The National Playing Fields Association (NPFA), from 2007 rebranded as Fields in Trust (FIT), was founded in 1925 and granted a Royal Charter in 1933. It is a British charity[1] which aims to protect and promote open spaces for sports and recreation in British cities and towns.
As well as campaigning to protect playing fields and open space, the NPFA is the owner of the King George's Fields,[2] 471 public recreation grounds set up as a memorial to King George V.
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The National Playing Fields Association (NPFA) is the major United Kingdom organisation dedicated to the provision of recreational space. It has the specific objective of acquiring, protecting and improving playing fields, playgrounds and playspace where they are most needed, and for those who need them most – in particular, children of all ages and people with disabilities.
The NPFA was set up in 1925 by Brigadier-General Reginald Kentish to provide healthy recreation opportunities for local communities throughout the United Kingdom. It protects and develops playing fields and play areas and it campaigns nationally for community recreational space. It manages around 13,000 acres of such provision nationwide through County Playing Fields Associations and other organisations.
The NPFA was founded by the Duke of York, later King George V, who was the first President. This royal link continues today with The Queen as Patron and The Duke of Edinburgh as President.
The NPFA is a charity incorporated by Royal Charter in 1932. The Charity’s affairs are conducted through its Council which meets quarterly to set the policy of the Association and to oversee its work. However, the NPFA is also linked to many bodies and membership of the organisation includes local authorities, individuals, playing field associations, schools and sports clubs. In 1972, NPFA supported the Bishop of Stepney, Trevor Huddleston, after his letter to The Times (31st July) denouncing the lack of play provision which had led to the deaths by drowning of 2 boys who lived in his diocese. This gave the impetus to the Fair Play for Children campaign.
NPFA has set standards for playground provision in the UK through The 6 Acre Standard which is widely used by local authorities as a basis, for erxample when stipulating play area provision for new housing development, and in local play policies.
The Duke of Edinburgh has been a generous and enthusiastic President since 1947; the Queen became Patron in 1952.
Recommendations on Outdoor Playing Space were first formulated in 1925, soon after the Association’s formation. This helped ensure that every man, woman and child in Great Britain should have the opportunity of participating in outdoor recreational activity within a reasonable distance of home during leisure hours. The NPFA urged all local authorities to adopt a minimum standard of provision of 5 acres (20,000 m2) of public open space for every 1,000 people, of which at least 4 acres (16,000 m2) should be set aside for team games, tennis, bowls and children’s playgrounds.
Since then, the NPFA has kept the recreational space standard under regular review. It now stands as the Six Acre Standard, recommending 6 acres (24,000 m2) per 1,000 head of population as a minimum necessity for space.
In 1992, the Association revised its recommendations on recreational space to include the Children’s Playing Space Standard aspect of the Six Acre Standard. Part of the recommendation then was a general statement of the need for adequate children’s playing space. Planners, developers and local authorities paid too little attention to play needs when they considered proposals for new housing developments. While such plans always included provision for adequate parking space for cars, there was often no similar requirement for playing space for children.
Children are the greatest users of the outdoor environment, but the streets in residential areas have been designed primarily for use by cars, and have been virtually taken over by them. The sheer volume of traffic has come to dominate their lives, and the process of play, it is therefore clear that firm and realistic guidelines on children’s playing space provision are urgently needed.
The NPFA supervises the property over which the Association acts as Guardian Trustee and ensures that it retains its charitable purpose.
The NPFA has a role in the protection of over 2,000 fields across the United Kingdom. In total, the NPFA’s land portfolio represents an interest over 13,000 acres (53 km²). More than half of the sites were funded in the 1920s and 1930s by the NPFA and the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust on the basis that the land would be kept as public playing fields in perpetuity. In all of its work, the NPFA is assisted by affiliated national and county associations and other partners.
The NPFA is the Trustee of the King George’s Fields Foundation (KGFF). The Foundation was established as a Memorial to the Late King George V by Trust Deed on 3 November, 1936. The objects of the Trust were "to promote and to assist in the establishment throughout the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland of Playing Fields for the use and enjoyment of the people every such Playing Field to be styled ‘King George’s Field’ and to be distinguished by heraldic panels or other appropriate tablet medallion or inscription commemorative of the King."
The Trust defined a playing field as ‘any open space used for the purpose of outdoor games, sports and pastimes’.
These playing fields have their origins in an appeal launched shortly after the death of George V in March 1936. Rather than finance the entire cost of a few schemes, grants were given towards the cost of as many fields as possible, the balance being raised by the local authority or other organisation providing the field and accepting responsibility for its maintenance. In most cases, the responsible body entered into a Deed of Dedication declaring that the recreation ground shall "be preserved in perpetuity as a Memorial to His Late Majesty under the provisions of the KGFF and shall henceforth be known as a 'King George’s Field'." The NPFA would act, as administrator, to look at and consider proposals in order to allocate grants.
A Charity Commission Scheme was made on 1 December, 1965 passing the trusteeship of the Foundation to the NPFA and, among other things, widening the objects of the Foundation to include the "preservation" of the King George’s Fields.
The Six Acre Standard aims to help land use planners ensure a sufficient level of open space to enable residents of all ages to participate in sports and games with an emphasis on access for children to play grounds and other play space.
The standard suggests that for each 1000 residents there should be 2.4 hectares (6 acres) as follows.
In its publication The Six Acre Standard, the NPFA outlines a more detailed breakdown including a hierarchy of child play space.
The Six Acre Standard has been reissued under the new name Planning and Design for Outdoor Sport and Play. It is a well regarded referencework for planners in the UK. It has been updated to include the modern planning regime and new topics such as sustainability and the local environment.