Sports College status for Howard School – Walsingham Planning pave the way with new sports facilities

One of Walsingham Planning's principal clients is the Sports & Leisure Group for whom planning consents have been secured for a leisure centre in Chiswick and for “Play Football” 5-a-side football centres in Reading, Southend, Guildford, Newport, Gillingham/Rainham and Edinburgh.

Each case raised issues of potential disturbance from noise, lighting, late night activity, ecology, landscaping and traffic, and some sites come with land use issues in green belt, Metropolitan Open land and open countryside.

Walsingham Planning headed up what soon became a regular planning team that includes JAMM Architects, RGP Transport Consultants and Hepworth Acoustics, arranging for other specialists as required.

In each case liaison with Sports England was essential.

At Rainham this involved a negotiation over what was essentially a loss of grass playing fields and the arrangement of a Community Use Agreement for the retained pitches.

Public consultation was also vital, as an earlier scheme had been refused in the light of residents’ concerns over traffic.

Walsingham Planning worked with the school and with other consultants to consult with local people, this involving exhibitions at the site (and, in the case of Prospect College, Reading, Walsingham Planning even arranged a residents’ “site visit” to see a site in action in Portsmouth).

At Rainham a full new access onto the A2 was approved, along with additional school parking and drop-off facilities, which will take school and Play Football traffic off the local roads.

So close to the line of the A2, the project team also involved archaeologists and landscape architects.

Because this, like many of the sites, are school/college premises, interaction with the governors, principal and staff of the establishment was fundamental to the planning process, as it is with the Local Education Authority on state-run schools.

The planning approval from Medway Council brought with it a s106 Agreement and a raft of pre-commencement conditions, which have been negotiated and resolved by Walsingham Planning.

Preparation of the site is now under way with a start due in July 2009.

The result will be a major recreational/sports/training facility for the school, promoting its Sports College status, and a significant addition to the area’s participation in football.