Lessons learnt
- Coproduction with residents needs to be followed through and continued.
Ensure a wide range of opinions are heard, including those of young people. Residents need to be included in communications as to why decisions are made, and whether any parts of the consultation could not be followed through. Outreach should not end after the initial activities and should be included in plans for ongoing maintenance.
- Engage with a wide range of local and professional stakeholders beforehand to ensure buy-in for the facility.
Identify key local stakeholders and professionals early to secure buy-in for the intervention. This may include local police officers, TRAs (or other local resident associations) and relevant teams within the council.
In the end, several aspects of the court's success relied on voluntary or semi-voluntary and unplanned interventions: the locking of the court; the provision of bin and bench; advice on materials etc. Ensuring active community involvement from the start creates opportunities for this kind of positive voluntarism to emerge.
- Ensure high quality and durable equipment is used.
Many residents cited the high-quality cage and bench as part of the success of the court, mitigating vandalism and increasing pride in the court. Conversely, wear to the court surface was a cause of concern.
- Agree long-term maintenance and responsibility before the court opens.
Residents were concerned that there was no maintenance plan, and some felt the TRA had taken on responsibilities, such as locking the court and dealing with problems, that should sit with the council. Agree who is responsible for maintenance, repairs, opening and closing, and resolving problems, and how this will be funded over time.
- Consider inclusion by design from the outset of developing the court.
Courts that are left open with no organised activity tend to be dominated by one group, often teenage boys.14 Consider options for teenage girls and very young children and be explicit about where and when they can use the court, or other spaces. This requires additional management responsibility but could include hosting local clubs and sports events, particularly for girls or specific age groups.
Parents or guardians should be considered in the design of the court. The bench at the court was particularly liked by parents who could sit and watch their children play.
- Small, non-traditional sports spaces appear to offer high value to people living nearby, especially given their relatively low cost.
Much of this site's success seems to come from its proximity to a number of homes in a relatively small area. Scaling the benefits of the court or similar interventions would, therefore, need a network of similar spaces rather than a single site. Councils could review infill sites on estates to identify suitable locations for similar hyperlocal non-traditional sports spaces.
Executive summary
In March 2026 a half-court for basketball and football opened on the Wyndham and Comber estate in Camberwell, Southwark. It was funded by the council's Public Health team and drew on findings from a 2024 resident consultation about estate priorities. This evaluation sought to understand how the half-court contributed to residents' health and wellbeing and what lessons can be learnt.
The mixed-methods evaluation used a realist-informed approach, asking what works, for whom, in what circumstances, and why. Methods comprised a review of council documents, mapping of the court's location against nearby green space and sports facilities, a resident survey (29 responses), and interviews with 6 professionals and 14 residents, including two young people. Interview transcripts were analysed using an artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted pipeline, with researcher review. Triangulation of findings across data sources focused on understanding what works with regard to the half-court and the mechanisms through which outcomes were achieved.
people took part: 29 surveyed, 14 residents and 6 professionals interviewed
minutes: median walk for Comber residents to an open-access court or pitch
features help explain the outcomes
Findings revealed that the court was well used by a wide range of people, with the primary user group being boys between the ages of roughly 8 and 16. The court appeared to be most used by residents living directly beside it (within a 2 to 3-minute walk) on the Comber estate. For Comber residents, their median walk to an openly accessible ball court or pitch reduced from roughly 12 to 2.5 minutes.
Resident participants reported many benefits: children made friends, parents met on the bench, a place was created for young people to do physical activity and possibly avoid being drawn into crime.
Initial complaints of noise were mitigated by locally imposed opening hours (enforced by locking the court). Views on this were split. Some residents complained of antisocial behaviour at the court, but professionals interviewed thought this reflected existing behaviour that now took place at the court, rather than an overall increase.
Four features of the court help to explain these outcomes: proximity to people's dwellings, safety through enclosure of the court, local ownership and the quality and fit for purpose of the court.
Limitations of this evaluation include the relatively small sample sizes and limited recruitment beyond the Comber estate. We report perceptions of the court's impact on health and physical activity through qualitative approaches. The court had been open for around six months at the time of evaluation, which allows limited time for the development of expected outcomes.
In conclusion, both residents and professionals participating in the evaluation felt the court brought many benefits to the estate, including feelings of social connectedness, and a place for young people to go. The success appeared to come from the court being hyperlocal, which also allowed (and benefited from) local problem solving. The implication of this for scaling the observed benefits would, therefore, suggest a similarly hyperlocal approach; a network of relatively small local interventions.