BATTLE Fields
The playing field sell-off debate rumbles on. But behind the politicking, BEN CARLISH asks what is the true extent of our playing fields stock and what is being done to preserve and develop it?
AS a nation, our demand for access to sport is greater than ever before. Youngsters’ imaginations and hearts have been fired by national sporting exploits. Last summer, youths seemingly everywhere were seizing bat and ball to emulate the feats of Messrs Vaughan, Flintoff and Pietersen in every playground, park and field. Participation in rugby is up 25%, since the England team’s triumph in 2003; girls’ football is beginning to take off and mini-soccer has grown by 40% in recent years.
And all of this is before this year’s football World Cup with many - perhaps a little optimistically - predicting great things for the current national team - as well as the build-up to the 2012 Olympics in the capital. The Government has woken up to the fact that sport can act as a major antidote to the nation’s growing obesity, heart disease and respiratory problems and has unveiled a whole raft of initiatives promoting healthier living through participation in sport. In short, if we were sports
crazy before, we are sports certifiable now. But with this huge groundswell, the question remains: Where are people going to play all this additional sport?
Over the last decade or so, a major row has been raging between government policy- makers and sporting lobby groups over the supposed 'mass sell-off' of the country's playing fields. Statistics, accusations and counter- accusations have been thrown around like so many javelins and cricket balls, as each side seeks to political point-score
for its own agenda. The result has been confusion over the true extent of the state of our playing fields stock. The summer’s debacle around the issue was a classic example of the kind of fudged figures that have dogged the debate. In July, a Department for
Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) press notice, proudly announced that “new figures” had revealed that “more sports playing fields were being created than ever before”. The release went on to
One only has to go around any village and see how many open spaces have been lost to developers
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