Local Football Facility Plan Bath and North East Somerset

Bath and North East Somerset is in the South West Region.

The current population of the Authority (ONS 2018 Mid-Year Estimate) is 187,751. This is expected to rise to 213,668 by 2039.

Bath and North East Somerset is ranked 29 out of 30 LAs in the region, and 274 out of 317 LAs nationally on the Indices of Multiple Deprivation (ONS).

Its ethnic composition is primarily white (94.58%). This is higher than the national average (85.4%).

The proportion of B&NE’s population represented by the BAME community is 5.42%. This is significantly below the national average (14.6%)

Local Authority

The Bath and North East Somerset Council Corporate Strategy 2020-2024 has one simple vision; to improve people’s lives. To achieve this, the Council aims to:

• Enable a step change in local renewable energy schemes including solar and wind power
• Promote a high-skill economy
• Maximise opportunities from new technologies to improve and deliver efficient, modern services
• Support the transition to a green, local economy
• Enable a major shift to walking, micro mobility (cycling), car-sharing, buses, and rail
• Promote healthy active lives
• Encourage a large and rapid improvement in the energy efficiency of our area’s buildings through carbon neutral development and energy efficiency retrofitting of the majority of existing building stock
• Increase natural environment carbon stores and biodiversity - for example, through planting more trees - and improve our bio-diversity, habitat and land management

To promote healthy active lives, the Authority is committed to providing high quality accessible leisure facilities and green open spaces for both local residents and visitors to the area.

The Authority has an up to date playing pitch strategy in place, which was produced in 2018. The Strategy illustrated that there is, at the time of publication, four full sized 3G FTPs in situ and a need for a further five. It must be noted that the method of calculation used the training demand model of 1:42.

County football association

Bath and North East Somerset is covered by the Somerset County FA. It provides governance for, and development support to, all aspects of local football including coaches, referees, volunteers, clubs and leagues; supporting football for all. The County FA has a designated facilities investment lead officer who works to ensure the right facilities are located in the right locations.

Football Foundation

The Regional Engagement Manager and Regional Technical Project Manager at the Football Foundation work collaboratively with the County FA to provide pre-application support to priority projects for potential investment.

Sport England

Has a network of planning managers who have a statutory role in the planning system to protect playing fields and provide consultation responses to planning applications relating to sporting facilities . They also play a key role in strategic planning for sports facilities, providing advice and support to local authorities to assess need for facilities in their local area.

Professional community club organisations (CCOs)

These offer a variety of programmes and services to support local communities (sporting and non-sporting). Bath City FC Foundation currently deliver a number of community programmes within Bath and North East Somerset.

Local leisure operator

GLL is the key leisure operator in Bath and North East Somerset. It currently runs a number of key sites including; Bath Sports and Leisure Centre, Keynsham Leisure Centre, Culverhay Leisure Centre, Odd Down Sports Ground and Chew Valley Leisure Centre.

Local consultation

This has taken place with a broad and diverse set of community groups in Bath and North East Somerset. 22 individuals (representing 20 local organisations) were spoken to. The agencies consulted include:

• Bath and North East Somerset Council
• A range of football clubs

(See Appendix B for full list of consultees)

Clubs

There are over 91,000 community football teams in England, spread over an expansive network of clubs and leagues. Bath and North East Somerset has a total of 429 teams, which is higher than lower local areas of a similar size.

The FA is investing to support clubs both on and off the pitch which includes an aim to have a qualified FA coach with every youth team by 2020/21. In addition, it will support 1,000 clubs to create full player pathways from youth to adult teams and develop 150 community football hubs with male and female pathways, disability and recreational playing opportunities.

Over the last ten years there has been a significant national increase in the number of large multi-team football clubs. In Bath and North East Somerset, 12 clubs have more than 10 registered teams. These are (based upon 2019-2020 affiliation data):

• Keynsham Town FC (Adult - M/F, Youth - M/F & Disability) – 35 teams
• Larkhall Athletic FC (Adult - M/F & Youth - M/F) – 26 teams
• Fry Club FC (Adult - M & Youth - M/F) – 22 teams
• Purnell Sports FC (Adult - M/F & Youth - M/F) – 20 teams
• Bath City Youth FC (Youth -M/F) – 20 teams
• FC Bath (Youth – M/F) – 20 teams
• Bath Arsenal Youth FC (Youth – M) – 19 teams
• Saltford FC (Adult - M & Youth - M) – 15 teams
• Paulton Rovers FC (Adult – M & Youth -M) – 14 teams
• Peasedown Albion FC (Adult – M & Youth - M) – 13 teams
• Westfield FC (Adult – M & Youth -M) – 13 teams
• Timsbury Athletic FC (Adult – M & Youth - M) – 10 teams

Leagues

While Bath and North East Somerset based clubs play in many leagues, two main ones cater specifically for clubs and teams in Bath and North East Somerset. They offer competitive opportunities for male youth and adult players and are:

• Midsomer Norton Youth League
• Bath & District (Men’s Sunday) League

While there are no specific league opportunities for women and girls and disability football within the Authority, suitable provision is made through the Somerset Girls League, Somerset Women’s League and Somerset FA Ability Counts League (all countywide).

The County FA reports some cross-boundary migration to/from Bath and North East Somerset due, for example, to teams playing in the Mid Somerset Men’s League and various Bristol and Wiltshire based leagues.

Disability football

There are 9.4 million people in England with a long-standing limiting disability, illness or condition which equates to 18% of the population – almost one in five. Football playing opportunities should be flexible, inclusive and accessible for everyone, whatever their level of ability. This could entail inclusion in mainstream activity or teams / sessions specifically for people with a disability.

In Bath and North East Somerset there are six football teams / sessions specifically for people with a disability. It is a priority of the County FA to grow this provision. For talented players the FA runs regional centres and England national squads.

Women and girls

The FA has big ambitions for the female game and aims to double levels of participation by 2020. To achieve this requires a combined effort across four pathways: education, recreation, competition and talent.

Education environments have a huge impact on the first experience of football for young girls. This pathway can offer many opportunities for females of all ages to develop and grow a lifelong interest in football.

FA Wildcats girls football centres provide the first step on the recreational pathway, the programme provides girls aged 5-11 with regular opportunities to play football in a fun and engaging environment. Bath and North East Somerset has four FA Wildcats girls football centres and the priority is to sustain this activity.

At 27, Bath and North East Somerset’s number of female teams compares well with local areas of a similar size. The County FA’s priority is to support existing clubs to grow and encourage more clubs to develop playing opportunities for females. The local girls’ league is the Somerset Girls League in which matches are played on a home and away basis. It is expected to grow its provision in future years. The local adult female league is the Somerset County Women’s League. Its matches are also played on a home and away basis and it too expects to grow its provision in future years.

For talented players, the most local FA Regional Talent Club (RTC) is Bristol City. However, the Somerset FA Girls Advanced Coaching Centre is available to talented female players from across the county. Higher level talent pathway opportunities are also provided regionally and nationally by the FA, culminating in the England Women’s national squads. The most local Women’s Super League team is also Bristol City which provides player pathway opportunities for gifted and talented female players and a spectator interest for fans.

Small sided football

Many different types of small-sided football are played in England, from teams and leagues to recreational and informal. It is an established and important part of the modern game.

Small-sided teams and leagues are organised and competitive activities; typically with players registered to clubs and affiliated to leagues and their county FAs. Examples include futsal and local small-sided leagues running at venues such as sports halls, 3G FTPs or small-sided 3G centres. Key local providers include:

• Football Mundial – Wellsway Sports Centre, Keynsham
• Football Mundial – University of Bath
• Soccer Sixes – Writhlington School
• Powerplay – Odd Down Sports Ground

Futsal is an exciting, fast-paced, small sided team game that is widely played across the world. Typically it is played on an indoor surface with hockey-sized goals and a size 4 football with reduced ball bounce. It is the FA’s aim to ensure that futsal is available across the country.

There are currently no formally affiliated futsal teams in Bath and North East Somerset although the County FA run numerous club and school festivals throughout the season that feed into the FA’s National Futsal Competition. It is a priority for the County FA to grow futsal for male, female, youth and adult players.

Recreational football

Recreational football is played where facilities are typically booked and there might be someone to help organise. Examples include FA Just Play sessions, walking football and casual pitch hire for small-sided match play.

There are currently two FA Just Play centres in Bath and North East Somerset. Walking football sessions are delivered by a range of community organisation such as Somerset FA. Walking football and Just Play are County FA priorities for further growth and development.

Informal football is played in local parks and green spaces – it is free, open access and often played spontaneously (normal clothing is worn). Common examples include a kick-about at a local park or on a multi-use games area (MUGA).

Currently, informal football in Bath and North East Somerset is played particularly in the north and south part of the Authority. Odd Down Sports Ground, Lansdown and Somerdale Pavilion are key well-used site locations.

The key strengths of local football in Bath and North East Somerset include male and female youth and adult football and it is recommended that this is sustained and encouraged to grow further. However, provision gaps include disability, recreational football and futsal. It is therefore recommended that the future football development priorities for Bath and North East Somerset are to:

1. Sustain and increase male adult/junior football
2. Continue to grow the women's game
3. Increase the number of recreational playing opportunities
4. Grow the number of disability teams
5. Promote futsal opportunity with the objective to develop teams and leagues.

The facilities required to assist this are now set out in the Assets and opportunities section.

Each priority project that progresses to a funding application via the Football Foundation will produce a detailed ‘site development plan’ specifying all football development activity, usage and key partner engagement.

This section reviews existing football facility assets in Bath and North East Somerset. It identifies current issues and presents opportunities for improvements, including a list of priority projects for potential investment. Local assets and opportunities have been reviewed in line with four investment priorities:

• 3G FTPs
• Improved grass pitches
• Changing room pavilions / clubhouses
• Small sided facilities

To ensure a consistent and high quality approach, each local area is reviewed applying a standard approach, supplemented by input from consultation with local partners and stakeholder organisations.

While investment priorities are reviewed individually, it is understood that they can be inter-reliant; account is, thus, taken of these potential connections.

3G FTPs are a high quality and indispensable part of modern football facilities; their impact cannot be underestimated. In recent years the industry has seen major innovations and improvements to artificial surfaces (and sports lighting). This has created playing surfaces that replicate a good standard natural turf pitch whilst significantly increasing levels of use (x20). All FTPs must have sports lighting to achieve this.

The high quality, consistent playing surface is the ideal environment to play the game and for young people to learn. With regular maintenance programmes, FTPs can be heavily used all year round with no decline in quality. They almost completely negate annoying fixture cancellations during winter months, helping football to be a key part of a regular physical activity habit.

High capacity levels offer a great opportunity to embrace all formats and engage all participants. A full-sized 3G caters for an average of 1,200 participants per week and is suitable for various location types. That means being fully inclusive to all sections of the community, with a particular focus on under-represented groups such as women and girls, people with a disability, BAME communities and people from lower socio-economic groups.

The way 3G FTPs are used is rapidly changing; current line-marking systems allow for match play across all formats of football (5v5, 7v7, 9v9 and 11v11). This enables significant levels of match-play to be transferred from grass to 3G.

The full-sized (11 v 11) 3G FTPs in Bath and North East Somerset are located at:

• Keynsham Town FC
• Odd Down Sports Ground .
• Somervale School
• Writhlington School
• Norton Hill School

In addition, there are currently seven smaller-sided 3G FTPs::

• St Marks CE School (9v9)
• Beechen Cliff (7v7)
• Mulberry Park ET Primary Academy (9v9)
• Midsomer Norton Sports Centre (two recreational cages)
• Keynsham Town FC (two recreational cages)

It should be noted that Bath University is proposing to install two new 3G FTPs at its Sports Training Village . These will be used solely by the University and will not be available to the wider pubic. The timescales for this development are currently unknown. Also, Bath City FC has ambitions to install a stadia (FIFA pro) 3G FTP. As this type of pitch is currently not funded by the Foundation, it is therefore not listed as a priority project.

Of the current provision, all five full sized 3G FTPs are both available for community use and on the FA Register (meaning that they are quality checked and can be used for football match play).

The geographic spread of existing facilities is uneven; there are provision gaps in the north of the Authority (Keynsham area) and also north of the City of Bath. Local club consultation supports this summary. For example, Fry Club FC, which currently has 22 teams, is located in Keynsham and currently has to access sites in the City of Bristol Authority area. Consultation also found an imbalance in provision in the City of Bath, with Odd Down Sports Hub serving clubs in the south, and no provision to the north. Clubs such as FC Bath would benefit from a similar facility to the north of the City.

The PPS , using the FA demand model of 1:42 calculated a need for nine full sized 3G FTPs, and a shortfall of five. Using the current FA model (which applies a ratio of 1:38) and current affiliation data (435 teams), this results in a need for for 11 full-sized 3G FTPs. There are currently seven full sized 3G pitch equivalents and there is thus a shortfall of four. Based upon consultation, this shortfall has been broken down into the 2018 PPS analysis areas and calculated utilising current affiliation data related to teams based in those areas. On this basis, the distribution of the five 3G FTPs required will be as follows:

• Bath Area - 2
• Keynsham Area - 1
• Rural Area - 1.

At this point in time, three priority projects for potential investment are identified. These will address the shortfalls in Bath and Keynsham. However, to date, no sites at which 3G FTP development could take place have been identified in the Rural Area, and further work is required to investigate possible locations in this area.

Playing fields are one of the most important resources for sport in England. All football players should have the opportunity to play on good quality grass pitches. However, FA data shows that 63% of pitches in England are poor / low quality and one in six games is cancelled. As such, poor pitch quality is consistently cited as the number one issue for players.

The priority is, therefore, to sustainably improve grass pitch quality across all main pitch owners (local authorities, education establishments and clubs). However, the level of maintenance required to obtain good quality standards is regularly affected by restricted budgets and limited knowledge/ training. Compaction and grass coverage are two key causes of poor quality pitches. Both are commonly treated via a maintenance driven solution (and do not necessarily require costly drainage schemes).

Playing fields are also a valuable resources for informal play and open-access sites are encouraged but, for many, problems such as dog fouling and vandalism mean that they need to be protected with mitigation measures such as fencing.

The key challenge is to create a sustainable approach to provide good quality football pitches for the long term. Most local authorities (78%) intend to increase pitch hire fees in the future. However, the majority of players (63%) believe facilities are already expensive and some (16%) believe prices are prohibitive. A sustainable solution should, therefore, carefully balance pitch quality and affordability.

While the education sector (37%) and local authorities (32%) are still the principal asset owners of grass pitches, clubs / leagues own or maintain an increasing share (currently 25%). Assets and opportunities have been considered across each sector.

Although large (3+ pitch) strategic sites are important and make up much of the project list within the LFFPs, this does not mean that other club, league and community/voluntary sites are not important or eligible for funding. These sites are key to the Football Foundation's Grass Pitch Programme to deliver 20,000 good quality pitches.

For more information click here.

PitchPower

The PitchPower app is the gateway to any grass pitch improvement funding. It is the tool that will allow clubs and organisations to complete pitch inspections and access funds.

If you haven't signed up and completed a PitchPower pitch inspection, you will need to do this before you can apply for the Grass Pitch Maintenance Fund.

Learn more by clicking here.

There are currently 19 grass pitch sites in Bath and North East Somerset with three or more full-size pitch equivalents (or with fewer than three pitches but deemed to be of strategic importance). These contain 102 grass pitches. Of these, 14 are considered to have good quality pitches while the pitches at the other five are of either standard or poor quality.

On this basis, of the 19 key pitch sites referenced, it was determined that five should be prioritised. This will result in quality improvements to 35 pitches:

Five priority projects for investment have been identified based upon the currently assessed condition of their pitches. Pitch quality rating was evidenced by the latest PPS and ratified via club and local agency consultation.

These can provide a number of different benefits. While the primary function is normally the provision of changing rooms to accommodate match-play and training (for players and officials), there can be equal value in facilities such as community and education rooms, catering facilities and spectator toilets.

Each project will take a progressive approach to pavilions and clubhouses (beyond the provision of changing rooms) and be open to new opportunities to engage the whole community. That means, creating environments that are welcoming to players, spectators, volunteers, officials and all sections of the community.

Such assets should support other investment priorities (e.g. 3G FTPs and grass pitches) and be located at sites that will have the greatest impact on local communities. To ensure this, focus is given to sites with three or more full-size pitch equivalents. However, as pitch quality is the number one priority for players this is prioritised before investment in changing room pavilions /clubhouses.

Clearly, facilities need to be well managed and maintained to keep them in a good state of repair. Consideration will be given to reviewing the best operator solution for key sites and the installation of revenue generating features such as catering facilities and community rooms. To achieve this, business plan support will be given to each priority project as it progresses to an application to the Football Foundation.

Of the 19 key grass pitch sites in Bath and North East Somerset with three or more full-size pitch equivalents (or with fewer than three but deemed to be of strategic importance) 15 have suitable changing rooms and three require improvement/replacement.

It should also be noted that Odd Down FC is seeking to upgrade its changing facilities. However, this will be funded through the Football Stadia Improvement Fund, and not as one of the projects proposed in this LFFP.

Three priority projects for potential investment are identified:

Good facilities are important to all small sided football players, but it is important to understand the different formats of the small-sided game and the various facility types they relate to.

Research suggests that small-sided players in teams and leagues, and in recreational sessions, prefer a 3G surface type because it replicates a good standard natural turf pitch. These facilities are already covered in the 3G FTP section of this LFFP.

Indoor environments currently accommodate 20% of football participation and are also popular with players in teams and leagues and recreational sessions . Indoor sports halls are most popular, along with some community halls and indoor 3G centres. Environments need to be engaging, have clear line-marking and the correct size goalposts.

Informal players require facilities that are open and free to access as this enables play opportunities that are often spontaneous. In these circumstances multi-use games areas (MUGAs) can be effective in areas of high urban population and limited green space. Such facilities can be modern, bright, creative and engaging. While this plan will identify suitable locations for such facilities, the design and specifics of the facility type can be agreed at a later stage with Football Foundation staff when projects are ready to progress to pre-application stage.

Parks and open green spaces are also important to informal play and require goalposts and zones that are free from litter and dog fouling.

Local consultation indicates that, at present, no indoor facilities require improvement to develop small sided football.

Two potential opportunities for MUGAs are identified. In each case the rationale is based on either the site being in an area of relative deprivation (Southside Centre) or those which are popular for recreational football where an improved facility would enhance recreational opportunity in the locality.

Local consultation indicates that, at present, no parks or open green spaces presently require improvement to develop small sided football.

A range of local agencies and larger (usually 10 plus team) local football clubs were invited to participate in the LFFP consultation. Those that contributed are listed below:

Keynsham Town FC
Larkhall Athletic (inc ladies & junior)
Fry Club FC (inc junior)
Purnell Sports (inc ladies & youth)
Bath City Youth FC
FC Bath (Youth)
Bath Arsenal (Youth)
Paulton Rovers FC
Westfield FC
Timsbury Athletic (inc Youth)
Clutton FC (survey)
Bath United FC (survey)
Hartcliffe FC (survey)
University of Bath
Radstock Town FC (survey)
Somer Valley Sports (survey)
Stockwood Green FC (survey)
Wellsway Sports Centre (Wellsway Academy)
Bath & North East Somerset Council
Wesport Active Sports Partnership