Local Football Facility Plan Burnley

Burnley is in the North West Region.

The current population of the Authority (ONS 2018 Mid-Year Estimate) is 88,527. This is expected to fall to 86,647 by 2039.

Burnley is ranked 5th out of 39 LAs in the region, and 16 out of 326 LAs nationally on the Indices of Multiple Deprivation (ONS).

Burnley's ethnic composition is primarily white (87%). This is slightly higher than the national average (85.4%).

The proportion of Burnley’s population represented by the BAME community is 13%. This is just below the national average (14.6%)

Local authority

The Burnley Borough Council Strategic Plan vision is to make the Borough a place of choice to live, work and visit. This is reflected in its two key priorities:

• Making Burnley a place where businesses want to invest, because of its skilled workforce and its competitive, modern economy.
• It will be a place where people want to live because of its clean and safe neighbourhoods, its reputation as a centre of educational excellence, and its beautiful parks and wild countryside.

To ensure that it is a place where people want to live, the Authority (in partnership with Burnley Leisure) will invest in three quality leisure facilities (St Peter’s, Padiham and the Prairie) to ensure they are attractive sites to encourage people to live healthy lives. It will also maintain its 550 hectares of parks and green spaces to the highest of standards, providing opportunities for people to enjoy and be proud of.

The Authority PPS was finalised in 2016 and was part of a joint PPS study with Pendle and Rossendale. The key findings and stated overarching priorities for Burnley are to improve the quality of natural turf grass football pitches across the borough and increase the stock of 3G FTPs to meet demand for local football clubs.

County football association

Burnley is covered by Lancashire 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). Burnley In the Community runs a variety of health, education, engagement, football and sporting activities within the local area.

Local leisure operator

Burnley Leisure is the key local leisure operator. It runs three key sites; St Peter’s Leisure Centre, Padiham Leisure Centre and the Prairie Sports Village. The latter is a key strategic site for football within Burnley as it has a full sized 3G FTP.

Local consultation

This has taken place with a broad and diverse set of community groups in Burnley. 15 individuals (representing 14 local organisations) were spoken to. The agencies consulted include:

• Lancashire County FA
• Burnley Borough Council
• Burnley Leisure
• Burnley FC in the Community

(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. Burnley has a total of 142 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 Burnley, five clubs have more than 10 registered teams. These are (based upon 2018-19 affiliation data):

• Fulledge Colts FC - 30 teams
• Rosegrove FC - 27 teams
• Padiham FC Juniors - 19 teams
• Burnley FC In The Community - 10 teams
• Burnley FC Women -10 teams

Leagues

Two leagues serve the majority of clubs and teams in Burnley. They offer competitive opportunities for different players, including juniors (boys and girls) and adult males. There are currently no specific disability or senior women's leagues operating in Burnley, however, this is deemed to be accommodated in neighbouring authorities. For disability football, the Lancashire County FA Ability Counts League, based in Preston, is considered to accommodate demand generated in Burnley as part of a more regional offering. Likewise, competitive senior ladies football leagues operate in neighbouring authorities including Blackburn, Pendle and Hyndburn. Notably, the Lancashire FA Women’s County League provides entry level grassroots provision up to regional football within the North West Women’s Regional League.

The main specifically local leagues (2018-19) are:

• North Valley & Burnley Unity League – 85 teams
• Burnley & District Sunday League – 10 teams

The County FA reports significant cross boundary migration to/from Pendle, Hyndburn, Ribble Valley and Blackburn due to teams playing in the Accrington & District Junior Football League, East Lancashire Football Alliance and East Lancashire Football League and the Pendle Charity League.

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 Burnley there are 14 football teams / sessions specifically for people with a disability. Provision is developed via AFC Burnley, Burnley FC in the Community, Burnley College and FC Ability. It is a priority of the County FA to grow and sustain 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. Burnley has one FA Wildcats girls football centre and the priority is to grow this activity.

At 16, Burnley’s number of female teams is comparable to 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. As noted above, the girls’ league which caters for local clubs and teams is the North Valley & Burnley Unity 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 Lancashire FA Women’s County League in which matches are played on a home and away basis; it too is expected to grow its provision in future years.

For talented players, the most local FA Regional Talent Club (RTC) is at Blackburn Rovers FC. 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 teams are Manchester City FC and Manchester United FC with Blackburn Rovers FC also competing in the FA Womens Championship. Collectively, these clubs provide 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:

• Soccer Burnley
• PSL and Prairie Sports Village
• Powerplay and Burnley College
• Soccersixes and Burnley College.

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 is currently one futsal teams in Burnley that play in the Red Rose Futsal League League at key site locations including Bolton. It is a priority for the County FA to grow futsal for all age groups.

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 is currently no FA Just Play centre in Burnley. Walking football sessions are delivered by a range of community organisations such as Burnley FC in the Community. Walking football and Just Play are County FA priorities for further growth and development.

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 Burnley is played particularly in the parks and open spaces and well used MUGAs of the local authority. Sites such as Townley Park, Thompson Park and Queens Park are key well-used site locations.

The key strengths of local football in Burnley include recreational community football, the high levels of interaction with and between the community partners listed above, growth in facility and access plus strong ties and links to the Town’s professional club and its diverse provision. It is recommended that this is sustained and also encouraged to grow further. However, there are aspects of football provision that are, relative to other comparable areas, less well developed. This includes adult male 11v11 football which has experienced significant decline in recent years. It is therefore recommended that the future football development priorities for Burnley are:

1. Refurbishment and development of new exciting facilities to support recreational football and meet demand and growth in the future.
2. Development of dedicated facilities at key strategic hub sites, supporting the growth of the traditional game as well as futsal.
3. Investment and development in pitch improvement.
4. Targeted hub site developments such as existing investment at Prairie and other identified key areas of the District such as Padiham.

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 Burnley. 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 Burnley are located at:

• Burnley College
• Gawthorpe Hall (Burnley FC training ground)
• Prairie Sports Village x 2

There are also eight small-sided 3G FTP facilities located at:

• Crow Wood Leisure (x 7)
• Burnley FC in the Community - Elite Training Centre

The Burnley PPS (2016) indicates a shortfall of two full size 3G FTPs relative to current and future demand. Since it was finalised, a new 3G FTP has been created at Prairie Sports Village, reducing this shortfall to one.

The 3G FTPs located at Burnley College and Prairie Sports Village are available for community use. Gawthorpe Hall is used exclusively by Burnley FC as a dedicated training facility and no wider community access is permitted, it is worth noting that this pitch has not been accounted when understanding need for current and future 3G FTP provision in Burnley. All community available 3G FTPs are on the FA Register (meaning they are quality checked and can be used for football match play).

The geographic spread is uneven; the majority of 3G FTP provision is located centrally in the local area. There is a specific identified facility gap in Padiham (located to the west of the area) based on high levels of population and club demand.

Two potential sites have therefore been identified in Padham which are; Padiham FC (stadia 3G FTP) or Fennyfold Playing Fields. Of these, one will be selected to meet the identified shortfall in the area.

Of the existing stock of facilities it is noted that the 3G FTP at Burnley College is poor quality and in need of resurfacing and as such has been included as a potential project for refurbishment. Two small sided projects have been identified through consultation aligned to recreational football, these are linked to Burnley Leisure and Burnley FC in the Community.

Four priority projects for potential investment are identified. Each was selected based upon a rationale of good access, high population, geographic spread, existing facility quality and high proportions of people from lower social economic groups :

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 five grass pitch sites in Burnley with three or more full-size pitch equivalents (or with fewer than three pitches but deemed to be of strategic importance). These contain 31 grass pitches.

Local consultation confirms the issue of poor pitch surface quality and it is the purpose of this plan to specifically improve the quality of pitches at the sites identified.

Of the five key pitch sites referenced above it was determined that four of these should be prioritised. This will result in quality improvements to 21 pitches.

Four priority projects for potential investment have been identified. Pitch quality rating was evidenced by the 2016 PPS and ratified by local partners. Prioritisation was based on a rationale of selecting sites which can accommodate the highest levels of usage and are of the poorest quality.

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 five key grass pitch sites in Burnley with three or more full-size pitch equivalents (or with fewer than three but deemed to be of strategic importance) three have suitable changing rooms (or are not deemed to require such provision), one requires improvement and two have no facilities and require new changing pavilions.

Further to this, it is identified that there is a need to refurbish changing facilities at the Elite Training Centre (Burnley FC in the Community) and this has, as a consequence, been included as a potential project. While changing facilities at this site do not cater for affiliated football, they are considered to be a vital facility for the social, sport and disability programming undertaken by Burnley FC in the Community.

Four 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 there is one potential project for indoor investment at Burnley College. The College aspires to refurbish its sports hall floor to a high specification to enable a variety of different sports to be played. During consultation it specifically highlighted an aspiration to develop futsal as a priority sport for both students and the community. It is noted that there is a growing demand for futsal across East Lancashire and consequently there is potential scope for the site to be a key asset for small sided football in the future.

Eight potential opportunities for MUGAs have been identified. In each case the rationale is based on the site being in an area of high urban population with the potential to cater for a significant proportion of people from lower social economic groups. Joint consultation was undertaken with Burnley Council, Burnley Leisure, Sport England (Pennine Lancashire Local Delivery Pilot) and Burnley FC in the Community to identify these eight potential projects.

No locations are identified to support small sided informal football through the development of facilities in parks/open spaces at this time. It is assumed that the development of small sided football will be catered for largely via development of the pre-identified MUGA projects.

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:

• Engagement Officer - Football Foundation
• Head of Facilities & Investment - Lancashire County FA
• Deputy Chief Executive Officer - Burnley FC in the Community
• General Manager - Burnley FC in the Community
• Head of Leisure Development - Burnley Leisure
• Green Spaces Manager - Burnley Council
• Club secretary - Burnley Town FC
• Club secretary - AFC Burnley
• Club secretary - Padiham Saints FC
• Chairman - Padiham FC
• Club secretary - Rosegrove FC
• Club secretary - Fulledge Colts FC
• Secretary - East Lancashire Football League
• Sport Academy Manager - Burnley College
• Business Manager - Shuttleworth College