East Hampshire District Council has a long tradition of supporting the provision and development of open spaces, as well as sport and physical activity facilities for residents and visitors.

The council recognises that these facility types, both formal and informal, are essential components of the district’s infrastructure, that both drive and respond to growth, change and improvement for communities across East Hampshire.

The East Hampshire playing pitch and sport facility strategy 2024-2040 consists of the following documents:

The action plan is a live document which will be updated annually in partnership with the steering group. If your project is currently not in the action plan, and you would like it to be considered, please email community.infrastructure@easthants.gov.uk. We can then provide you with further details on how this will be done.

Playing pitch strategy

This document is Part 1 of East Hampshire District Council’s Playing Pitch & Sports Facilities Strategy 2024-40 – the Playing Pitch Strategy (PPS). The PPS has replaced the previous Playing Pitch Strategy adopted in 2018.

Consistent with the previous strategy this PPS includes consideration of facility supply, demands, accessibility and availability for the four primary playing pitch sports of Cricket, Football, Hockey and Rugby.

Within these sports, the strategy seeks as far as is practicable, to include consideration of all forms of play, whether:

  • club and league based (formal) play and training (including reference to indoor nets for cricket)
  • less formal programmed forms of the respective sports (e.g., friendly and recreational game formats outside the sport’s governing bodies affiliated structures), and
  • un-programmed play by groups of residents, workers, students out of school. 

Sports facilities strategy

This document is part 2 of East Hampshire District’s Playing Pitch and Sports Facilities Strategy 2024-40 – the Sports Facilities Strategy (SFS). 

The SFS has replaced the previous strategy adopted in 2018. Consistent with the previous strategy, this SFS includes consideration of facility supply, demands, accessibility and availability of the following built sports facilities for indoor and/or outdoor sport:

  • swimming pools over 20m in length or 160m2 water area
  • sports halls over 3 badminton courts
  • gymnastic and trampolining facilities
  • indoor Bowls halls, outdoor greens and Pétanque
  • health & Fitness facilities (studios and gyms) over 20 equipment stations
  • squash courts
  • indoor and outdoor courts for Tennis, Padel, Netball, Basketball
  • athletics and running tracks
  • cycling, BMX and Skate parks
  • golf courses

Open space strategy

This assesses the quality, quantity and accessibility of existing provision of publicly accessible open spaces.

It provides the basis of a strategy for the protection and improvement of public open spaces and will be used to develop policies within the new local plan.