For as long as I have been a member of Brighton and Hove Hockey Club, almost 20 years now, they have been searching for premises suitable for a major local sports club.  As the club has grown, and the standard of the teams has risen, this has become an even more important issue as hockey is now played exclusively on an artificial surface and, at national level, only on a sand-dressed or water-based Astroturf surface.

Various sites had been considered in and around Brighton and Hove but none were suitable in all respects, until we met with the Head of Cardinal Newman School in 2001 and discussed the prospect of utilising underused school fields between Cardinal Newman and BHASVIC.

The proposal for a pavilion, changing facilities, pitches and a hard playing area was one offering benefits to both the hockey club and the school, which could also provide much needed access to leisure and recreation facilities to other local schools and organisations.

From the Hockey Club perspective it was essential that there were two pitches of a quality and type suitable for National League level hockey to be played, which would also have floodlights to allow training sessions in the evening during the winter hockey season.  They also required social, catering and administration areas large enough to cater for the expanding membership.  In addition it was requested that a balcony be incorporated into the design from which to watch matches on the show pitch.

Both the school and the hockey club required changing and toilet facilities, which, along with the pavilion itself, would be readily accessible to wheelchair users and comply with the requirements of The Disability Discrimination Act.