School sports halls that are opening up to the public could ease pressures on leisure facilities in the district.

Two schools in Dover and Deal, Dover Christ Church Academy (DCCA) and Castle Community College, have already opened their sports halls to the public to help gain further income.

Speaking at a working group meeting for Dover Leisure Centre, Laura Corby, principal leisure officer at Dover District Council, said that a consultation into facilities revealed that there will be an excess of sports halls in the district in the next 10 years.

She said: “DCCA has recently opened up its sports hall, there’s a real importance for schools to do that to generate an income stream.

“Other schools provide sports halls to local communities.”

She said this was likely to become more frequent in the future.

Emma-Jane Allen, principal infrastructure officer at DDC, said: “It’s likely to happen at Castle Community College as well in their re-build, as they are thinking about how to open facilities to the public.”

It was suggested that if schools provided certain activities and facilities it could have an impact on what was needed at the new centre in Dover.

Speaking at the meeting, deputy leader of the council, Mike Connolly, said: “We are making a lot of assumptions on what we will provide at our new facility and on what we hope will be provided at schools and colleges. What certainty do we have of this?”

Ms Allen told him that the planners had not made an assumption that every school in the district would open its doors but taken into account those that would realistically do so.

Some schools, such as DCCA, have been built with the public in mind, with sports centres located further away from the main school to ensure security.

However, other schools such as the Duke of York’s Royal Military School could not do so.

Sir Roger Manwood’s School in Sandwich has separate facilities but lacks planning permission to open them to the public, but Ms Allen suggested this was something that the grammar school was considering changing.

It was also highlighted that the demand for sports was not restricted to term times or school hours and this would also need to be taken into account.

A consultation into all indoor sports provisions in the district is now under way. See http://dover-consult.limehouse.co.uk/portal or email comments to propertyservices@dover.gov.uk or regenerationdelivery@dover.gov.uk

The consultation closes May 6.