SPACE FOR SPORT
A strong history
Winchester has a rich sporting history. Some of the city’s clubs are among the oldest in the country. For example, Winchester City Penguins Swimming Club dates from the 1860s. Winchester City Football Club was founded in 1884, shortly followed by Winchester Hockey Club in 1891, while Winchester Rugby Football Club was established in 1929.
In recent decades, many new clubs have been created and are thriving due to changing demographics, with a very active older population, continued movement of families into the area for schooling, and an exponential increase in girls’ and women's participation in sport.
We must now reimagine Winchester’s community sports facilities, services and approaches, building on our rich history to ensure the city is fit for the future.
Who we are
Sport Winchester is the Winchester Community Sport Alliance. This alliance was fostered by local charity the Winchester Sport Art and Leisure Trust (SALT), to network clubs and groups in the city’s community sport sector. It has now spun out as an independent organisation in its own right: Sport Winchester.
Sport Winchester represents grassroots sports clubs and groups in Winchester when a combined or “one voice” approach is most helpful to specific projects, with a particular focus on clubs’ needs for infrastructure and facilities.
We support the city’s sports clubs to bring forward their individual requirements for facilities, resulting in a joined up and more visionary approach to the sports ecosystem of the city.
Sport Winchester is not a commercial organisation. We are all volunteers with deep experience in business, public service and sport, and we are able to draw on professional expertise across our club membership.
The challenge
Put simply, there are not enough training or playing facilities in the city to satisfy public demand across most sports – specifically those that require outdoor facilities.
The facilities that do exist are not fit for purpose. Over 1/3 of training and playing time is lost annually due to lack of light or poor weather causing frozen or flooded facilities. Sports clubs increasingly have to travel out of the area to access appropriate facilities. Amenities such as toilets, changing, security and safeguarding infrastructure are often in poor repair or non-existent. There is a lack of safe modern social meeting places to entertain visiting teams and build social networks.
There is no overarching, joined up and evidence-based strategy for sports provision across the city.
The situation today
Community sports clubs are membership bodies, in the main run by volunteers. They create opportunities for local people to participate in sport at any level and age, whether in a competitive setting or for fun and fitness. Most are affiliated to their national governing bodies for guidance and governance. Some of Winchester’s community sports clubs serve as regional development centres. Some are registered charities with a wider community role. Together, their membership runs into many thousands of local adults and juniors.
There is a need for the infrastructure requirements of these community sports clubs to be showcased and represented in a joined-up way, so that wider stakeholders can see the complete picture and better understand the needs and potential of grassroots sport in the City of Winchester.
Our approach
Sport Winchester’s role is to facilitate or aid clubs to find land or buildings, access funding, build strong and synergistic stakeholder relationships, and collaborate to create compelling proposals for the development of sporting infrastructure across the City.
We seek to provide constructive visioning, evidence and grassroots input into projects that can ensure the City of Winchester has the right quality and scale of sporting provision to meet the needs of local people – today and into the future.
We will have a strong equity focus. This means being proactive in addressing the needs of groups who are relatively underserved by Winchester's current sporting provision – such as those with disabilities, female athletes, and children and young people.
Similarly, a principal focus will be on outdoor sports facilities, as these require large areas of land and face significant barriers to realisation.
How we can help
We know what is needed.
We have access to best practice and environmentally sound facility specifications, to ensure sustainability. We can specify in detail the requirements to facilitate a complete planning submission. We have access to professional design expertise. We will co-ordinate and amalgamate inputs from different sporting organisations to build one cohesive strategy.
We can back this up with advocacy and engagement across the sporting community of Winchester. We have seen previous success with this approach, which we can build on.
A vision for the future
We need to work together: City and County Councils, landowners and developers, the community and volunteer groups can partner openly to create resources to be proud of.
To remain a desirable city, this ancient capital of England needs the cultural, sporting and social infrastructure that will retain and attract a vibrant population, providing long term economic and social benefit.
Strategic allocation of land and resources will ensure the city of Winchester is ahead of the requirement curve. To achieve this vision strategic planning must be incorporated at every major land development opportunity to deliver first class facilities both now and for future generations. Decisions we make now can provide a highly valued lasting legacy.
