HC Deb 24 May 2004 vol 421 cc1291-3
4. Mr. Andrew Robathan (Blaby) (Con)

What assessment she has made of the work of the playing fields monitoring group; and if she will make a statement on its monthly list of planning applications for building on playing fields. [174894]

The Minister for Sport and Tourism (Mr. Richard Caborn)

Before I answer the question, Mr. Speaker, may I thank you and all Members of the House for agreeing to start the Westminster mile—hopefully, Roger Bannister will be involved—on 16 June from Abingdon Green? The BBC's Sport Relief is a very good charity, and I hope that many Members will participate in the event.

The Government have convened a meeting of the national playing fields monitoring group on 27 May to assess the work of the group and to discuss its future role. The Government will continue to publish playing fields statistics annually rather than monthly, because annual statistics provide a comprehensive picture of our progress in protecting these important resources.

Mr. Robathan

The Government set up the monitoring group only four years ago to report monthly on planning applications for the development of playing fields, so when it meets on Wednesday, will the Minister explain why it has not met for nearly a year? When the Secretary of State said in a speech in March to sports colleges that There is a great deal of misty-eyed sentimentalism about playing fields", and when she sneeringly spoke of critics clinging to a world of jumpers for goalposts and small boys in the park", was she dismissing the value of healthy outdoor activity and the importance that most people attach to a large number of playing fields?

Mr. Caborn

We have explained many times from the Dispatch Box that we will have a dialogue with the National Playing Fields Association. We will consider the need to look at indoor facilities, too. Change has been significant since we brought in new rules about playing fields and made Sport England a statutory consultee. Well over 90 per cent. of all the applications referred to it end up providing equal or better facilities. In 2001–02, there was £270 million of investment and 447 new facilities were provided, and the year after, nearly 500 new facilities were provided. Since 1995, Sport England has created more than 320 new sports pitches and improved over 520 facilities, and that is just Sport England—that does not include local authorities and many other organisations that are involved in playing fields.

Mr. Andy Reed (Loughborough) (Lab/Co-op)

Mr. Speaker, I was most disappointed to hear that you would not be running the mile. I will be happy to help if you do, hopefully next year.

Does my right hon. Friend agree that we need much more rounded statistics and much more depth in our learning? When I was chair of East Midlands Sport, many applications that came to us led to improved facilities. We should have rejected, where possible, the 10 per cent. where there was no improvement. Can the monitoring group ensure that, where there is no improvement, the bids are rejected because we need to see more playing fields? Will he recognise that, where bids will lead to improvements, they should be supported because, in many cases, particularly in my constituency, we have seen vast improvements and greater participation, which is the key to all this?

Mr. Caborn

I could not agree more. To that end, in July, we will be rolling out for the first time ever a facilities database. I have asked Sport England to come down before that starts in July and to present that to all Back Benchers. It will be available for about four or five hours on the day before we launch it, so that every hon. Member will be able to see what sports facilities are in their area.

The database will be updated regularly. I hope that, by the end of this year, local authorities and others will be able to use it to ensure that they can see supply and demand in their area, a point that was referred to by my hon. Friend. For the first time, we will be able to make informed decisions about the type of investment that is going into sports facilities across the board.

Mr. Boris Johnson (Henley) (Con)

The Minister said in response to my hon. Friend the Member for Blaby (Mr. Robathan) that there had been significant change in respect of playing fields since the Government came to power in 1997. That is certainly true. They came to power saying that they would halt the sale of school playing fields to arrest the decline of sport in schools, since when the number of applications to sell playing fields has gone up every year. Last year—this is the most relevant statistic—of the 807 successful applications, 440 led to the total extinction of those facilities. Given the threat to sport in schools, particularly contact sports, from litigation and all kinds of other matters, against which Ministers say not a peep, will the Minister now tell the House what measures he has in mind—apart from encouraging people to run down concrete roads, and apart from an annual meeting of the playing fields monitoring group—to arrest the sale of playing fields?

Mr. Caborn

I welcome the hon. Gentleman to the Dispatch Box. May I now inform him why no one should vote Tory again if they support playing fields? The planning applications that were made when his Government were in power were to shut playing fields. The planning applications for investment of £500 million are to build new facilities—we have to have planning applications to build new facilities. The simple answer to his question is: do not vote Tory—they will shut your playing fields down.