Local Football Facility Plan Dartford

Dartford is in the south east region.

The current population of the authority (ONS 2017 Mid-Year Estimate) is 109,709. This is expected to rise to 131,965 by 2039.

Dartford is ranked 20 out of 67 LAs in the region, and 165 out of 326 LAs nationally on the Indices of Multiple Deprivation (ONS).

Dartford's ethnic composition is primarily white (87%). This is comparable to the national average (85.4%).

The proportion of Dartford’s population represented by the BAME community is 13%. This is similar to the national average (14.6%)

Local authority

Dartford's local plan (2011) is currently being updated however part of its vision for 2026 is that 'Community facilities, including schools, health centres, shops and sports and leisure facilities will be located where residents can easily reach them on foot and meeting the needs of young and old alike'

Dartford falls within the boundary of the Ebbsfleet Garden City development, which could deliver in the region of 15,000 new homes, and two new secondary schools in the borough.

The local authority has no Playing Pitch Strategy in place.

County football association

Dartford is covered by the Kent 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). There is no active CCO in Dartford .

Local leisure operator

There is no single leisure operator for community football facilities in Dartford . Gravesham Community Leisure operate the single leisure centre site in Dartford, at Swanscombe.

There are an additional two leisure centres in Dartford, Fairfield, Local authority owned and operated by Places Leisure and Becket Sport Centre.

Local consultation

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

• Ebsfleet Development Co.
• Halls AFC
• Orpington and Bromley District Sunday Football League

(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. Dartford has a total of 230 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 Dartford, 9 clubs have more than 10 registered teams. The largest of these (based upon 2018-19 affiliation data) are:

• Dartford FC - 17 teams
• Dartford FC Junior Section - 17 teams
• Dartford Royals - 12 teams
• Fleetdown United - 18 teams
• Halls AFC - 12 teams
• Hayden Youth Association (Youth) - 21 teams
• Kent Football United Youth - 18 teams
• Longfield Tigers -10 teams
• Swanscombe Tigers - 20 teams

Leagues

The County FA reports that there is significant cross boundary migration in Dartford due to teams migrating outwards to:

• ECFA Men's League
• ECFA Women's League
• Goals In Mind
• Junior Premier League
• Kent County Football League
• Kent Disability Football League
• Kent Girls/Ladies Football League
• London & Kent Suburban Football League
• London and South East Regional Womens Football League
• Maidstone Boys Primary
• Maidstone Minor Football League
• Medway Messenger Youth League
• National League U19 Alliance
• North Kent Sunday League
• North Kent Youth League
• Orpington and Bromley District Sunday Football League
• SCL Youth Development League
• Sevenoaks And District Football League
• South East London & Kent Youth League
• Southern Counties East Football League
• Southern Veterans League
• The National League
• Woolwich & Eltham Sunday Football Alliance

Disability football

There are 9.4million 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 Dartford there are 11 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. Dartford has 2 FA Wildcats girls football centres and the priority is to sustain this activity.

At 66, Dartfords’s number of female teams is higher than 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 Kent Girls/Ladies Football League and matches are played on a home and away basis. The league is expected to grow its provision in future years. The local adult female leagues are the Kent Girls/Ladies Football League and South East Counties Womens League and matches are played on a home and away and the league is expected to grow its provision in future years.

For talented players, the most local FA Regional Talent Club (RTC) is Gillingham FC which is located in Swale. 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 Brighton & Hove Albion Women FC 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 & 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

• Goals Soccer Centre Dartford.

Futsal is an exciting, fast-paced, small sided team game that is widely played across the world. Typically it’s 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 Futsal is available across the country.

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 2 FA Just Play Centres in Dartford. Walking football sessions are delivered by a range of community organisations such as Dartford FC and Dartford Goals. Walking football and Just Play are areas that the County FA has prioritised for further growth and development. Other local recreational football programmes include community scheme activity which is delivered by a range of organisations including Dartford FC.

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).

The key strengths of local football in Dartford include Mini Soccer and Youth Football provision and it is recommended that this is sustained and also encouraged to grow further. However, gaps in provision do exist; these include Adult Male 11v11 and Futsal.

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

1. Support the transition of Youth teams to progress to Adult Male 11v11 leagues.
2. Grow Futsal provision.
3. Ensure club structures are in place to grow in line with the housing growth.
4. Develop comprehensive support to volunteers to allow clubs to retain, grow and provide opportunity to all.
5. Increase Women & Girls provision through informal ladies sessions and FA Wildcats programme.

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

Additionally, 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 Dartford. 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 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 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 existing full-sized (11 v 11) 3G FTP in Dartford at Princes Park (Dartford FC), a site which also includes 2 x 31 x 50m small sided pitches. There is a full sized 3G pitch at Dartford Rugby club which it is understood has little or no football usage. There are also small sided pitches at Hayden Youth Association (60 x 40m) and Goals Soccer ( 2 x 30 x 40m)

There is no current PPS and, therefore, demand for full sized 3G FTPs has been calculated using the FA training ratio model 1:38. On the basis that there are 230 teams in Dartford , there is a requirement for 6 full sized 3G FTPs. There are currently 1.5 full sized community accessible 3G FTPs in Dartford and there is thus a shortfall of 4.5 full sized 3G FTPs.

Existing pitches at Dartford FC and Hayden Youth are available for community use however the latter is not on the FA Register for 3G FTPs (meaning they are quality checked and can be used for football match play). It is strongly recommended that this pitch is assessed and placed on the Register to enable more match play on 3G. The geographic spread of existing facilities is uneven, with existing provision centred around central and western parts of the borough. Local consultation reveals common issues with low availability / lack of match play on 3G and it is recommended that these are addressed.

Consultation with Ebbsfleet Garden City Development Co . confirms the potential for a minimum of 1 x new full size 3G pitch as a result of significant new housing development (which is unlikely to require external funding ) within the new garden city proposals at Ebbsfleet Green and Alkerden Quarry (new school site). Its location on the eastern side of the borough offers the potential to cater for existing 3G shortfalls in the Gravesham area and to offer training and matchplay capacity to teams such as Swanscombe Tigers (20 teams). Exact locations , layout, specification and operational arrangements of the new provision should be developed in partnership with Kent FA and the Football Foundation.

A further new fully funded site is intended to be developed at Stone Parish Council Recreation Ground which will accommodate Halls AFC. This will incorporate 1 x full size 3G FTP , 6 x grass pitches plus a community building incorporating gym plus changing provision. It is intended that the pitch will be used by the Charlton Athletic Foundation.

Two 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.

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 10 grass pitch sites in Dartford with three or more full-size pitch equivalents (or with fewer than three pitches but deemed to be of strategic importance), containing 33 grass pitches.

Consultation found that there is significant export of teams from Dartford to use grass pitches in neighbouring authorities. Larger resident clubs such as Fleetdown Utd and Halls AFC meanwhile are placing priority on securing access to 3G for training and matchplay.

There will be opportunity to develop and secure affiliated club access to new pitches to be created by the Ebsfleet Garden City development, with three full sized pitches being created in Swanscombe.

Of the 10 key pitch sites referenced above it was determined that one of these should be prioritised for improvements. This will result in quality improvements to four pitches:

One priority project for potential investment has been identified. Pitch quality rating was evidenced by consultation with the Bromley and Orpington league.

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 10 key grass pitch sites in Dartford with three or more full-size pitch equivalents (or with fewer than three but deemed to be of strategic importance), seven sites have suitable changing rooms, and three sites require improvement/replacement.

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 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 reveals there are no indoor facilities that require improvement to develop small-sided football.

In consultation Dartford BC identified several existing MUGA sites in the borough at the following locations, located in high IMD areas that have the potential to deliver improved outcomes for informal & recreational football.

• Central Park
• Hesketh Park
• Attlee Drive
• Wilmot Road
• Cedar Road

Further work should be undertaken on behalf of Dartford BC, Kent FA and Kent Sport & Physical Activity alliance to identify the potential for the targeted improvement of these sites to create a more modern offer for social & recreational football.

A further two projects, at Highfield Youth Centre and Europa weightlifting club, also located in high IMD area were identified by Kent Active Partnership as having adjacent concrete MUGA in need of improvement / renovation. Both will require development work to identify management / operational options.

Priority small sided 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:

• Secretary - Orpington and Bromley District Sunday Football League
• Secretary - North Kent Sunday League
• Representative - Dartford FC
• Representative -Hayden Youth Association
• Representative -Swanscombe Tigers
• Representative - Fleetdown Utd
• Representative -Ebsfleet development co.
• Leisure & Communities Officer - Dartford Borough Council