Herringthorpe Leisure Site

A new proposal to improve facilities for Rugby and other sports

Herringthorpe Leisure Site is a place where people can enjoy a range of sporting and recreational activities, keeping fit and having fun! Proposed improvements to the site will continue this tradition by offering high quality recreational and sporting facilities for people of different ages and interests.

Latest News

Plans to develop sports facilities by an amateur rugby club on Rotherham 's Herringthorpe Playing Fields have been outlined at a public drop-in session.

On Monday, January 9, Rotherham Rugby Club held a drop in session for members of the public at the Rugby Club's Clubhouse on Clifton Lane to provide information and answer any questions they may have on the plans to develop facilities for rugby and other sporting activities. This event will be used to inform both planning and funding related aspects of the development.

The club aims to develop three rugby pitches for training, competitive matches and community development. These developments will encourage the expansion of amateur rugby in the Borough and the improvement of a major sports site in the borough. It will not affect the current availability of pitches on site as additional pitches will be created by rearranging the pitch layout.

In order to encourage the expansion of amateur rugby within the Borough, Rotherham Rugby Club Ltd., an amateur club which caters for a wide range of ages and abilities, has entered into discussions with Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council to lease an area of the playing fields which would accommodate 3 rugby pitches to be used for training and competitive matches. The club will also make the new facilities available to schools and for other community sports development activities. A public consultation has been undertaken which allowed local residents, site users and community representatives to comment on the proposals.

The club intends to improve the quality of the playing surfaces and in order to protect the improvements they would like to fence the area. The indicative boundary for the fence is shown by the red line in the picture. In order to reduce any visual impact, the fence would be of the green coated open wire mesh type.

Modern floodlighting designed, angled and positioned to focus light on the rugby pitches may also be installed. It is anticipated that the floodlight columns would be approximately 15m in height, which is lower than the existing mature trees along Badsley Street South and their usage would be subject to an agreed evening switch off time. The Council remains committed to developing new sport and leisure facilities at the Herringthorpe Leisure Site but due to the challenges presented by the Government's Comprehensive Spending Review, we are currently having to undertake significant work to review our budgets; as a result we have had to delay any further work on the leisure facility proposals.

Some of the current pitches will be relocated so that existing regular users will still be able to use them for their fixtures.

About Rotherham Rugby Club

Rotherham Rugby Club Ltd. was formed to promote the playing of amateur and community rugby in the town with Rotherham Phoenix as the senior amateur rugby section of the club. Currently Rotherham Phoenix has almost 100 registered players and officials and the Mini-Junior section has grown from an initial handful of players to almost 300 boys and girls taking part in 10 different age groups from 7year olds to under 17s.

Update on the Herringthorpe Leisure Site Proposal

The Council is committed to improving the sport and recreation facilities at Herringthorpe Playing Fields. However due to the current economic climate it has been necessary to delay its plans to develop the athletics stadium and playing pitches until such time as the economic conditions improve. We appreciate that some people may be disappointed by this delay, but we hope that they will understand that it is in the best long-term interests of the project to progress proposals only when conditions are right. As soon as we have any further news we will of course provide updates via this website.

Find out what improvements could be coming to the Herringthorpe Leisure Site!

Herringthorpe Leisure Site has for many years, been a place which everyone can use for leisure, taking part in sporting activities, keeping fit and having fun! The proposed improvements to the site will continue this tradition by offering high quality recreational and sporting facilities for people of different ages and interests.

Q. What is the Herringthorpe Leisure Site?

A. Herringthorpe Leisure Site, which is situated on Middle Lane, includes the Athletics Stadium and the playing fields.

The area has long been used as a sporting and community facility by Rotherham residents, with cricket, rugby, football and general recreation being enjoyed there for many years. Rotherham MBC understands the value of this site to the borough and the information presented here is to let people know about the next steps we are taking towards delivering the potential sport and recreation improvements.

Q. Why are improvements needed?

A. As part of the development of the Rotherham Playing Pitch Strategy, Rotherham MBC undertook research to better understand what local communities needed from their outdoor playing pitch facilities. In addition consultation with people using the athletics stadium identified the need for improvements. The main areas of concern were:

• improvements to playing surfaces
• better changing facilities
• more training facilities
• improved spectator facilities

Comments from Future users

"Rotherham FA, in conjunction with the Sheffield and Hallam FA, are pleased to have worked on this development for a number of years with Rotherham MBC. We are grateful to the Sheffield and Hallam County FA for their assistance and look forward to working with the council to help complete this substantial project as soon as possible.''

Dave Marshall - Rotherham FA

Q. What improvements are suggested at the Herringthorpe Leisure Site?

A.

• A full size, floodlit, all-weather pitch
• All weather, floodlit, five-aside areas
• Multi-use games area and children's play area
• A new 1000 seat grandstand for the athletics stadium
• Improvements to grass pitch areas

These improvements will provide better pitch drainage, fit for purpose changing and spectator facilities and a range of spaces suitable for both adults and young people to take part in sport and recreational activities.

Q. Where will the money come to pay for this?

A. The intention is to sell two areas of land (centred on the site of the former Herringthorpe Leisure Centre and all weather pitch, and the former depot/nursery site) to be developed for residential purposes.

The area currently used as playing fields is separate from these two sites and will be the focus of the sport and recreation improvements. The money raised from the sale will be used to provide funding that can attract the other external funds and partners, necessary to pay for all of the improvements.

Please click on the following link to view the Herringthorpe Consultation Plan

Comments from Future users

"Currently, Rotherham Hockey Club's activities are based on the outskirts of Rotherham as there are insufficient suitable facilities in the town. Having a much needed and secure "state of the art" Astroturf stadium for hockey in the town centre will be perfect for all year round activities and will enable the club to expand its links with the local community.''

''This will be an exciting sporting revolution for Rotherham, on a par with the recently opened leisure centres. It is good to know that the town will have these facilities and this will give us the sporting edge the town needs and a major boost to the development of the sport for young and old within the borough."

David Woodward - Rotherham Hockey Club

Q. What's happened recently?

A. The suggestions for improvements to the site were presented to the Council's Cabinet on 6th January 2010. The Members of the Cabinet agreed that the improvements would be beneficial to the residents of the borough and approved the following:

• That the proposal to improve the Herringthorpe Leisure site should be pursued.
• That the potential capital receipt from the two identified development sites is used to support the proposed improvements at the Herringthorpe Leisure site.
• That a strategy is developed to maximise the potential capital receipt for the two development sites, including a determination of the type and scale of development, and consideration of when to take the sites to the market.
• A report is taken back to Members once a strategy to market the development sites has been drafted.
• That information is provided to inform interested parties of the steps that are being taken to move the proposal forward.

The money from the sale of the development sites needs to be sufficient to support applications for external funding and therefore the timing of the sale is very important and will play a key role in determining how soon the improvements can be made. The strategy will therefore consider the market conditions and seek to identify when the value of the land is suffcient to support the improvements.

Q. What are the next steps?

A. Once a strategy is agreed it is likely that one of the first steps will be to undertake a number of standard surveys, which are necessary to obtain outline planning permission. These surveys are likely to include:

• Topographical survey - Tree survey, Phase 1 contaminated land and Phase 1 biodiversity survey - likely to take 4 - 6 weeks to commission and complete.
• Transport statement - likely to take 1 month but needs to be undertaken at the end of the process as it needs to be based on final layout.
• Community consultation to keep people involved and informed of progress, likely to include consultation events to show the proposed site layouts and obtain feedback. Timescales will be dependent upon the scope and extent of consultation required, but is likely to be around 3 months.
• Planning, Design & Access Statement - likely to take 2 to 3 weeks.
• Architectural services - existing site plan, existing site sections, proposed site plan, proposed site sections/elevations - likely to take 3-4 months.

It is possible that an outline planning application could be submitted within 12-15 months, and would have a 13 week (3 months) determination period, and therefore it could take 15-18 months to complete this work.

However, it is important to note that these timescales are variable and may be affected by a range of influences including the outcome of community consultation, other third party timescales, the market conditions and any unexpected issues.

Once this work is completed a report will be taken to the Council's Cabinet, which will include the outcome of the work and proposals on when the sites should be sold, in order to ensure the best price is obtained to support the sport and recreational improvements on the Herringthorpe Leisure Site.

Comments from Future users

''Rotherham Harriers and AC has provided local athletes with training and competition for over 120 years, and has an excellent record of enabling local talent both to develop to, and compete at the highest levels.

We welcome the proposal to improve athletics facilities and accommodation, which will greatly enhance training and administration activities so that we can deliver better opportunities for local athletes.

In addition, provision of spectator accommodation will mean that at long last we have a stadium and facilities in Rotherham which match those of most other clubs, and will lead to Rotherham becoming a key attractive venue for competitions.''

Steve Gaines - Rotherham Harriers and Athletics Club

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Last update: 18/01/2012