Open Space and Recreation
When a new property is built within the Borough a levy is charged by the Council, often referred to as either a Section 106 payment (from Section 106 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990) or a developer contribution.
The principle behind the levy is that additional houses cause an increase in population, which leads to an increase in demand for public facilities, such as roads, libraries, schools and parks.
Planning Policy Guidance Note 17 (PPG17), produced by the government, expanded upon S106 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 and gave detailed guidance on how local planning authorities were to assess the need for new open space and recreation facilities and set rates for contributions.
Section 106 contribution policies vary across the country and may be set at a fixed value per property or negotiated per development (for larger developments). A large development may be big enough to warrant it’s own infrastructure, such as a new park or playground, or even an entire sports centre or library. Some authorities do not collect contributions for single property developments.
The nature of development in Bournemouth, which is almost entirely ‘brown field’ development, means that there are a number of small developments and very few large developments. It is not physically possible (or necessary) to provide new facilities for each development; but the net effect of numerous developments gives rise to an increased demand.
Bournemouth has a policy of taking a contribution towards sport and recreation from every development that causes a net increase in bed spaces; for example, if a 3 bedroom house were knocked down and replaced by a pair of two bedroom flats, there would be a net increase in bed spaces and consequently the number of people likely to live there.
Money collected from developers for the purpose of improving and developing leisure facilities may be used to fund a number of different facilities such as: Parks, Leisure Centres, Play Areas, Playing Fields and Changing Rooms, Allotments, Amenity Spaces, Outdoor and Indoor Sports Facilities (e.g. Tennis Courts and Swimming Pools).
Bournemouth has set current contribution rates based upon standards proposed in its Leisure Strategy. The cost of meeting these standards for an increase in demand has been calculated and detailed in Supplementary Planning Guidance for Open Space and Recreation (This is a pdf document and requires Adobe Acrobat Reader to view)
From May 2008 the following rates apply to developments within Bournemouth Borough:
Contribution per house £964.53
Contribution per flat £620.84
The money is divided as follows (There are some exceptions to these contributions such as nursing homes (see the Supplementary Planning Guidance note)):
50.5% Playgrounds/play facilities reasonably accessible to the development (usually within 1km)
36.3% Playing Fields anywhere within the borough
8.5% Amenity space (e.g. parks, woods, fields) reasonably accessible to the development
4.7% Sport & Recreation facilities anywhere within the borough.
Funds collected for play and for amenity space are spent on projects within a reasonable distance of the location of the development; this does not mean that they will be spent within the same ward.
Example for illustrative purposes only
A project to refurbish Winton Recreation Ground playground in the Winton East Ward spends contributions from its catchment area of about 1km. This could be from developments in and parts of Winton East, Moordown, Queens Park, Talbot & Branksome Woods, Central and Strouden Park Wards.
The Council is currently undertaking a PPG17 assessment to look into future demand for open space and recreation. This may alter the amount of levels of funding asked for from developers and also the distribution of those funds. Figures will based upon:
Predicted population growth
Housing development projections
Current participation and use of open space and recreation facilities
Predicted participation trends in sport/recreation.
Example for illustrative purposes only
It is predicted that there will be a decrease in need for playing fields, due to a general decline football and cricket, but there will be an increase in the need for parkland as dog ownership is rising rapidly. This would be likely to affect the split of funds between playing fields and amenity space.
Work to replace the existing policy is linked to the emerging Local Development Framework (which will replaced the Borough’s Adopted Local Plan) this is due to be adopted during 2008. The Borough’s Green Space Strategy (December 2006) is the first step in looking towards future and sets out the direction in which the borough is aiming to develop its open spaces for the future. The document was put together following extensive consultation with residents, clubs and users of open spaces; it sets out the need for the Council to closely monitor use of open spaces and associated facilities in order to plan for the future.
Between July 1999 and April 2007 the following sums of money had been collected, allocated and spent through developer contributions within the Borough.
Collected: £3.49m
Allocated: £1.43m
Spent: £0.74m
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