Transforming Chalfont St Peter

For the last year or so I've been discussing with friends and acquaintances of how to improve the outdoor activity facilities for sports in the local area. This has subsequently developed into almost a "civic centre" for leisure and amenities in Chalfont St. Peter.

I have now developed it in my head so that instead of being a whimsical idea there is also some solid foundation behind it. The key assumptions are:

Lack of finance / grants available for sport in the area
Insufficient long term assets for playing sport in the area
All sports are currently fragmented in the local area
There is no sustainable, high profit way forward for sport in the area
No village focus to meet and congregate and become a community
A solid basis for encouraging youth and old people to stay active

So what's the answer to all of this?

I am suggesting a fundamental rethink of how all clubs and societies in the village work together and from a central base in Mill Meadow.

The idea would be to knock down the Chalfont St Peter FC, Community Centre, Library, Brownie Hut and the Tithe Barn and merge it all in to one big building with substantially improved facilities for:

Two large indoor halls - one as per the existing community centre and an additional for sport such as indoor hockey, netball, tennis, table tennis etc
Additional rooms / small halls for meetings, Brownies / Scouts etc
An all weather artificial pitch for tennis, hockey and football (not the new football astro type though)
The library with an Internet Cafe next to it so all members of the community can sit and read magazines / books
Have the Parish offices as part of the set-up and residents can find out information
Move the football pitch sideways to accommodate the astro
Investigate putting an athletics facility around the football pitch (Chiltern Harriers have no home / base at present from what I understand)
Incorporate the tennis courts on both the astro and the existing four courts down there
Re-invigorate if possible (and if room) the cricket pitch

I would also suggest that a not for profit management committee is set up to manage the assets and ensure they are profitable enough for regeneration for the future. They would also be responsible for each of the sports developing and providing funding for coaching youngsters from the area. Linking in with this I would therefore encourage a second astro to be built at the Community College to enable Sports to be developed in all weathers and encouraged and have the facilities for the evenings.

Other suggestions would be to:

Merge the Chalfont Saints Junior football club with the senior club and make Chalfont St Peter FC an amateur club ie they pay match fees to play and not receive them (which could be a huge problem for the long term)
Maintain the cricket pitch at Chalfont Park and use the venue for upmarket events - generating income for the whole complex - or sell the site for development and loose the cricket pitch
Have a youth "bar" and a normal adults bar
Possible site for boxing which has been talked about
Offer to manage all other green assets in the area eg Cheena Meadow Football Pitches, Chalfont Community College football pitches and thus increasing the available playing surfaces, Newland Park astro and football / rugby pitches
Manage the tennis and netball courts at the College and use them to develop those sports
Site all youth activity out of the new complex
Would there be room for indoor bowls - a booming sport for the elder generation in particular

How would this be financed? When an initial meeting was held in December 2002 this was all pie in the sky stuff. I would estimate the cost of this super complex to be in the region of £5 million. There is no lottery funding available for any project in Chalfont St Peter. Therefore I would propose the monies would come from:

Brownie Hut - £750,000
Tithe Barn - £1,000,000
Library - £250,000 (though this would have to be ploughed into moving the library)

That still leaves the total well short of the required. However, it has been noticed that Chiltern District has been ploughing money into the Leisure Trust for no return and maybe for two years this money could be invested in this project. In addition, I have heard on many occasions that there is insufficient parking in the village. The Church Lane car park is estimated to generate £80k / annum for Chiltern District Council therefore, the parking for the complex during the week / daytime (not weekend and evenings) could be paid for and effectively a loan from the District paid for by car parking.

At some point, the Community Centre will itself have to be rebuilt as it is a wooden shack - therefore there must be some slush fund available for this - I remember reading that they spent £60,000 on the flat roof alone.

It would be imperative for some business figures to be done for the model, in particular money to retain for investment to regenerate after it has been built, staffing for the complex and monies for sports coaching so that the complex becomes known almost as an Academy for sporting talent. Monies would be generated on an ongoing basis through a bar, match fees, membership fees - though it would be ideal to keep these to a minimum to ensure it is accessible for all.

In terms of planning logistics, the football club building is already there and so is the community centre so replacing them should not be a problem and lighting is already available for the football pitch - this is also old technology so lighting for the astro and athletics track / football pitch would probably be more environmentally friendly that the current lighting.

The only major issues would be if the building needed to be two or even three storey as it is built on a dump!! The astro at the College would also need careful resident liaison.