School playing fields sold amid obesity crisis

Sport facilities increasingly lost despite Government drive to promote outdoor spaces for children’s health

SALES of school playing fields have trebled in a year despite efforts by the Government to crack down on childhood obesity, official figures show.

Figures uncovered by The Daily Telegraph

show that the number of playing fields sold off by council-run schools trebled from six to 22 between 2018-19 and 2019-20.

Campaigners warned that it was the wrong time to be selling playing fields given that Covid-19 is known to spread less easily outdoors.

The Telegraph campaigned against the sale of school fields after the success of the 2012 Olympics in London.

The Government has been publishing annual figures about the sales of school playing fields – and the reasons for the decisions – since 2012. In all the cases, the money made from sales is reinvested in the school, but the sale of land for children to run and play on will be worrying for politicians and campaigners against childhood obesity.

Figures for 2019-20 show playing fields were sold in the West Midlands, Merseyside, Northamptonshire, Doncaster, Suffolk, Durham, Nottingham, Gloucestershire and Stoke-on-trent.

The most recent incidents were in June when pitches were sold by De Stafford School in Surrey and the former Baverstock Academy in Birmingham,

with the profits used to invest in an all-weather pitch and rebuilding a primary school.

Also in June, playing fields were sold at St Richard’s Primary School in Surrey to pay for a “new multi-use games area and trim trail”.

A month earlier, Stourport High School in Worcestershire sold part of its playing field for housing and “building improvements on site and the addition of a new all-weather pitch”, it said.

Layla Moran, the Liberal Democrat leadership challenger who lost out to

Sir Ed Davey last week, said: “With the impact of coronavirus on children’s activity I am calling for a ban on the selloff of playing fields.

“It’s a disgrace that fewer schoolchildren will have anywhere to play. This short-sighted sell-off of the family silver is going to have serious health implications for a generation of young people.

“The Government has cut education funding to such an extent schools are being forced to flog their playing fields to make ends meet. This is the clearest indication why schools need more support and a more generous funding settlement.”

Helen Griffiths, Fields in Trust’s chief executive, said: “It is vital that outdoor space remains available for play and sport as well as delivering the wider curriculum. It is difficult to maintain social distancing in indoor sports halls and many remain out of bounds.”

Department for Education sources stressed that parts of fields were being sold, and that the rules prohibit any sale that would impact the curriculum or reduce access to sporting activity.