ABSTRACT
Local government in the UK is still one of the most significant and influential players in the sport facility provision market. It has, however, experienced a considerable decline in terms of numbers of sport development officers embedded with the paid roles of government. Swimming pools, leisure centres, and Astroturf pitches alongside parks, multi-use games areas, and tennis courts remain a sizeable sport development resource. This is not to say that some NGBs and strategic agencies in sport, professional sport clubs and social enterprise have a varied and changeable relationship with how they ‘do’ sport development in such spaces and places. It is often considered that this policy space is the key forgotten landscape of sport development. This chapter reviews existing research in this area and maps out future concerns.
