Contact: Nick Gibbins, (01962) 84 7544; [email protected]

This item has been added to the agenda as urgent with the agreement of the Executive Member under Section 100 (B)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972. The reason for urgency is to avoid undue delay in the County Council taking a decision on the grant.

1 Introduction

1.1 The University of Winchester is promoting a project to develop a community sports centre at Bar End, Winchester in conjunction with Winchester City Council and with the benefit of funding from Sports England. The first phase of the project involved the construction of a new pavilion, together with improvements to access arrangements and car parking. The second phase involves the construction of an all weather hockey pitch and an athletics track with provision for field events. There is a shortfall in the funding package for the project and a grant of £210,000 by the County Council is proposed, in view of the community benefits the project is expected to realise. This can be funded from savings in the 2006/07 Final accounts which the Cabinet agreed to set aside for this purpose.

1 Recommendation

1.1 To approve a grant of £210,000 to the University of Winchester towards the Bar End Community Sports Centre project.

2 Description of the project

2.1 The University of Winchester and Winchester City Council operate adjoining sports facilities for grass based sports at Bar End, Winchester. The aim of this project is to integrate both sports grounds into a unified facility for all the community to use in conjunction with the provision of some new facilities for hockey and athletics.

2.2 The project is planned in two phases, with Phase 1 involving the provision of new access to the sports field, car parking and a new pavilion. Phase 1 has recently been completed. Phase 2 is due to commence this summer and will include the provision of an all weather floodlit full-sized hockey pitch and a full 400 metre eight lane athletics track with provision for field events. In addition an extension to the pavilion to provide additional changing facilities is also proposed within the Phase 2 of the project:

2.3 The overall cost of both phases of the project is estimated at £2.9m. Both the University of Winchester and Winchester City Council are contributing approximately £1m and grants primarily from Sports England of approximately £0.7m have also been offered, conditional on a community use agreement. Further funding of £210,000 is required to enable the project to be committed.

3 Community benefits

3.1 There are significant community benefits associated with this proposal which support the County Council's corporate priority of maximising wellbeing, and are specifically linked to Corporate Business Plan outcomes 2.3 and 2.8 associated with young people achieving their full potential and people being healthy and enjoying well-being.

· the local community currently has access to only one all weather hockey pitch (at Kings School) and the nearest eight lane athletic track is in Southampton. This lack of local facilities affects the ability of local clubs to retain members and expand their development work with local schools, who are currently required to travel to Eastleigh for hockey and as far as Portsmouth for athletics

· the provision of a quality facility will help performance athletes in the Winchester district and surrounding areas

· it provides additional facilities which are easily accessible to the whole community, increasing participation opportunities for young people and adults, in support of the national target of increasing adult physical activity by 1% each year

· it will provide a base for a multi-sport environment, helping to make local clubs more effective as a result of sharing maintenance, marketing, management and a volunteer base, together with co-ordinated school links and integrated membership systems across different sports

· the provision of high quality facilities will support the development of school sport partnerships in Winchester and the surrounding area, enhancing school competition and the work of competition managers working in Hampshire.

4 Conclusion

4.1 In view of the significant benefits to the local community which the implementation of this project should enable to be realised, a grant to the University of Winchester, towards the cost of the project, is proposed.

Section 100 D - :Local Government Act 1972 - background documents

The following documents discuss facts or matters on which this report, or an important part of it, is based and have been relied upon to a material extent in the preparation of this report.

NB: the list excludes:

1. Published works

2. Documents which disclose exempt or confidential information as defined in the Act.

None.