That’s a wrap: deal done for biggest sport and health investment in region
Date: 26 September 2024
A mind-boggling 26 leases and other legal agreements, three key sports teams, numerous sports funding and community organisations – the starting pistol has well and truly been fired on the biggest sport and health investment Plymouth has seen since the opening of the Life Centre.
Plymouth Argyle Football Club, Plymouth Argyle Community Trust, Plymouth Albion RFC, Plymouth City Council and Devonport Community Leisure Limited have now finished the negotiations and deals around parcels of land and buildings in and around the Brickfields site in Devonport.
With the complex paperwork complete, start on site for this transformational project is about to get underway.
Councillor Sue Dann, Cabinet Member for Customer Services, Sports and Leisure said: “It’s been a hugely complex scheme and is the most significant sports pitch hub development in Devon and Cornwall. All the players involved have been dedicated to the idea of this transformational sports regeneration scheme – not just for the elite super fit athletes but for creating revitalised facilities for the people of Plymouth – and Devonport in particular – to help them remain healthy and well.”
To give an idea of the complexities behind the scheme, Devonport Community Leisure Ltd had to relinquish their lease on the Brickfields building to enable the work on the hub to start. The hub is going to be run by Plymouth Argyle Community Trust, who have considerable experience of managing a community hub at Manadon. The athletic club is getting a new club house, but that means the old one will need to be demolished.
All the facilities had to comply with the exacting standards of the sports organisations in terms of ensuring the pitches are built to the right specifications. The timetabling of planned work is all designed to cause as little interruption as possible to programmed sporting events. Tied into all of these are funding agreements from organisations such as the Football Foundation and the Government’s Youth Investment Fund.
Part of this massive puzzle has included creating a pétanque terrain nearby for Plymouth Petanque club who had a terrain on the Brickfields site. Ensuring there is capacity for parking for visitors was also another consideration – and an underused car park is to be utilised at weekends for visitors.
Stoke Damerel Community College is to become the new home of hockey for the west of Plymouth, with a new, 2G sand pitch for both school and community use with modern flood lighting for all year round use. It will also be used for other sports and for the day-to-day PE needs of the college. A smaller rubber-crumb 3G surface is being built for football and contact rugby training and will replace the standing 20-year-old artificial surface. An improved grass playing pitch is also planned.
Work on these facilities is underway but for now all eyes are on the start of work at Brickfields. At the core of the proposals is a new permanent home for Plymouth Argyle’s youth wing, the Argyle Academy, and Plymouth Argyle Women.
Extensive community and sport facilities include new grass and all-weather 3G pitches, athletics facilities for the City of Plymouth Athletics Club and other users, play zones exclusively for public use, better public access, landscaped public areas, and parking.
Work on the community hub on the site of the former Brickfields sports centre has been progressing. The new hub, which will deliver much needed accessible and affordable community space to connect people and offer a wide range of wellbeing services.
Who is involved: the big players
- Plymouth City Council
- Plymouth Argyle FC
- Plymouth Argyle Community Trust
- Plymouth Albion RFC
- Devonport Community Leisure Ltd
On the team:
- Livewell South West
- City of Plymouth Athletic Club
- Plymouth Petanque
- Football Foundation
- Sport England
- Rugby Football Union
- England Hockey
- The Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS)
- Ministry of Defence