CLC5156 Playing Pitch Needs Assessment and Sports and Physical Activity Strategy

The Council is seeking a consultant to deliver a Playing Pitch Needs Assessment, following Sports England Playing Pitch Guidance, and to develop a Sports and Physical Activity Strategy.

Playing Pitch Needs Assessment:

The Council requires a comprehensive assessment of the borough's outdoor playing pitch provision and future needs for all sports covered by Sport England's Playing Pitch Guidance across the borough over the lifetime of the Local Plan (to 2030).

Developing and delivering a playing pitch needs assessment entails a staged approach. Stage A will predominantly handled by the council, however the consultant and Council will work together to finalise Stage A. The Needs Assessment should correlate to Stages B and C of the development cycle set out in the guidance document. These stages in combination will provide the supply and demand analysis as required by the NPPF (for the Local Plan).

The Playing Pitch Needs Assessment shall be carried out in December and January with a final report completed by the consultant in February 2017.

Sports and Physical Activity Strategy:

The consultant will be required to develop a Sports and Physical Activity Strategy for the Council that can be used to set the strategic direction for sports and physical activity in Tower Hamlets over the next 5 years. The strategy will need to cover indoor and outdoor sports, as well as physical activity.

We require the strategy to be intelligence led and developed in partnership. The consultant will be required to develop the strategy under the direction of a steering group, which we anticipate will include internal stakeholders and external stakeholders such as NGBs.

The consultant will be required to devise a comprehensive programme to engage external stakeholders in the development of the strategy. This will include engaging with sports clubs, as appropriate. The details of this programme will need to be worked up with input from the consultant.

We require a draft of the strategy in March 2017, with the final strategy produced by May 2017.