Education Bill

Part of the debate – in the House of Lords at 5:00 pm on 19 June 2002.

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Photo of Baroness Blatch Baroness Blatch Shadow Deputy Leader of the House of Lords 5:00, 19 June 2002

My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Addington, picked up the very point that I was going to address. Many schools, especially primary schools, have a field—not a pitch, but an area specifically used for sport. There are running tracks that are not pitches. There are many grassed and tarmacadamed areas that are sports facilities but do not fall into the narrow definition of sports pitches. I have before me the Government's list— from the north of the country to its most southern tip—of school playing fields—the words in the Minister's Answer are "playing fields"—that have been sold off. In the list in front of me, in 47 of the 79 cases, playing fields were sold off and the moneys were not used to enhance sports facilities.

The Minister confined herself to a very narrow definition of school sports pitches. If the department feels strongly about this issue, it would be helpful to know what is its definition of the playing fields and playing areas that are used by schools for sports and—I agree with those who made the point—recreation for children. I agree with the noble Lord, Lord Addington, that in this context one has to think of a community wider than the school. There is now very much more community involvement with school facilities and schoolchildren involvement with community facilities.

Why is it that Kate Hoey was so unhappy and, indeed, remains so? On a recent phone-in programme on Radio 5 she again expressed her displeasure at what was still happening since she left office as a Minister. Despite the list of organisations mentioned by the Minister, as recently as February this year the director of the Playing Fields Association said:

"We were looking to the Government to protect playing fields, but what we have seen is tinkering in the system, which will not help".

I do not think that that is an answer. There is a glossing over of a real problem. The Government are in their sixth year and they must live up to what they said when they came into office in 1997—that is, that playing fields will not be under threat from them.