Focus on sport pitches

The way sports pitches are used in Aberdeenshire was discussed by the infrastructure services committee this afternoon.

Councillors endorsed the draft Pitch and Open Space Strategy and made recommendations to Full Council, which will make the final decision.

This included support for the approach to prioritising enhanced capacity where it is required.

The committee also supported one process for the community booking of pitches, while recognising that the Education Service should control school pitch use during the delivery of the school curriculum and be able to input to processes to ensure that they are not overused outwith the curriculum.

The report included a section on Portlethen, with officers commenting that “the town is poorly provided for in terms of volume of spaces which can be used for sport and in particular football, ranking 15 of 17 networks in terms of overall provision. However, Portlethen does have a high-quality facility suitable for competitive hockey and has one of only two competitive hockey clubs in Aberdeenshire.”

As well as the comparatively low level of provision, officers are aware of other issues which impact on the network’s ability to meet high levels of demand.

Once the strategy is approved officers will apply the following principles in all areas:
• Creation of an outdoor area forum, with representative from all user groups, local sports hubs, landscape services, third party owners of land. The forum would then:
o Agree principles of fixture scheduling among user groups.
o Prioritise improvements to network facilities.
o Agree priority usage of grass area, based on a choice of competitive sports pitch / community sports pitch / public space.
o Influence schedule of maintenance for each area of land.
o Identify additional sources of funding and / or donations which could be used for infrastructure improvements.

The report before councillors says that current provision includes all spaces accessible to potential users and includes provision by third parties (commercial and voluntary)
 7 full size grass pitches (of which one is used for rugby)
 7 smaller sized grass pitches
 1 full size all weather pitch (2g sand based surface)
 1 small size all weather pitch (2g sand based surface)
 3 tennis courts.
 1 skatepark

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