Community Recreational Facilities Review 2025
Community Recreational Facilities in Crowle – your ideas please
The Parish Council is looking to create a plan setting out the way forward for community recreational facilities in Crowle. We’re keen that everyone feels that they have had an opportunity to input to this. We would like to receive your proposals for new facilities. In terms of potential location for any new facilities, we’re considering all the land at the Parish Hall site, including both the Jubilee Field and the PC-owned 6.3 acre field (the ‘Back Field’) below the new allotments which as previously advised has recently become available following the end of a tenancy. Suggestions for the improvement of existing facilities will also be welcomed.
You can either submit your proposals by email to Councillor Steve Bott at sb@crowlepc.co.uk, or by hard copy to The Shop – by 9th February 2025.
Alternatively, you can submit your ideas online here
If you reply by hard copy please provide contact details so our Project Team can get in touch with you with any queries (your details will be used solely for this purpose).
We will review all submissions and share details of viable options with parishioners so that all can consider them and give feedback.
In the meantime… in case there is any misunderstanding about what ‘Section 106’ funding is and can be used for, we’ve developed the summary below which has been reviewed by Wychavon.
Crowle Parish Council
31 January 2025
Section 106 funding
As part of a new housing development, a ‘Section 106’ agreement is put in place between the developer and the local authority.
Section 106 allocations are used to improve the ‘infrastructure’ for an area resulting from new housing. The legal agreement states what the money is to be used for and who will benefit from it – it cannot simply be collected and used for ‘general purposes’ (as was the case up to 2010).
The categories of Section 106 contributions that are of relevance to Community Development are:
- Public Open Space – can include play areas, skateparks, pump tracks, tennis courts, outdoor bowls, allotments, orchards
- Formal Sport – to support specific ‘formal sports’ only, which are defined as rugby, hockey, cricket and football (can include pavilions to support those sports). Other sports may be ‘formal’ but these funds cannot be allocated to them unfortunately.
- Built Sports facilities – specifically for sports halls (also including pavilions), artificial grass pitches, indoor bowls and swimming pools.
There are also other contributions that include highways, re-cycling and education; these are determined by the County Council.
Section 106 contributions are not a ‘right’ – they have to be requested, based on one or more qualifying purpose. They cannot be used to replace existing equipment or make good deficiencies in existing facilities. They are also not automatically allocated to the local council; the Public Open Space contribution may be used by the developer if they are adding recreational facilities as part of their plans.
There may be a need for facilities that would benefit the local community, such as a leisure centre and/or swimming pool, but are not able to be built there (eg much greater funding would be required that is available locally, or there is no suitable land available etc). Wychavon will then determine if the money should be allocated to the local council or if to another party who can provide that facility for the local community benefit.
The preference is always to utilise Section 106 monies locally or provide facilities for the benefit of that community if not local, but contributions need to be justified with evidence of need. If a Section 106 contribution has not been spent for a qualifying project within a certain time frame (typically 5-10 years) it is returned to the developer.
Section 106 agreements are public documents and can be viewed within the relevant application’s planning documents on the Wychavon District Council website. At the current time, of the three potential new developments in Crowle, only the agreement for the Spitfire development has been signed.
