Local Football Facility Plan Breckland

Breckland is in the East Region.

The current population of the Authority (ONS 2018 Mid-Year Estimate) is 139,329. This is expected to rise to 158,078 by 2039.

Breckland is ranked 14th out of 45 LAs in the region, and 127 out of 317 LAs nationally on the Indices of Multiple Deprivation (ONS).

Its ethnic composition is primarily white (97.4%). This is substantially higher than the national average (85.4%).

The proportion of its population represented by the BAME community is 2.6%. This is well below the national average (14.6%)

Local authority

The Breckland Corporate Plan (2019-2023) sets a strategic vision for the District which is 'Breckland; A place where people and business can thrive'. A key priority relates to health and well being in which it sets out 11 commitments to residents. The most notable of these (and the most relevant to sport and football) are that it will:

• Maintain its current leisure provision but explore where it can enhance the provision of this across the District.
• Deliver a programme of Health and Wellbeing activities to residents.
• Lead and support activities and partnerships to address key local physical and mental health, social care and well being issues.
• Continue to ensure that its leisure provider delivers a broad range of options targeted at increasing physical activity within the District.

The Council has no playing pitch strategy (PPS) in place. In late 2019, Dereham Town Council (one of the five large market towns in the District) commissioned a PPS for its administrative area; it is anticipated that this will be completed in Summer 2020.

County football association

Breckland is covered by the Norfolk 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). The Norwich City Community Sports Foundation (CSF) runs a variety of health, education, engagement, football and sporting activities within the local area.

Local leisure operator

The five leisure facilities in the District service each of the main market towns. Four are managed by Parkwood Leisure, while one (in Watton) is managed by an independent trust. Breckland Leisure Centre & Waterworld is currently considered to be a key site for football. It contains several grass pitches and a full size AGP.

Local consultation

This has taken place with a broad and diverse set of community groups in (Breckland). 11 individuals (representing nine local organisations) were spoken to. The agencies consulted include:

• Active Norfolk
• Norwich Community Sport Foundation
• Breckland District Council

(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. Breckland has a total of 194 teams, which is comparable to 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 10-years there has been a significant national increase in the number of large multi-team football clubs. In Breckland, six clubs have more than 10 registered teams. These (based upon 2019-20 affiliation data) are:

• Bulldogs FC - 16 teams
• Dereham Town Youth FC - 16 teams
• Attleborough Town FC - 15 teams
• Dereham Saints FC - 12 teams
• Necton FC - 12 teams
• Swanton Morley FC - 12 teams

Leagues

Seven leagues cater for clubs and teams in Breckland. They offer competitive opportunity for many different players, including women and girls, youth and adults. There is no specific league opportunity for disability football within Breckland. The largest of the local leagues (2019-20) include:

• Norfolk Combined Youth Football League – 530 teams – home and away
• The Mid Norfolk Youth Football League – 148 teams – home and away
• The Norfolk Women’s & Girls Football League – 116 teams – home and away
• The Anglian Combination Football League – 103 teams– home and away

The County FA reports that there is limited cross boundary migration to/from Breckland.

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 Breckland, there is no football team/session 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. Breckland has four FA Wildcats girls football centres and the priority is to grow this activity.

At nine, Breckland’s number of female teams is lower than that in comparable local areas. The County FA’s priority is to support existing clubs to grow and encourage more to develop playing opportunities for females. The local league for both women's and girls football is the Norfolk Women’s & Girls Football League in which matches are played on a home and away basis. It is expected to grow its provision for girls and adult players in future years.

For talented players, the most local FA Regional Talent Club (RTC) is Essex FA which is located in Colchester. 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 West Ham United 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:

• Norfolk County FA, Neatherd High School
• Soccer Sixes, Breckland Leisure Centre & Waterworld

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 with a size 4 football with reduced ball bounce. It is the FA’s aim to ensure that futsal is available across the country.

There is currently one futsal team in Breckland. It is a County FA priority 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 no FA Just Play centres in Breckland. Walking football and Just Play are County FA priorities for further growth and development. Other local recreational football programmes, including PL Kicks, are delivered by a range of organisations including Norwich City CSF.

Informal football

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 Breckland is played throughout the authority. Breckland Waterworld and Gaymers Meadow are key heavily used site locations.

The key strengths of local football in Breckland include women’s, youth and adults’ provision and it is recommended that this is sustained and also encouraged to grow further. However, gaps in provision do exist, these include disability and futsal. It is therefore recommended that the future football development priorities for Breckland are to:

1. Initiate and grow disability football provision
2. Increase the number of youth teams playing futsal
3. Raise levels of female participation across all ages
4. Further develop recreational football provision
5. Expand and develop affiliated leagues operating within the district, including the Norfolk Women & Girls Football League, Norfolk Combined Youth Football League and Central & South Norfolk Football League.

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 Breckland. 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 each investment priority is 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.

There is one full-sized (11v11) 3G FTP at Dereham Neathered High School a smaller (7v7) facility at Northgate High School.

As noted earlier, there is no PPS and demand for full sized 3G FTPs is, therefore, calculated using the FA training ratio model 1:38. On the basis that there are 194 teams in Breckland, there is a requirement for five full sized 3G FTPs. There is currently one and there is thus a shortfall of four.

Both the existing venues are available for community use and the FTPs are both on the FA Register for 3G FTPs (meaning they are quality checked and can be used for football match play). Local consultation confirms the issues faced by clubs and teams in respect of limited 3G FTP availability and travel distances and the recommendations made in this plan are designed to help address this.

Both existing 3G FTPs are located to the north east of the local area in Dereham. There are provision gaps in the market towns of Thetford, Swaffham and Attleborough and there is also a recognised need for further provision in Dereham to accommodate current and future football demand.

Four priority projects for potential investment are identified. Each was selected based upon a rationale of good access, high population and geographic spread:

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 13 grass pitch sites in Breckland with three or more full-size pitch equivalents (or with fewer than three pitches but deemed to be of strategic importance). These contain 36 grass pitches.

Local consultation confirms the issues in respect of poor pitch quality at the well-utilised sites across the District. Of the 13 key pitch sites referenced above it was determined that six should be prioritised. This will result in quality improvements to 17 pitches:

Six priority projects for potential investment are identified. Pitch quality rating was evidenced by local partners. Prioritisation was based on a rationale of selecting sites in the poorest condition and that were, or offer the potential to be, best utilised.

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 key grass pitch sites in Breckland with three or more full-size pitch equivalents (or with fewer than three but deemed to be of strategic importance), seven have suitable changing rooms, five require improvement/replacement and one has no ancillary offer.

Six 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 have already been 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.

Local consultation reveals that, at present, no MUGAs are required to develop small sided football.

Castle Park in Thetford, has been identified as being a location which has the potential to benefit from a small sided, park-based, football venue offer.

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:

• Contract Officer - Breckland District Council
• Principal Planning Officer - Breckland District Council
• Community Development Manager - Norwich Community Sport Foundation
• Development Manager - Active Norfolk
• Planning Manager - Sport England
• Chairperson - Thetford Bulldogs FC
• Chairperson - Necton FC
• Chairperson - Dereham Saints FC
• Chairperson - Dereham Town Juniors FC
• First Team Manager - Dereham Town
• Contract Manager - Parkwood Leisure