Knoll Park's football and basketball court is being resurfaced for about £47,000 with tarmac and fencing saved from Moulsecoomb. Work started on 5 August.

Work started on 5 August on rebuilding the multi-use games area at Knoll Park in Hangleton, at a cost of about £47,000, using recycled tarmac surfacing and steel fencing panels taken from the games area at Moulsecoomb Hub. The council says the job takes roughly two weeks, after which new lines will be painted for football and basketball (Brighton & Hove City Council, 5 August 2026).

Councillor Alan Robins, cabinet member for sport, recreation and libraries, said: “Parks officers were aware that the Knoll Park MUGA playing surface had been deteriorating for some time, and that it was reaching the end of its useful life.” The reuse approach, he said, gives “a cost effective and long-lasting playing surface for local residents for many years to come”.

The same court is now on its third site

This is the second time the council has moved a ball court rather than buying one, and both times the material came from the same place.

The games area at Moulsecoomb Hub was being removed to clear the site for the new housing and community hub development, which has planning permission granted in January 2023, a main contractor, Wates Residential, appointed in January 2025, demolition in spring 2025 and construction under way since spring 2026 (Moulsecoomb housing and community hub time plan). The replacement scheme there includes new sports facilities of its own.

Rather than scrap a serviceable court, the council’s sports facilities team moved it. The steel structure went to Hangleton Park, where an end-of-life surface was replaced and the rebuilt court was officially opened by the city Mayor, Councillor Amanda Grimshaw, on 13 January 2026 (Brighton & Hove City Council). Knoll Park is the second park to take material from the Moulsecoomb site.

Diagram showing the reuse chain: the Moulsecoomb Hub games area was removed for the housing and hub development, its steel structure went to Hangleton Park and opened in January 2026, and its surfacing and fencing panels went to Knoll Park in August 2026 at a cost of about £47,000

The Mayor said at the Hangleton opening: “I’d like to congratulate our sports facilities team for coming up with such a brilliant idea and showing that, just how much can be recycled when we put our minds to it!”

Where it is, and what else has changed there

Knoll Park sits in the Hangleton & Knoll ward, in the north west of the city between Hangleton and Portslade. The council’s own venue listing places it at approximately 50.8411 north, 0.1970 west, which falls in the BN3 7FF postcode area on the Office for National Statistics lookup.

The park’s playground was one of six reopened in October 2023 under the council’s playground refurbishment programme (Brighton & Hove City Council).

What it means for you

If your children use the court: on the council’s two-week estimate, the work should be finished in the week beginning 17 August. The council has not published a specific reopening date, so treat that as an estimate rather than a promise, and expect the surface to be fenced off until the lines are painted.

If you are wondering what it will be marked for: football and basketball, as before.

On the cost: £47,000 is the figure the council gives for the Knoll Park job, and it describes reusing the Moulsecoomb material as substantially cheaper than building new. The council has not published what a new court on the same footprint would have cost, so the saving is asserted rather than itemised.

More on parks, days out and family activities across the city is in our guide to things to do in Brighton.