BRCS POSITION STATEMENT ON THE DRAFT EALING INDOOR & OUTDOOR SPORTS FACILITY STRATEGY & ACTION PLAN 2022 – 2031

Ealing Council’s Cabinet has approved a report (Item 12 on 13th July 2022) recommending the adoption of Continuum’s (their consultant’s) draft ‘Ealing Indoor and Outdoor Sports Facility Strategy and Action Plan 2022 – 2031’. The Brent River Park (BRP) contributes a significant proportion of Ealing’s sports facilities including 4 golf courses, one leisure centre (currently closed), one athletics arena and 18 other active public, private and school sites which provide a wide range of indoor and outdoor sports. All this falls within the generally rural atmosphere of the Metropolitan Open Land which bounds the River Brent in London Borough of Ealing. The BRCS Trustees have therefore reviewed this draft report in light of our aim to protect and promote all aspects of the BRP in Ealing and Hounslow Boroughs and we issue the following statement:

Our position on the Continuum draft report is that we:

1) note with concern that Continuum have failed properly to consider Ealing Council’s Climate & Ecological Emergency Strategy (2021) and Biodiversity Action Plan (2001) and Supplement (2022) and, while brief reference is made, these key policies have not been integrated into their draft report at all. Ealing Council and Sports England both have a Statutory Duty to consider biodiversity in formulating strategies and BRCS says that in adopting this report they are failing to meet this duty.

2) are concerned that with respect to the BRP, Continuum have failed to consider the BRP Countryside Management Plan (Part 1, 1990), including its policies on integrating sports within the Park. For example, at fig 3.45 park users on the West Middlesex and Brent Valley Golf Courses are referred to as ‘trespassers’ with no mention of the specific access policies in the West Middlesex GC Management Plan and the overall BRP Management Plan which both ensure the public are entitled to access these areas of the Park. The BVGC car park (Fig 3.42) is treated as if it is in some way restricted to golf users, rather than, as is the case, a key access point for all BRP visitors.

3) say that the draft report’s assessments are weakened by Continuum’s failure to consider and include existing and proposed sports provision in neighbouring boroughs such as Hounslow, which in some cases are closer for Ealing residents. The recent improvements in provision for example at Wyke Green, adjacent to Norwood Green Ward, are not taken into account at all.

4) believe that Continuum, by overlooking these Strategies and Plans, have not identified the need to separate intensive sports, which may need artificial surfaces, floodlighting and buildings and are generally incompatible with nature conservation and biodiversity policies, from those that require less intensive management and infrastructure and which can be better integrated into nature conservation management areas such as the BRP. BRCS says that Ealing Council and Sports England should be seeking proper zoning of sports that require infrastructure that is incompatible with nature conservation away from the Borough’s designated sites (SINC’s and LNR’s).

5) say that Continuum should, in light of increasing pressures on all open space, be making a much stronger case for the sharing of intensive sports facilities and playing fields between different users and, through the planning process, for preventing the loss of private playing fields from any change of use. Ealing Council needs this case to be better made so that officers can resist such losses and have a stronger hand in negotiating dual usage of school sports facilities. For example, 6 school playing field sites in the BRP are not

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open to community usage and one private playing field is not currently in use at all. BRCS asks Sports England to strengthen Continuum’s recommendation to ensure that existing facilites are made available to a wider range of users than is presently the case.

The Trustees regret that Labour Councillors did not take the opportunity when the draft report was ‘called in’ by the Liberal Democrat opposition to ask for it to be reviewed in light of these concerns and for the final version to be better balanced to reflect the current resources available and to conform to Ealing Council’s open space and environmental policies. Considering the information in the draft report and with dual usage of school sites and retention of private sites we believe that there is already adequate and sufficient provision for a wide range of sports within the BRP and that Continuum’s forecast of future demand can be accommodated entirely within the currently active sports areas. We call on Sports England to reject this report in its present form and to refer it back to Ealing Council in light of the above concerns.

The Trustees of the Brent River & Canal Society
17 August 2022