Sport England has objected to the Burntwood health centre plan over lost football pitches. Approving it would now mean a referral to the Secretary of State.

Sport England has lodged a statutory objection to Staffordshire County Council’s plan for a new health centre and 80-room care home on the former Open House site in Burntwood. Its response, dated 13 August, concludes that the loss of playing field land has not been justified.

The consequence matters more than the wording. Lichfield District Council can still approve the scheme. But if it does so against a Sport England objection, the case has to leave the district. Sport England’s letter cites the Town and Country Planning (Consultation) (England) Direction 2024, which requires the application to be referred to the Secretary of State through the National Planning Casework Unit.

The application, reference 26/00934/FULM, covers 3.2 hectares of land south of Milestone Way, Burntwood, postcode WS7 4RJ. It was validated on 30 July. The council’s determination deadline is 29 October.

What is proposed

The county council is asking for full permission for the health centre and pitches, and outline permission for the care home. According to its application form, the scheme is:

  • a health centre of 1,686 square metres
  • a care home of 1,467 square metres, with 80 rooms
  • three grass football pitches on about 1.8 hectares in the south of the site
  • a new access road, drainage, lighting and landscaping

The site has been vacant since 1 April 2024. The form describes its last use as a grassed area formerly used as playing pitches, with hard standing in the south-east corner where a building and a skatepark once stood.

Three sets of local NHS services would move into the new building. The county council’s statement of community involvement names them as Salters Meadow Health Centre, the temporary facility on the Burntwood Leisure Centre site, and the Darwin branch practice in Chasetown. The same document confirms two things residents asked about during consultation: the Darwin Medical Practice at Greenwood Health Centre stays where it is, and no pharmacy is proposed inside the new health centre.

Why Sport England objects

The objection turns on what was at Open House before. Sport England’s letter quotes two official records of the site. The council’s own Playing Pitch and Outdoor Sports Strategy lists one adult pitch, one youth 9v9, three mini 7v7 and three mini 5v5. A 2023 PitchPower assessment recorded one 11v11, one 9v9, one 7v7 and three 5v5, all at full size.

The three replacement pitches would measure 97.44m by 56m, 79.15m by 46m and 57m by 36m, including run-off. The Football Foundation, responding for the county FA, told Sport England that:

  • the scheme is a net loss of three pitches against the 2023 assessment
  • the pitches are drawn at minimum permitted dimensions
  • the largest may not be suitable for adult 11v11 football
Football pitches at the Open House site in Burntwood: the council's Playing Pitch and Outdoor Sports Strategy records eight, the 2023 PitchPower assessment recorded six, and the current application proposes three
What the two official records say was at Open House, against what the application proposes. Source: Sport England response of 13 August 2026 to application 26/00934/FULM.

Sport England’s policy allows five exceptions under which it will accept the loss of a playing field. Its letter works through all five and finds none of them met. On the central one, replacement provision, it says the scheme is not equivalent or better “in quantity, quality, accessibility or management”. It also notes that part of the proposed pitch layout would sit on the former community centre hardstanding, and asks for evidence that ground can be brought up to playing field quality.

The letter asks for further information before it would reconsider, including:

  • a playing field feasibility study and specification by a playing pitch agronomist
  • evidence of consultation with Midland Soccer Academy, the club displaced when the site closed
  • a walking route and parking plan linking the pitches to Burntwood Leisure Centre
  • changing room and toilet capacity at the leisure centre, which the council’s own strategy says needs improving
  • whether a community use agreement will be secured, and whether the displaced club gets priority access
  • whether the pitches will be built before the health centre

The town council backs the health centre, not the bundle

Burntwood Town Council told the district council on 11 August that members “were very supportive of the principle and wanted to see the medical centre delivered as quickly as possible”.

Its objection is to the shape of the application. The town council says it had previously been given “a clear understanding that this application would be for the medical centre only”. Bundling in the care home, it says, “introduces another element which could potentially complicate or delay the medical centre which Burntwood urgently needs”. Two separate applications would have let the medical centre proceed on its own merits.

Members also said the land had provided the youth club, skatepark and parkour facilities, and that pitches and open space are “not equivalent replacement provision for young people”.

The county council’s own pre-application consultation, which ran from 24 April to 14 May 2026 and drew 83 responses, points the same way. Of 78 online respondents, 85.9 per cent supported the health centre. On the care home, support and objection were level at 39.7 per cent each. Only 29.5 per cent supported every element of the scheme.

Not every consultee is unhappy. National Highways recorded no objection on 19 August. Staffordshire County Council, in its separate role as minerals and waste planning authority, had no comment. Lichfield District Council’s parks and leisure service asked for practical conditions on future maintenance, noting that the district would not be adopting any of the public open space.

The money is already set aside

Lichfield District Council allocated £1,152,110 of Community Infrastructure Levy money to the Burntwood Health Centre on 11 February 2025. Its Infrastructure Funding Statement 2025 lists the project’s status at 31 March 2025 as “awaiting planning application, due in April 2026 following Pre-App process”. The application arrived on 27 July, about three months later than that.

It is by far the largest single allocation the council made that day. The same round handed £200,000 to the Lichfield Canal restoration, £75,000 to Elford Community Park and £45,000 to a multi-use games area at Alrewas.

What it means for you

The application is still open. The council’s dates tab records a site notice expiring on 28 August and a press advertisement expiring on 10 September. The determination deadline is 29 October. Twenty-seven consultees have been asked for a view.

Comments go through the council’s planning portal under reference 26/00934/FULM. The case officer is Ian Long.

Two paths are now open to the council. It can refuse the application. Or it can approve it and refer the case to the Secretary of State, which adds time to a project the town council has already said Burntwood urgently needs. Nothing in the published file suggests a committee date has been set.

For applications elsewhere in the district, see our Lichfield planning applications page.