Local Football Facility Plan County Durham

Demographics for the area can be seen below:

Local authority

The Durham County Council Plan (2022-26) sets out how the Council is contributing to achieving the people’s vision and to ensure that resources are used in a transparent and effective way, by setting out priorities to support the economy, the environment and the communities, and further improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the Council for everyone’s benefit. It identifies what it wants to achieve: themes, priorities and objectives:

• Our Economy - Durham has a thriving and inclusive economy with more and better jobs and fewer people suffering from the hardships of poverty and deprivation.
• Our Environment - Durham has taken action to tackle the climate emergency, reduce the impact of pollution and waste on our county and protect, restore and sustain our natural environment
• Our People - Durham is a place where people will enjoy fulfilling, long and independent lives
• Our Communities - Durham is a great county in which to live, with flourishing communities which are connected and supportive of each other
• Our Council - Durham County Council has a reputation for listening to its residents, being well-managed and getting things done

In 2022/23, the Council will receive additional core funding of £16.9 million from the Comprehensive Spending Review and the provisional Local Government Settlement. This will be vital in ensuring that significant ongoing budget pressures can be financed – which total approximately £45 million in 2022/23. Frontline services were fully protected in 2022/23 and previously agreed savings of £1.227 million together with new additional corporate savings of £1.2 million were agreed for 2022/23, which provided £2.447 million of efficiencies to support the 2022/23 budget.

The 2022/23 budget included some very positive outcomes for the people of County Durham, including relevant to football, significant investment in capital expenditure including investment in school provision with several new school rebuilds planned. In total, additional capital investment of £119.9 million was agreed as part of the Medium Term Financial Plan, with the Council committed to a Capital Programme in excess of £600 million over the next three years - the most ambitious and significant level of investment the Council has ever agreed.

The local authority has a Playing Pitch Strategy (PPS) produced in 2019. The key findings for football include a shortfall of full sized 3G AGPs and capacity shortfalls for grass youth 11v11 and youth 9v9 football pitches (north and west areas). Strategic focuses include the need to develop more full size 3G AGPs, to continue to facilitate growth at multi-team clubs and support them with facilities, to manage the transition from central venues for mini soccer teams into home and away leagues requiring pitches within the County and to support access to provision in rural parts of the County. There is a prevalence of central venue play for County Durham based teams playing in leagues based at sites in Sunderland and South Tyneside. A strategic priority should be to help grow central venue play at specific formats as more 3G APGs are built in Durham and to explore opportunity to develop sub-regional divisions to reduce the requirement for travel so that teams based in the County can play central venue football within it. The PPS identifies much greater grass pitch capacity shortfalls for other sports such as rugby union, cricket and to a lesser degree rugby league, with additional compliant 3G AGPs potentially a need for rugby union especially.

County Football Association

County Durham is covered by the Durham 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 Delivery Manager and Regional Technical Project Manager at the Football Foundation work collaboratively with the County FA to provide pre-application support and lead on the delivery of priority projects for potential investment. The Regional Facility Planning Manager (FPM) will lead and be responsible for all aspects of strategic planning and will lead on refreshing of LFFPs.

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 Foundation of Light and the Newcastle United Foundation run a variety of engagement, football and sporting activities in the local area.

Local leisure operator

There is no leisure operator for community football facilities in County Durham, with Council managed facilities operated in-house directly by Durham County Council. It currently runs 15 leisure centre sites including the following key sites for football:

• Consett Leisure Centre (at Consett Academy) - full sized 3G AGP, 2x grass football pitches (various formats)
• Meadowfield Leisure Centre - full sized 3G AGP, 3x grass football pitches (various formats)
• Riverside Sports Pavilion - full sized 3G AGP, 5x grass football pitches (various formats), athletics track, cricket pitches, american football pitch.
• Seaham Leisure Centre - 2x grass football pitches, rugby union pitch
• Shildon Sunnydale Leisure Centre - small size 3G AGP, 4x grass football pitches (various formats)
• Teesdale Leisure Centre - 5v5 3G AGP
• Wolsingham Leisure Centre - 7v7 3G AGP

Local consultation

Local consultation took place with a broad and diverse set of community groups to inform the development of the 2019 LFFP, as well as to inform and develop the 2019 PPS. See Appendix B for full list of consultees who helped inform the LFFP update. It is a requirement that all projects that move through to application phase undertake detailed community engagement to ensure that facilities fully serve the communities they are being designed for.

Clubs

There are over 91,000 community football teams in England, spread over an expansive network of clubs and leagues. County Durham has a total of 1,063 teams, of which 105 are linked to universities as part of student sport programmes.

Survive. Revive. Thrive is the FA Grassroots Football Strategy 2020-2024. To deliver the goals for male and female football, there must be a vibrant, best-in-class club network around the country. The FA will work to encourage as many clubs as possible to achieve FA-Accredited status, assuring quality in everything they offer, including ever-safer and stronger player pathways. This will be coupled with a commitment to improve the quality of thousands of pitches up and down the country, with a particular focus on grass pitches.

Over the last 10-years there has been a significant national increase in the number of large multi-team football clubs. In County Durham, 32 clubs have more than 10 registered teams. The largest of these (with 20+ teams, based upon 2022/23 affiliation data) are:

• Chester-le-Street United - 64 teams
• Consett AFC - 40 teams
• Durham United Youth FC - 38 teams
• Spennymoor Town - 37 teams
• Beamish Youth FC - 30 teams
• Deerness Valley Youth FC - 30 teams
• Shincliffe Juniors - 29 teams
• Chester-le-Street Waldridge Park Juniors - 23 teams
• Newton Aycliffe Youth - 22 teams
• Shotton Colts - 21 teams

Leagues

Five leagues operate in County Durham. They offer competitive opportunity for many different players, including women and girls, disability, youth and adults. While there are no specific league opportunities for disability within County Durham, there is however suitable provision provided in neighbouring Sunderland (Ford Quarry Hub) and Middlesbrough (Herlingshaw Centre).

County Durham's largest local leagues (2022/23) include:

• Russell Foster Youth League - 493 County Durham based teams (both central venue at multiple sites and home and away)
• Durham County FA leagues - 98 County Durham based teams (both central venue and home and away)
• Swinburne Maddison Durham Sunday League - 47 County Durham based teams (home and away)
• Frank Hudson Transport Crook & District League - 12 County Durham based teams (home and away)
• CM Flooring Consett & District Sunday League - 21 County Durham based teams (home and away)
• Teesside Junior Football Alliance League - 83 County Durham based teams (home and away)

The County FA reports that there is significant cross boundary migration in County Durham due to mini soccer teams migrating both inwards and outwards to play at league central venues used by the Russell Foster Youth League. Some age groups are based at venues within County Durham and so experience import of teams, whilst some are based in Sunderland (Washington and Ford Quarry 3G hub football hubs) and South Tyneside (Monkton Stadium in Jarrow, Temple Park Leisure Centre in South Shields) and so County Durham based teams export demand to play there. Teams in the North East Junior Football League (predominantly covering Gateshead) also import demand to access Beamish Football Centre, Consett AFC and North Durham Academy as central venues.

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 County Durham there are eight football teams specifically for disabled players, offering competitive football within the North East Adult Ability Counts League. 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 had big ambitions for women and girls football and managed to double levels of participation between 2017 and 2020. To achieve this required a combined effort across four pathways: education, recreation, competition and talent. Despite achieving this ambitious target more places to play are still required for women and girls. The focus now is to give all girls equal access to football by 2024 and this will be a key objective of any facility investment. The FA’s four-year strategy, titled Inspiring Positive Change, pledges to create a sustainable future for women’s and girls’ football in England. The strategy outlines eight transformational objectives to be achieved by 2024, the following across grassroots football:

• Early Participation – Every primary school-aged girl to have equal access to football in school and in clubs.
• Development Participation – Every girl to have equal access to participate for fun, for competition and for excellence.
• Club Player Pathway – Collaborate with clubs to develop an effective high-performance, inclusive player-centred pathway.
• Football For All – Recruit and support a motivated, diverse range of local leaders organising football for their communities.
• Coaching – Support the development of exceptional coaches at every level of the game who are representative of our society.
• Refereeing – Ensure that every female referee afforded high-quality bespoke learning and development opportunities from grassroots through to the elite game.

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. County Durham has six FA Wildcats girls football centres and the priority is to grow this activity. FA Squad Girls' football sessions provide girls aged 12-14 with a fun, non-competitive way to play football locally with friends, whether completely new to football, transitioning from Wildcats, or simply wanting to play. County Durham has one registered FA Squad session for 2022/23.

At 138 teams (including 22 dedicated girls mini soccer teams) and with many more girls playing within mixed youth teams, the number of female teams in County Durham 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. The local girls league provision is as part of the Russell Foster Youth League, in which matches are played both on a home and away and a central venue basis (dependent on team age). It is expected to grow its provision in future years. The local adult female league is the Durham County FA Women's League. Its matches are also played on a home and away basis and it too is expected to grow its provision in future years.

For talented players, the most local FA Regional Talent Club (RTC) is run by Durham Women FC at Durham University. 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 (WSL) or Championship team is Durham Women FC which provides player pathway opportunities for gifted and talented female players and a spectator interest for fans. Durham Women FC has aspirations to develop or manage its own home site should the Club be promoted to the WSL again in future, as the Club currently plays on a 3G pitch at Durham University (Graham Sports Centre) and would require a grass pitch to meet WSL facility requirements.

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 AGPs or small-sided 3G centres.

Key local providers include:

• Leisure Leagues - at Meadowfield Leisure Centre, Wellfield School, Sedgefield Community College, St John's School & Sixth Form College, Park View School (North Lodge)
• Soccarena - at New Ferens Park

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 five FA Just Play centres in County Durham, as well as a further 16 walking football sessions. Walking football sessions are delivered by a range of community organisations such as Durham County Council and local affiliated clubs including Chester-le-Street Town FC, Catchgate FC, Consett Blackfyne, Spennymoor Town, Peterlee Helford, Middletown Wanderers, Shildon AFC and Durham Corinthians. Walking football and Just Play are County FA priorities for further growth and development.

The key strengths of local football in County Durham include adult and youth provision for both male and female and it is recommended that these are sustained and also encouraged to grow further. However, there are aspects of football provision that are lower than in local authorities of a similar size, such as recreational football participation.

It is therefore recommended that the future football development priorities for County Durham are:

1. Women's and girls'
2. Recreational football
3. Disability
4. Affiliated football (all formats)
5. Development and growth of County based 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. 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 Artificial Grass Pitches (AGPs)
• Improved grass pitches
• Off pitch and ancillary facilities (e.g. toilets, changing rooms, catering)
• Small sided facilities

To ensure a consistent and high quality approach, each local area has been 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 pitches 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 3G pitches 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, 3G pitches 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 pitches 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 are 18 full size 3G AGPs in County Durham:

• Belle Vue Stadium (Consett AFC, 100x64m)
• The Sir Bobby Robson Centre (Durham Community Business College, 95x55m)
• East Durham College (Peterlee Campus, 102x58m)
• King James I Academy (95x50m)
• Meadowfield Leisure Centre (95x55m)
• North Durham Academy (95x55m)
• Parkside Academy (100x64m)
• Riverside Sports Pavilion (100x64m)
• New Ferens Park (100x68m)
• Sedgefield Community College (90x47m)
• St Johns Catholic School & Sixth Form College (100x64m)
• Wellfield School (100x64m)
• Whitworth Park Academy
• Consett Academy & Leisure Centre (110x65m, rugby union build)
• Durham University - Graham Sports Centre x3 pitches (2x 100x64m, 1x 105x65m rugby union build)
• Durham Johnston Comprehensive (92x55m) - no floodlighting

Identified as a priority project for football within the 2019 LFFP, a new FF funded full size 3G AGP at Whitworth Park Academy has since been delivered.

There are a further 19 small size 3G AGPs across 19 sites, of which 15 are available for community use in some capacity. Three of these are of sufficient size (60x40m) to play a role for football team training and potential affiliated match play at:

• Beamish Football Centre
• Greenfield Community College
• Roseberry Playing Fields

Furthermore, there is also an indoor 3G AGP at Soccarena (30x20m) which closed in September 2023, whilst another five indoor 3G AGPs previously operated at AA Sports Centre (each 35x20m) which is also now closed.

County Durham has a PPS undertaken in 2019. The PPS indicated that there was a shortfall of ten full size 3G AGPs for football, which when reviewed alongside 2022/23 season affiliation data has increased to a shortfall of 12 full size 3G AGPs. Shortfalls remain in the following sub-areas, having increased in the North and Central areas since the PPS was produced, even when accounting for the new pitches since built at Wellfield School and Whitworth Park Academy:

• North area - shortfall of at least three full size 3G AGPs for football
• South area - shortfall of one full size 3G AGP for football
• East area - shortfall of two full size 3G AGPs for football
• Central area - shortfall of six full size 3G AGPs for football

Existing 3G AGP capacity for football is reduced in the North area as there is substantial rugby union use of the pitch at Consett Academy & Leisure Centre. Consequently, there is a need for at least three additional full size 3G AGPs for football, potentially more in future, to be reviewed in line with demand.

The West sub-area of the PPS is vast and captures most of the rural region of the County. Football demand across the West area is spread and is based in several more densely populated but relatively small settlements. Training demand for football in the West area is equivalent to one full size 3G AGP and is met locally by several small size 3G AGPs due to travel times across this catchment.

In addition to the shortfall of full size 3G AGPs there are also nine existing pitches which currently exceed or are approaching their respective surface lifespans and will require replacement within the coming three years. Five were previously FF funded or are managed via PFI contract and as such it is the contractual responsibility of the PFI provider to fund the renewal of these surfaces. Four were not initially FF funded but will require resurfacing, at Durham University - Graham Sports Centre (built 2009), East Durham College (Peterlee Campus, 2009), King James I Academy (2014) and New Ferens Park (2012).

There are proposals for the development of a new full size 3G AGP as part of redevelopment in the Central area. It is anticipated that, subject to planning, the pitch would be self-funded but would allow for community use. If built, this would reduce the shortfall of full size 3G pitches in the central area from six to five.

There are proposals for the development of two new full size 3G pitches at Riverside Sports Pavilion (North area), which in addition to the existing full size pitch would form a football hub with three full size 3G pitches alongside grass pitch provision. The project is led by Durham County Council and initially explored opportunity for FF funding, though it is now likely that if delivered the project would be self-funded. If built, this would reduce the shortfall of full size 3G pitches in the North area from three to one.

Both Shildon AFC and Greenfields College each aspire to develop full size 3G pitch provision, both located in the South area. The latter has an existing small size 3G pitch previously FF funded. Though there is not presently sufficient demand to require two additional pitches in the South area (beyond the project identified at Woodham Academy), these possible projects may be viable if able to meet demand from the Central area to reduce its shortfalls, or if demand increased in the South area in future.

Durham FA aspires to directly manage 3G pitch provision and is considering possible future options. This may or may not include possible opportunity for site relocation to develop a new County FA headquarters. A potential site would be located within or near to the Central area of the County and would have at least one full size 3G AGP, potentially multiple, as well as accompanying ancillary and building provision to which it would relocate its administrative operation.

Thirteen of the seventeen full size 3G AGPs are available for football community use to greater or lesser degree. The pitch at Consett Academy & Leisure Centre has a shared usage programme for midweek training, with peak time slots used for rugby union and approximately half of the midweek programme available for football. The pitch at Durham Johnston Comprehensive has no floodlighting and is unlikely to achieve planning consent for such, therefore is not able to be used for midweek training during the season. Durham University - Graham Sports Centre has three pitches but represents no substantial capacity for midweek community use for external groups, given the pitches are programmed predominantly for student sports clubs, leagues and programmes.

Fifteen of the seventeen full size pitches are on the FA 3G Pitch Register (meaning they are quality checked and can be used for football match play), with the pitches at Consett Academy & Leisure Centre and a pitch at Durham University - Graham Sports Centre also World Rugby registered and used heavily for rugby union activity. It is strongly recommended that the two remaining pitches at Sedgefield Community College and Durham Johnston Comprehensive are assessed and placed on the 3G Pitch Register to enable more match play on 3G. The former is subject to quality issues and requires resurfacing and the latter does not have floodlighting to allow for midweek training use, though the existing community use agreement does not presently benefit community football due to the lack of 3G registration to allow for match use during weekend daylight hours. Four small size 3G pitches are also on the FA 3G Pitch Register, at Roseberry Playing Fields, Beamish Football Centre, Shildon Sunnydale Leisure Centre and Greenlands Primary School.

The geographic spread of existing facilities is uneven; the majority are located in the central area of the County and more densely populated settlements within the North, East and South PPS sub-areas. There are no full size 3G AGPs in the West PPS sub-area, with demand in the likes of Wolsingham and Barnard Castle serviced by small size pitches, neither of which is suitable for match play. There remains provision gaps in the north, south and east areas despite high levels of population and high levels of football demand and it is recommended that these are addressed.

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

The Football Foundation is on a mission to transform the quality of grass football pitches across England, because great facilities enhance physical and mental wellbeing, strengthen communities and empower people. The quality of football pitches is a huge issue for community football; 150,000 matches were postponed due to poor pitches during the last full football season. We are therefore on a mission to improve 20,000 grass pitches across England.

The Grass Pitch Maintenance Fund is a £21m fund that provides eligible organisations with a tapered six-year grant to help them sustain pitches already at a 'good' level and enhance pitches that are either considered 'poor' or 'basic'. In order to be eligible, clubs and leagues must use the PitchPower app to assess their pitches. This provides a detailed assessment report with recommendations on improving the quality of grass pitches. The PitchPower app is available to all pitch owners as a way to assess grass pitch quality and gain access to grass pitch improvement recommendations. See Football Foundation | PitchPower

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.

Through the use of PitchPower we are able to identify the demand for investment into new or additional machinery and equipment and see this as an important step towards sustainability for the voluntary sector. Ensuring clubs and leagues can maintain their own sites, supplemented by contracted out major works (e.g. aeration) is potentially a more cost effective approach in the long term.

While the education sector (23.8%) and local authorities (51.8%) are still the principal asset owners of grass pitches and have the heaviest reliance for affiliated matches, clubs / leagues own or maintain an increasing share and we will continue to prioritise investment into sites that are maintained by clubs or leagues.

From the time of the 2019 LFFP, the introduction of PitchPower has allowed all Club owned and leased sites to apply for funding to improve grass pitch maintenance. Roseberry Playing Fields, Greenland Primary School, Dean Bank Recreational Ground, Beamish Football Centre and Oak Leaf Sports Complex were amongst sites previously highlighted as pitch improvement projects in the 2019 LFFP and have since been awarded Football Foundation investment.

Some clubs/sites have since been awarded Football Foundation investment through the Grass Pitch Maintenance Fund (GPMF), which should result in pitch quality improving over the next couple of seasons. The aim now should be to get the pitches up to the 'good' standard and work to sustain them. Organisations that have accessed the funding to improve pitches are:

• Beamish Football Centre (Beamish Youth FC)
• Burnside Working Men's Club Football Club (Burnside WMC)
• Brandon Cricket Club (Brandon Sports Club)​
• Crook Primary School (Crook Town AFC Youth)
• ​Dean Bank Recreation Ground (Ferryhill Town Council)
• Greenfield Community College (Greenfield Community & Arts College)
• Greenland Community Primary School (South Moor FC)
• Green Lane CE Primary School (Barnard Castle Youth FC)​
• Mainsforth Sports Complex (Ferryhill Town Council)
• Murton Welfare Recreational Grounds (Murton Recreational Charity)
• Oak Leaf Sports Complex (Newton Aycliffe Youth Centre AFC)​
• Park View School - North Lodge (Chester-le-Street United Youth FC)​
• Park View Community Centre (Chester-le-Street United Youth FC)​
• Roseberry Playing Fields (Chester Le Street Hilda Park Youth FC)​
• St John’s Catholic School & Sixth Form College (Bishop Auckland St Mary's FC)
• The Pavilion (Peterlee Town Council)

As well as the revenue funding available through GPMF, Dean Bank Recreation Ground (Ferryhill Town Council) and Ushaw Moor Park (Ushaw Moor Cricket Club) also received GPMF funding for additional pitch maintenance equipment.

There are currently 45 grass pitch sites in the local area that have been identified as either currently maintained, in part or whole, by grassroots clubs or leagues, or are maintained by the public sector but are of strategic importance to football locally. Of these, 33 have been assessed via PitchPower and are known to have 27 good (or better) quality pitches, 20 pitches are of basic quality and 29 are poor.

The total number of pitches includes club/league maintained sites which are a priority for grass pitch investment and are eligible for the Football Foundation's grass pitch maintenance fund. These sites are listed below:

• Dene Academy (Peterlee Town FC)
• Durham Academy (Deerness Valley Youth FC)
• Etherley Cricket Club (Etherley & District Welfare Association)
• Framwellgate School (Deerness Valley Youth FC)
• Greenland Primary School (additional pitches, South Moor FC)
• Hamsteels Colliery Welfare (Deerness Valley Youth FC)
• King James I Academy
• Middleton-in-Teesdale Primary School Playing Field (Middleton Wanderers FC)
• Pauline Charlton Sports Pavilion (Cockfield Parish Council/Cockfield Juniors AFC)

The priority now is to concentrate on those local authority owned sites that require improvements and agree sustainable solutions for pitch maintenance going forward. The first step is to ensure that all pitches have a baseline quality assessment done via PitchPower. Durham County Council has undertaken PitchPower assessments across seven of its football pitch sites, which are known to have a total of six basic quality and nine poor quality pitches.

It was determined that 12 County Council managed sites, ten education sites, six Parish/Town Council managed sites and two managed by community/welfare organisations should be prioritised for improvements, some of which may hold opportunity for future transfer to club or league led management and maintenance models. In total this will result in quality improvements to 88 full size pitch equivalents.

Thirty priority projects for potential investment have been identified. Pitch quality rating was evidenced by PitchPower (or the PPS and ratified by local partners where PitchPower data isn't available). Prioritisation was based on a rationale of selecting sites that had the most pitches, that were most well utilised, with a strategic focus to improve club/league managed pitches, key local authority managed sites and important sites in rural areas of the County.

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 AGPs 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 72 key grass pitch sites in County Durham of strategic importance, eight sites are identified as requiring improvement/replacement to existing ancillary facilities/pavilions and four have no facilities and require a new pavilion.

Subject to detailed exploration of site options for the possible development of new 3G AGPs, it may be that proposed sites could require the development of new or additional ancillary provision such as car parking, additional changing rooms and/or toilets to service increased use of the site brought about by having a 3G pitch. For example, in addition to the aforementioned required projects, there is also an identified need to provide a new external modular changing room facility to service the 3G AGP proposed at Seaham High School.

Great Aycliffe Town Council aspires to improve the pavilion facilities at Horndale Park and indicates that it would self-fund the project.

Thirteen 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, the audiences and the various facility types they relate to.

Research suggests that small-sided players in teams and leagues, and in organised 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 AGP 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.

Whilst our priorities will always be football led, we believe Small sided facilities provide a good opportunity to collaborate with other sports to deliver high quality spaces for people to play recreational sport. This will be achieved via our PlayZones Programme:

Football Foundation PlayZone Programme

PlayZones are modern, safe, and engaging facilities that are designed for recreational football and at least one other sport. There are a range of facility types to meet the needs of different sports.

Through this programme we want to address stubborn inequalities in activity levels and access to sports facilities within four priority groups:

• Lower socio-economic groups
• Women and girls
• Disabled people and people with long-term health conditions
• Ethnically diverse communities

Our research also shows us that when it comes to small sided facilities one size does not fit all and localised design and ownership will yield the greatest engagement from under represented groups. Activation is also as important as the facility itself for these groups. This section of the LFFP will concentrate on suitable places for PlayZones.

Suitable places will be identified through a combination of mapping, to include identification of our priority groups and crossover with other multi-sport priorities. Further community engagement will be required for design and delivery. Where some engagement has already been carried out projects will appear in the project list.

All projects will then need to be developed by a cross sector consortium where partners who understand and represent the people and the place come together to drive the project forward and create access and opportunities for priority groups.

Our research shows us that community engagement is the key to developing great small sided facilities and that we shouldn't try and identify sites without first identifying two key things:

• Key priority places within the local authority
• Key priority groups within the local authority

Once these two things are identified local community engagement is required to identify potential sites for investment. In County Durham, the starting point for priority places, identified through previous Local Authority work around deprivation and inactivity, is:

• Derwent Valley - Leadgate
• Durham Dales - Evenwood, Shildon, Willington
• East Durham - Seaham, Shotton, South Hetton
• Stanley - Catchgate

The key priority groups in County Durham are:

• Lower socio-economic groups
• Women and girls
• Disabled people and people with long-term health conditions
• Ethnically diverse communities

A range of local agencies were invited to participate in the LFFP consultation. Those that contributed are listed below:

• Wellbeing, Programme and Partnership Manager - Durham County Council
• Facilities & Investment Officer - Durham FA
• Delivery Manager - Football Foundation
• Planning Manager - Sport England
• Multi-Sport Network Manager - Active Partnerships
• Director of Operations - County Durham Sport
• Managing Director - Foundation of Light
• Facilities Development Manager (North) - Rugby Football Union
• Facilities Planning Manager (Recreational Game) - England & Wales Cricket Board
• Cricket Development Manager - Durham Cricket Board
• Facilities Relationship Manager - England Hockey
• National Clubs Manager - Rugby Football League
• Facilities Manager - Rugby Football League