Geography in practice: Active Places Power

Active Places is the openly available, national sports facility database, mapping what sports facilities there are and where they are.

Through Active Places Power (APP), the interactive mapping and reporting tool, local authorities, national governing bodies for sport, and the wider sector can interrogate the millions of Active Places data points. Whether through user friendly dashboards or spatial analysis tools, complex insights can be unlocked.

Sport England demonstrates how through these analytical tools, Active Places is enabling data-driven, strategic planning and decision making. This analysis breaks down the barriers to participation, ensuring everyone has equal access to sports facilities.

In this webinar

• Sport England discussed how geospatial data is used to support planning, investment and decision making for sport and physical activity across England, particularly in addressing inequalities in access to facilities
• Active Places was introduced as the national sports facilities database, recording standardised information on sites and individual facilities, including facility types, access arrangements, ownership, management and operational status
• During the webinar, the structure of the data was explained, covering the relationship between sites and facilities and why assets like pitches and courts are grouped to support consistent reporting and analysis
• Active Places Power was presented as a separate interactive mapping platform, enabling users to explore facility provision across different areas, apply filters by geography, access type and ownership and download open data
• The role of the platform in supporting planning and investment decisions was highlighted, including assessing future facility demand and informing negotiations on developer contributions towards new or improved sports infrastructure. Through Active Places Power, Sport England have supported local authorities negotiate £21.5 million of investment into sports facilities between 2024–2025.

Please note: The views of our speakers do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Royal Geographical Society.

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