Urban development and the leisure dilemma: a case study of leisure and recreation in urban residential estates in the Lower Hunter, New South Wales

This paper examines the leisure and recreation activities and experiences of people living in urban residential estates in the Lower Hunter, New South Wales. Drawing on data collected in household surveys of residents aged 14 years and over in four residential estates, this paper profiles the respondents themselves, describes their leisure preferences and activities, and explains how they felt about how they experienced the leisure and recreation spaces and settings within, and adjacent to, their residential estates. The findings revealed that although the quantity and quality of recreation resources varied among the estates, some common themes emerged among respondents with respect to their leisure and recreation needs, perceptions, and demand. In particular, substantial numbers of respondents in each estate expressed dissatisfaction with recreation resource provision. There was an expressed need for larger areas of open space and parkland, and better facilities for a wider range of age groups. The authors concluded that leisure and recreation planning for urban residential estates is generally ad hoc and at best standards based, and characterised by the reproduction of familiar but inadequate leisure and play spaces. Supply was not based on sound empirical evidence of who occupies, or will occupy, homes in a particular estate, or of those people's leisure and recreational needs and how these affect equality.