Specific Issue: A lack of local facilities for youths
While there are well-established standards for the provision of play space for children (i.e. local areas for play and local/neighbourhood equipped areas for play), there is an absence of such standards for youth facilities. Commonly this might include:
- youth shelters
- skateboard parks or BMX facilities
- or it may be the physical space to run a particular youth activity, e.g. scouts or young persons' internet café.
Topic
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Infrastructure example
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Specific issues to be addressed
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A lack of local facilities for youths
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What do neighbourhood groups have to be able to properly demonstrate with the evidence they collect in order to ensure that NP policy is robust?
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- That there is a need for youth facilities given the expected growth in population in the future (and that there are existing youths in the community who need access to youth facilities).
- That there is a lack of youth facilities within accessible distances of the local community (distance to and quantity and quality of facilities).
- That the lack of youth facilities is having a detrimental effect on the community, e.g. through increased anti-social behaviour.
- The type of facilities there is a demand for.
- How much these proposed facilities would cost to provide and maintain.
- How these facilities would be funded (construction and maintenance).
- How and where these facilities might be delivered and who would be responsible for their maintenance.
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What evidence do neighbourhood groups need to collect to help them demonstrate the issue and develop policy?
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- Evidence of demand from local children for particular facilities to be provided locally.
- The level of demand for these uses from neighbouring communities – joint provision to provide more efficient delivery.
- An audit of existing facilities – location, accessibility (travel time), quantity, quality, broad level of use.
- An assessment of the amount of provision that is expected for the current population when compared to actual provision.
- An assessment of the amount of additional provision that is expected to support the projected growth in the population.
- The cost of providing new facilities and the amount of space needed if a large scale use.
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What questions should they ask (either through a survey or focus group, etc) in order to gather effective evidence? |
School children/youth groups/sports and leisure clubs
- What do you ideally like to do in your spare time?
- What facilities do you use at present in the local area? How do you get there?
- What facilities do you not use? Why not?
- What facilities do you use outside the area?
- What facilities would you like to see provided in the local area? Why?
- How far would you be prepared to travel to access these facilities? What mode of transport would you most likely use, i.e. car, public transport, walking or cycling?
- How often would you be likely to use these facilities?
Parents
- Would you be supportive of the provision of a particular youth facility that your child could access, i.e. would you be happy for your child to use that facility in that location?
Police/PCSOs
- Are there anti-social issues with youths? If so, what are they and where do they occur?
Developers
- Would you be prepared to provide necessary youth facilities as part of your development, ideally in the early phases?
Landowners
- Would you be willing to sell/gift part of your land for youth facilities?
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What evidence have you got to help neighbourhoods demonstrate the issue and develop policy? - How useful is it for them? - Is it in a useable form?
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Evidence
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Useful?
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Useable format?
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Demographic information – age breakdown of local population and population projections
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PPG17 study
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Infrastructure Delivery Plan (IDP)
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Core Strategy/Local Plan SA/SEA background information
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Monitoring data – number of planning permissions/completions by size of dwelling to forecast potential new youths in an area
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Anti-social behaviour orders (ASBOs)
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Complaints to Environmental Health regarding noise from youths
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Census data (from 2011 Census when available)
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Community strategy – partnerships that exist, e.g. school youth council representatives, etc
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Facilities costs (through Sport England or recent experience)
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Vacant premises register
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