Women in Sport is concerned that the Government is considering removing Sport England from the list of organisations who must be consulted on planning applications. Sport England are the only expert consultees who specifically aim to protect spaces for sport and the only statutory consultee championing the opportunity for women and girls to be active.
Removing their expertise from the planning process could have a hugely detrimental impact: on women and girls, on English sport and on the Government’s missions to increase opportunity for all and improve the health of the nation. Given sport generates £4.20 for every pound spent on it, it could also threaten the drive for economic growth that reform of the planning process is intended to support.
The importance of green spaces
Access to outdoor space for sport and physical activity is vital. Anything that removes outdoor space – whether that is formal sports pitches, school playgrounds or open green space – from the places where people live and work will create an unnecessary barrier to people being active.
This is especially true for women and girls. Women and girls are less active than men and boys at every stage of their lives. Because of gender stereotyping that tells young girls and their parents that sport is not important for girls, we know that they are already having fewer opportunities to experience sport. Having less access to open space near where they live will exacerbate this.
-
37
% of girls
say school is the only place they are active
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49
% of girls
say they feel unsafe in their local park
Teenage girls, who are experiencing a crisis in their mental health, need local open spaces where they can be free and feel safe to be active. With 37% of teenage girls already only getting active at school, and with the pressures on school to deliver school sport that works for girls, any loss of open space could have a huge impact. And take away yet another way of supporting their mental health.
Women in midlife have been conditioned to put everyone else’s needs before their own. With less leisure time than men, thanks to the unfair burden of unpaid work in the home (including caring), and the pressures of menopause these women are far less likely to travel to be active. Local spaces are vital to them
With other active environments, such as leisure centres and swimming pools under consistent financial pressure, we are in danger of making access to sport a privilege that many are excluded from.
Protecting these spaces, free or inexpensive to use and open to all, must be part of the planning process. Planning decisions can have a huge impact on women and girls’ lives.
Carving out space for women and girls
Women’s sport is growing. We are already seeing huge pressure on facilities and courts, despite the good work that Sport England and others are doing, as more and more women and girls fight for space to play. Any loss of space now would come at a critical moment, stunting the growth of one of the UK’s biggest success stories and excluding more women and girls from sport.
The next generation of Lionesses will be taking their first steps onto their local pitch as we speak. If we take that opportunity away from them, we are letting them down.
