Tommy Clucas Sports Hall Scoping

The Tommy Clucas Community Sports Hall

Scoping plan for the development of facilities for the benefit of the wider community.

Current facilities and background

The Tommy Clucas Memorial Fund is an Isle of Man registered charity which owns and operates the Tommy Clucas Community Sports Hall, which was opened on 1 September 2013 after 8 years of fund-raising efforts. The committee of the Charity comprise friends and family of Tom who lost his life in the Isle of Man Manx Grand Prix in 2004. The Sports Hall is $40 \mathrm{~m} \times 25 \mathrm{~m}, 3 \mathrm{G}$ Astroturf, with high quality LED sports hall lighting, and equipped for multi-sport use such as football, rugby, cricket, tennis, badminton, athletics and bowls. The Sports Hall is also often used for children's parties and has been used for football coach development courses.

Peel AFC is a not-for-profit football club in the Isle of Man and has a first floor clubroom, with tables, seating, bar and toilets licensed to hold around 70 persons. The clubroom is used by the Club for after match use by the home and visiting players and spectator, Club social events and for occasional community function use.

The matters for consideration to be addressed by this application

1. The Sports Hall committee would like to provide a soft play facility for the activity of pre-school children, likely 2 or 3 half days per week during the weekdays, however the equipment would need to be set-up and removed between each evening's Sports Hall sessions if the soft play was to be offered from the Sports Hall. Also, the small rubber pellets within the Astroturf would mean that the area of Astroturf used would likely need to be completely covered for use by the youngest children, which would be possible but involve significantly more equipment cost, and also more time to set-up and remove. The Sports Hall is also not equipped for parents to sit nearby, possibly with refreshments, while their children use the soft play facility.
2. The Sports Hall has been used for coach development sessions, which ideally seek to combine the use of the Sports Hall with a classroom environment, having used the clubroom when available. Again, as the clubroom is often in use at times of football matches, it cannot be offered for use as it is a single room which can mean that the Sports Hall is not considered appropriate for these coaching courses. Also, the clubroom is not equipped ideally for seminar/learning sessions. The Charity committee consider that the Sports Hall could be an ideal venue as a centre of excellence for coaching and also coach development sessions for most sports if a suitable, properly equipped classroom/seminar space was available.
3. The Charity often receives requests to use the football clubroom for events such as kids birthday parties to be combined with the use of the Sports Hall. However, as the clubroom is often in use at times of football matches, the combined facility cannot be offered as it is a single room.

1. Access to the first floor clubroom is not ideal for elderly or less able persons as there is no chair lift to the clubroom, and there is no room to fit a chair lift in the existing staircase, which also is considered possibly too steep for elderly persons.
2. Western Vikings RUFC and Valkyrs hockey club use the QEII school pitches, changing facilities, showers and car parking, but they do not have a clubroom where they can meet after the match, together with their opposition teams. Each club has previously enquired if they could share facilities with Peel AFC, however Peel AFC have noted that their clubroom is already often at or near capacity after home football matches so have previously determined that it would not be possible to share facilities with the other clubs.
3. The Sports Hall is used very sparingly during the weekdays - the soft play option would lead to use in parts of these days, although a different area is considered necessary (noted above). The Sports Hall committee wish to encourage daytime use of the facility and have had enquiries made in respect of walking football and walking netball. Enquirers have however noted that the hall lacks a sitting area where refreshments can be taken, and where persons can sit and watch the group, either having a rest or being there only socially. The sitting area would also be used by parents watching their children take part in activities - the parents currently have to stand in the entrance area of the hall which is not comfortable and can become crowded. We have had feedback from group leaders and parents that a viewing area with seating and available refreshments would be a great addition to the hall.

The proposed solution(s):

1. Construct an extension to the clubroom over the changing room/gym ground floor building, and entrance/storage area of the Sports Hall. The project would include new toilets and a clubroom that can be split into two, with the extra area set out and equipped for multi use as listed in the examples above to add to the usefulness of the sports hall for the wider community. Access would include a chair lift for the elderly and less able and a less inclined stair case. A sitting, refreshments and viewing area would be created above the existing entrance area of the sports hall, with viewing window added.

Car parking considerations

It is noted that in each of the above matters for consideration the persons who will use the additional facilities would already be on-site, or using the QEII school facilities across the road, except for the additional daytime useage targeted where the site is currently rarely utilised.

The additional facilities are not expected to increase the number of users of the site who would require parking, except for the additional daytime usage targeted where the site is currently rarely utilised, with comments in respect of car parking for each of the above scenarios set out below:

1. The sports hall and football club is facilities are used sparingly during the weekdays, therefore no issues perceived with the existing parking provisions for the soft play facility.
2. The sports hall is generally very well utilised at weekends, often at the same time as football matches take place. Persons attending football matches, and those using the sports hall at the same time, already use QEII School's parking facilities, as has been the case for many years. The use of the additional room in conjunction with the sports hall would not be expected to increase the requirement for parking as a group using the sports hall alone or using two rooms jointly would require the same car parking.
3. As 2 above.
4. Improvement of internal access is not expected to increase persons using facilities materially.
5. The Clubs already use the facilities of the QEII, including car parking, therefore no additional car parking is required.
6. As 1 above.

The car park on site for the sports hall/football club has 20 parking spaces which is ample for all times except when the football club have a match on a Saturday afternoon, at which time the parking on the grounds of the school is used by persons attending the football match and the sports hall. Again, the number of persons requiring parking is not expected to increase as a result of the improved facilities.

The site is situated on the main bus route from Peel to all other routes, is within easy walking distance of the centre of Peel and is opposite the QEII school which has significant car parking which is available to the public outside of school hours.