Mansfield MP continues campaign to reopen school sports facilities during meeting with Sports Minister

This is an issue Coun Bradley, Mansfield MP and Nottinghamshire Council leader and member for Mansfield north, has long campaigned on since being elected, most recently raising this issue in a debate on the importance of sport in schools and communities.

Some 40 per cent of school sports facilities in England are currently not open to the community, he said.

Coun Bradley raised this point and emphasised opening these facilities would be the easiest way to provide better facilities to local communities and grassroots sport.

The reopening of school sports facilities also feeds into the Levelling Up agenda with the impact opening these facilities would have on key Levelling Up priorities such as improving health outcomes in places like Mansfield.

During the meeting, Coun Bradley also raised the specific case of Manor Sports Centre in Mansfield Woodhouse and North Notts Hockey Club.

The club has been blocked from using its usual training pitch, a school sports facility, since the school have closed the pitch to the community.

Coun Bradley raised this as a perfect example of why opening up sports facilities in schools across the country is so crucial.

Government investment in multi-use pitches was also discussed with the minister.

In particular, Coun Bradley raised his concerns about ensuring these pitches would truly be multi-use when for example some sports such as Hockey cannot be played on a 3G football pitch, despite this being technically classed as a multi-use facility.

Coun Bradley said: “It was a pleasure to meet with the sports minister to discuss a number of local and national issues.

“I was keen to raise my long-running campaign on opening up school sports facilities and the benefits this could have on the community. Forty per cent of school sports facilities in England have no community access so if we want to increase participation in sport locally then surely opening these facilities up would be the easiest way.

“If these facilities were to be opened up in Mansfield and Warsop we could see an explosion of grassroots sport. This increase in participation could also help improve our health outcomes locally, a key part of the Levelling Up agenda.

“We have seen the impact of this with North Notts Hockey Club being forced out of their training pitch because the school closed the facility to public use. I am meeting the academy trust regarding this issue in particular later this week to discuss how we can reopen this facility to the community and the club.

“I also raised the issue of ensuring multi-use facility are indeed multi-use. I have previously been told by government they were building a multi-use facility only to learn this was in fact a 3G football pitch which many other sports, such as hockey, cannot use. Moving forward, if we want to ensure a healthy diversity of sports clubs locally it is important that as many facilities as possible are actually multi-use.

“I would like to thank the minister for his time and look forward to seeing further progress on opening up our school sports facilities to the community.”