31st August 2026

Subject: Freedom of Information Request – Sports provision at Vale View Primary School / Harcourt Street, Stockport

To: Subject: Freedom of Information Request – Public Sports provision at Vale View Primary School / Harcourt Street, Stockport.

Dear FOI Team,

To: foi@dcms.gov.uk

I am making this request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

In January 2016, DCMS wrote to me stating that sports provision had been delivered at the former Harcourt Street site (now Vale View Primary School, North Reddish, Stockport) and had been made available for community use. This followed Sport England’s 2007 decision to withdraw its objection to Stockport Council’s planning application on playing-field-loss grounds, after the council proposed on-site sports provision at Harcourt Street and offsite improvements at Fir Tree Primary School.

I would be grateful if you could provide:

  1. All correspondence, briefings, or internal records between DCMS and Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council (or Sport England) between 2013 and 2016 concerning sports provision at the Harcourt Street/Vale View site, including any evidence submitted to support the claim that provision had been “delivered and made available for community use.”
  2. The name/job title of the official(s) who drafted or approved the January 2016 letter sent to me on this matter, and any internal sign-off record for it.
  3. Any evidence held by DCMS confirming that on-site sports facilities at Harcourt Street were, at any point, actually accessible to the public or the wider community (as opposed to school use only).
  4. Any records held regarding the offsite sports improvements proposed at Fir Tree Primary School, and any communications noting or considering the closure and disposal of the Fir Tree site in 2011.
  5. Any records of correspondence between DCMS/Sport England and Stockport Council reviewing or auditing whether the sports provision commitments used to secure Sport England’s withdrawal of objection were actually fulfilled.

If any of this information is held by Sport England rather than DCMS, please confirm this and, if possible, transfer the request under section 1(1) of the Act, or advise me so I can submit directly.

Please provide the information in electronic format. If any part of this request is refused, please specify the exemption relied upon and provide details of your internal review and ICO complaint procedures.

Yours faithfully,
Sheila Oliver