use of school facilities. The study will also be used to highlight the links to public health and how provision of accessible indoor facilities contributes towards healthy living and well-being.
Parks and Amenity Open Space Strategy
The value of parks and open spaces has long been recognised for promoting healthy living such as
- walking
- cycling
- informal recreation social interaction
- education
- supporting biodiversity.
The strategy aims to focus on the requirements of local people, ensure the value of capital investment can be maximised, and implement improvements to local neighbourhoods.
Parks and Amenity Open Space Strategy 2013
Playing Pitch & Outdoor Sports Facility Strategy
Our plan for the district’s playing pitches and outdoor sports facilities.
Playing Pitch and Outdoor Sports Facility Strategy 2015
Play Area Provision
This document sets out the strategic direction for future investment in at Dover District Council owned play areas, arrangements for managing play areas and provides an evidence base for both determining appropriate development contributions and supporting applications to funding bodies. Considerable progress has been made since the last review more than five years ago, the national and local context has also changed.
This document assesses the current state of play facilities in the district and identifies gaps in provision. This will provide clear framework to guide the development of new projects over the coming years.
Review of Play Area Provision 2012-2026
Updated Open Space, Play and Outdoor Sport Pitches Assessments
To meet the requirement for up-to-date assessments of the needs for open space, sports and recreation facilities and opportunities for the emerging Local Plan to 2040, consultants Knight Kavanagh & Page (KKP) were commissioned to undertake reviews of all open space assessment of all open spaces and outdoor sports pitches in the district as an update to the documents above. The following reports were subsequently produced by KKP in 2019 (often referred to as ‘KKP reports’):
- Open Space Assessment Report 2019 - this provides detail with regards to what open space provision exists in the area, its condition, distribution and overall quality. an open space assessment was commissioned. The document sets out the findings of the research, consultation, site assessments, data analysis and GIS mapping undertaken as part of this study.
- Open Space Standards Paper2019 - this follows on from the above Open Space Assessment Report identifying the deficiencies and surpluses in existing open space provision and makes recommendations with respect to the provision of future open spaces.
- Playing Pitch Strategy Assessment Report 2019 - this report presents an updated supply and demand assessment of playing pitch facilities in accordance with Sport England’s 2013 Guidance ‘Developing a Playing Pitch Strategy’. The document sets out the findings of the research, consultation, site assessments, data analysis and GIS mapping undertaken as part of this study.
- Playing Pitch Strategy and Action Plan 2019 - this report intends to update and replace the previous 2015 Dover Playing Pitch Strategy and inform decisions on future strategic planning and any investment priorities for outdoor sports facilities across Dover District. The report sets out detailed recommendations for all facilities and informs the Sport England Playing Pitch New Development Calculator which may be accessed via the Active Places Power website, and is now required to be used when assessing new provision needed to support new development by Local Plan policy PM4 – Sports Provision.
Each of the KKP reports above were developed in accordance with best practice recommendations, Sport England guidance as appropriate and under the direction of a steering group led by the Council and including National Governing Bodies of Sport (NGBs). All were subject to consultation including community consultation, alongside the Regulation 18 Local Plan in early 2021.
- The Open Space and Sport Topic Paper 2022 - which supports the Local Plan, summarises and partially updates the information in the above reports.
- Local Football Facilities Plan 2020 (Weblink) - Since production of the Playing Pitch Strategy in 2019, the Council has also worked with partners to produce a Local Football Facility Plan (LFFP) 2020, to support investment in football facilities across the District. The purpose of this plan is to identify the priority projects for potential investment in Dover, and supports the Playing Pitch Strategy, but does not replace it.
Contact
Email: propertyservices@dover.gov.uk