Football pitches under development threat?
Demand for new housing is placing playing fields and open spaces across Scotland under threat of development, the first Scottish conference of the National Playing Fields Association has heard.
Stewart McLachlan, committee member of NPFA Scotland, told the conference at New Lanark on Friday of developments planned across Scotland from Dingwall down to the Central Belt which threatened to swallow up land used by generations for recreation.
He singled out the threat to one major set of playing fields in particular, those at St James’s in Paisley, identified as the location for a new rail link from Glasgow Airport to the main railway line at Paisley.
"These are 22 of the best pitches in the west of Scotland," said McLachlan, "yet we have heard nothing concrete about how the affected pitches are going to be replaced."
The recent public campaign which prevented the development of the Old Racecourse in Ayr for a new school showed that councils could be made to change their stance on issues, but McLachlan said this success highlighted what he called "another secret shame" in Scotland, namely the fact that deprived areas of the country were more likely to lose their playing fields than affluent towns and suburbs where people were more aware of the threat and could organise opposition better.
McLachlan called for councils across Scotland to carry out an analysis of all their pitches and open spaces and prepare strategies for retaining them because of their importance to the health of children and young people in particular.
Earlier the conference heard devastating evidence from Scotland’s chief medical officer, Dr Mac Armstrong, of the health crisis facing Scotland’s youth in particular. The numbers of obese children in Scotland are set to soar, and there were audible gasps of shock in the audience of mainly local government delegates as Armstrong revealed experts’ forecasts of spiralling increases in heart disease, diabetes and other chronic diseases in an ageing population, while physical inactivity in the young was at record levels.
Former Scottish sports minister Mike Watson MSP claimed there was a "lack of commitment" by many educationalists to providing physical education as part of the school curriculum.
Watson told the conference that the present review of the planning laws by the Scottish Executive was an opportunity to strengthen the policy on preserving playing fields. At present, any development of open space or playing fields over 0.4 of a hectare must be referred to national sports agency sportscotland for their approval, and Alistair Dempster, sportscotland chairman, told the conference that they only looked at formal sport fields and not simple open space.
Watson said that in the past nine years in Scotland, there had been 397 such proposed developments, which had resulted in the loss of 115 pitches, most of which had been surfaced with blaes or ash.
He pointed out that the 0.4 hectare limit meant that other recreational spaces such as bowling greens and tennis courts were not covered by the planning policy, which states that if a development goes ahead, the developer must make an ‘alternative provision’ for recreation in the surrounding area. He added that policies on retaining pitches and all open spaces "need to be strengthened."
One of the main reasons for developers looking at playing fields as sites for development is the refusal of local authorities to open up green belt land, according to Allan Lundmark, director of planning and communications for Homes for Scotland, the umbrella organisation for house builders and housing associations. He said there was a "correlation" between the demand for development on playing fields and the pressure on space for new housing caused by green belt policies.
Lundmark said media reports of developers’ activities were often "misleading" and called for a "rational debate" on these issues, particularly cases where the greater good of a larger community was concerned.
One of the most emotional and effective contributions came from an ordinary member of the public. Colin McDonald led a campaign for more than a decade to stop the development of three pitches at Croftfoot on the south side of Glasgow.
In January, South Lanarkshire Council’s planning committee unanimously approved a plan to build 96 houses on the pitches, despite a public inquiry recommending that there be a mix of houses and recreational land.
"After ten years we objectors were given a total of just ten minutes to put our case to the committee," said McDonald. "None of the councillors could look me in the eye and the vote was just nodded through."
Croftfoot Playing Fields Association, of which McDonald is secretary, has now called for an inquiry into the decision, which was not objected to by sportscotland because new pitches were promised for elsewhere in the district.
The conference also heard that the majority of NPFA Scotland’s caseload was caused by local authorities themselves. With the Scottish Executive actively encouraging councils to take out Public Private Partnerships to build or refurbish schools and other facilities, councils looked at selling playing fields to developers provide the cash for such PPP developments.
In the late 1990s, Scotland on Sunday ran a campaign called Save Our Pitches which was credited with bringing to light the problem of disappearing playing fields. In view of the crisis now facing these green lungs of our towns and cities, over the next few months we will once again be looking to Save Our Pitches.
Scotland on Sunday, 13th March 2005
