§ Mr. Jim CunninghamTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many school playing fields have been sold since 1997. [68971]
§ Mr. Ivan Lewis[holding answer 22 July 2002]: Section 77 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998 was introduced on 1 October 1998 to stop the indiscriminate sale of school playing fields that occurred in the 1980s and early to mid 1990s. There are no central records of how many school playing fields were sold before October 1998.
A total of 115 applications to sell areas of school playing field larger than a small sports pitch for the under 10s—that is, over 2,000m2, have been approved since October 1998. Some 50 of these approved applications involved sports pitches at closed schools, while a further 17 were at operating schools where the playing fields were no longer used by the schools and were not needed by other local schools. In a further 15 cases, alternative sports pitches have been provided to replace those that have been lost. In all cases, we have ensured that the remaining playing fields would meet the full needs of the schools involved and of other schools in the local area.
Applications to sell school playing fields are only approved where it is clear that any proceeds will be used to improve school sports provision or education facilities. Some of the proceeds from these approved applications have been earmarked to provide new sports halls and to improve other sports facilities at schools, such as new all-weather pitches and to bring other, poorly drained pitches back into use. The rest of the proceeds are being used to help lever up standards in our schools—for example, by providing modern, up to date, teaching accommodation, such as science and technology classrooms. In a number of cases, the proceeds are to be used to help build new schools or to enable multi site schools to consolidate on to one site.
990WAll applications made since 16 July 2001 are scrutinised by the School Playing Fields Advisory Panel to make sure that they meet our published criteria. The panel comprises representatives from the National Playing Fields Association, the Central Council of Physical Recreation, Learning through Landscapes, the National Association of Headteachers and the Local Government Association.