Pragmatism and flexibility in planning decisions is required now more than ever to get things moving in the recession, and this is as relevant to the sports and leisure industry as in other development sectors.

Latest estimates suggest that around £75 billion of development projects in the UK have been stalled because of the current financial crisis.

More likely political dogma than prudent financial planning, but high-profile sports and leisure projects such as those associated with the London 2012 Olympics are still firmly on the agenda.

These will provide a helpful boost to the sports and leisure industry during these challenging times, providing much needed employment, and a catalyst for development of other supporting sports and leisure services. These projects will clearly help but it is the planning system which will be under the spotlight and has an enhanced role to play in helping to facilitate the recovery in the development industry. This however presents a number of issues for the planning process.

Planning Authorities must apply more pragmatism to applications to get quicker decisions and help jump start the development industry, particularly with schemes offering employment.

Often sports and leisure projects, by their very nature, must be located in rural areas where more stringent planning policies apply, and it is in these areas, and not just cities, where investment and an economic catalyst is often most needed. This investment would retain and create employment and provide significant economic benefit. However, it is our experience that insufficient weight is being attached to these positive benefits in favour of concentrating on negative impacts of a development and applying policy to the letter of the law.

Although a controversial decision, Donald Trump's £1 billion golf complex development highlighted the importance that benefits to the economy, in this case in the form of 1,500 permanent jobs and the associated tourism benefits, should play in any planning decision.

Another example was the proposed Centre Parcs holiday complex at Warren Wood, Mid-Bedfordshire, where the Secretary of State argued that the economic and employment benefits of the proposal constituted very special circumstances and were sufficient to clearly outweigh the harm to Green Belt.

Both decisions were ended being made by central government, causing significant delays and uncertainty in the process.

With the viability of development projects under immense strain, there remains concern in the development industry regarding the often crippling requests for Section 106 obligations. This has led to concerns that the future arrival of the Community Infrastructure Levy may act as a major deterrent to leisure property investment, particularly as they will be additional to existing Section 106 contributions.

In addition, sustainability standards also pose a threat to the viability of sports and leisure schemes. While it is essential new buildings are as environmentally friendly as possible, flexible approaches to renewable energy provision are needed. Planning authorities need to balance the demand for low carbon developments against the need to foster economic recovery through the provision of the development and the jobs and revenue it will bring.

The recent Killian-Pretty review of the planning system has highlighted inefficiencies and a need for simplification within the planning system and the government must rectify these endemic problems.

This situation is not helped when local planning authorities' revenue from planning applications is falling steadily.

The number of applications fell on average by about 16% last year with some local authorities reporting that application fee income has declined by as much as 50 per cent. This is often resulting in redundancies within local authority planning departments and at the very least headaches in terms of operating an efficient service and welcoming new and often complex development initiatives.

While development has dried up at the current time, many sports and leisure developers and operators will be planning for the future and it's vital the industry can begin to get back on its feet without any additional delay. Confidence is key and having a clear idea about the timescale of getting planning decisions helps manage risk.

In these difficult times, planning needs to step up to the mark and help rather than be a hindrance.

It requires increased efforts from all sides, but rather than slavishly sticking to rigid, often inflexible methods of decision-making, local planning authorities must show pragmatism and flexibility to get decisions moving and the leisure and sports industry through this sticky patch.

Aaron Peate is an Associate at Indigo Planning, who are currently acting for a variety of sports and leisure operators and developers.

Indigo Planning are corporate members of the Leisure Property Forum (LPF).