Queen Elizabeth II Field
A Queen Elizabeth II Field is an outdoor recreation area provided for the community as part of the Queen Elizabeth II Fields Challenge. A Queen Elizabeth II Field is permanently protected for the purpose of providing outdoor recreational spaces. In Scotland fields are known as a "Queen Elizabeth Field", since Her Majesty is the first Queen Elizabeth to rule in Scotland.
The Queen Elizabeth II Fields Challenge
The Queen Elizabeth II Fields Challenge was launched by Fields in Trust, which was formerly known as the National Playing Fields Association. It is a programme to celebrate Her Majesty's Diamond Jubilee of 2012, and also to marking the salutation of sport in the London Olympic and Paralympic Games of 2012 (held in Stratford, Essex) and the Commonwealth Games of 2014 (held in Glasgow). The patron of the challenge is His Royal Highness The Duke of Cambridge.
Fields in Trust does not assume ownership of any field but merely sponsors and regulates the enrolment of them.
Fields in Trust also look after the institution of the “King George V Playing Fields” or “King George's Fields”, which were established as a memorial to King George V.
Each field becoming a Queen Elizabeth II Field receives free of charge a specially commissioned commemorative plaque and a royal oak sapling grown from an acorn gathered from a Royal Estate. Such fields may, by their endorsement by the programme, have access to improvement grants.
Criteria
A field will be approved as a Queen Elizabeth II Field only if it is owned by the promoter and may lawfully be used as a playing field for outdoor, sport, play and/or recreation, in terms of legal title and planning rules.
Otherwise the criteria generally are:
- Generally the minimum size is half an acre.
- The sites may be an open space or may be provided with facilities and equipment;
- The principal use should be outdoor sport, play or recreation. However, there is flexibility and dedications including village halls and indoor leisure, heritage, cultural facilities that promote community recreation will be considered.
- The site must be in an accessible location and open to the public, whether held by a sports club under the Community Amateur Sports Club regime, or held as Public Open Space. It must be affordable for the local community.
- The site must have a local manager with active responsibilities for the quality of the facilities, maintenance, development, improving use and for financial and operational sustainability.
List of Queen Elizabeth II Fields
See List of Queen Elizabeth II Fields.