GP

ned, well managed with a good walking surface, within or close to towns and villages.

Types of community, educational and health facilities vary considerably from community centres, schools and GP surgeries to police, fire and ambulance services. They form an essential network of support and are basic requirements for the underpinning of sustainable communities. Without basic services, communities tend to lack a sense of belonging and places tend to be little more than groups or estates of housing. Many of the schools in the East contribute towards indoor and outdoor sports provision and halls can be multi-purpose out of school hours. This need for a possible new school has been recognised in Baldrine and it is recognised that there may in the future need to be additional provision to serve additional development in the future on the edge of Douglas and Onchan. Development Brief DBH002g recognises a need to take account of need for a replacement Braddan School. For this reason, Strategic Reserve Sites will need to take both education and community facilities into account before release.

Assessment of current open space and community facilities

Table 15 sets out the key facilities in each Local Authority Area. The table illustrates the tendency for smaller settlements to have lower levels of community facilities and formal sports provision. It also highlights on a basic level deficits in existing provision helping give focus to where additional investment may need to be focused.

Open Space and Community facilities - existing provision

Type of land / amenity	Douglas	Laxey	Onchan	Braddan	Marown	Santon	Lonan
Amenity	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Places of Worship	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Burial Land	Y	N	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Child Care	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	N
Children's	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Outdoor Pitches	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	N	N
Post Offices	Y	Y	Y	Y	N	N	N
Doctors and Dentists	Y	Y	Y	Y	N	N	N
Schools	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	N	N
Skate Park/BMX	Y	Y	N	Y	Y	N	N
Allotments	Y	Y	N	N	N	Y	Y*
Golf Course	Y	N	Y	N	N	Y	N
Shooting Ranges	N	Y	N	Y	N	Y	N
Youth Club	Y	Y	Y	N	N	N	N
Sailing	Y	Y	N	Y	N	N	N
Equestrian Centres	N	N	Y	Y	Y	Y	N
Nursing Homes	Y	Y	N	N	N	N	N
Motorsport	Y	N	N	N	N	Y	N
Indoor Sports Facilities	Y	N	Y	N	N	N	N

*Laxey and Lonan allotment association within the boundary of Laxey

Outdoor Recreation and Amenity Space

The Community Audit records detailed information on recreation and amenity space. From this it is possible to analyse the data to determine if current provision is at an appropriate level given the population in the East. In order to create a benchmark against which the current provision can be assessed, the 'target' requirements for new residential developments are used.

The Strategic Plan sets out minimum recreation open space standards per 1,000 head of population for new residential developments of 10 dwellings or more. These are as follows:

• Sports pitches 1.8 hectares/ 1,000 population
• Childrens' play space 0.6 hectares/ 1,000 population
• Amenity space 0.8 hectares/1,000 population

Table 16 combines the separate Local Authority/Parish figures for the three categories of open space to give an overall figure for the East. For a comparison, figures have been benchmarked against the provisions required in the Strategic Plan 2016 to put the figures into context.

Open Space and Recreation in the East - summary figures

	Douglas	Braddan	Onchan	Laxey	Lonan	Marown	Santon	Isle of Man (East)	Strategic Plan Target	Difference
Amenity	0.80	3.98	2.37	1.07	9.18	0.67	9.29	1.78		+0.98
Children's	0.03	0.06	0.17	0.07	0.06	0.05	0.07	0.06		-0.54
Outdoor Pitches	0.84	0.55	0.05	0.89	0.00	0.51	0.00	0.61		-1.19
Overall Supply	1.67	4.59	2.59	2.03	9.24	0.94	9.36	2.39		-0.75

The Table above showing open space and recreation figures demonstrate some deficits in provision across the local authority areas and highlights where new provision may need to be provided as part of future development schemes. For example, it shows that the East of the Island has a generally high level of amenity space but has a lower level of sports pitch provision.

It is important to note that access to any kind of amenity space crosses Local Authority boundaries and residents living in one area may be regular users of amenities such as open space in neighbouring areas. In addition, these figures do not account for the differing demographics of each area and the population within distinct age groups has not been considered.

Table 11 does not assess the usage of facilities or current sporting trends or outdoor pursuits that do not require sports pitches. Isle of Man Sport is conducting their own Island wide study as to existing sports provision and usage.

Open Space and Community Proposal 1

Areas for residential growth identified in this Plan must take account of the needs for neighbourhood centres which will protect sufficient space for community health services and other social facilities. These could be provided within existing development, identified sites or on Strategic Reserve