Local Football Facility Plan Dover

Dover is in the South East Region.

The current population of the Authority (ONS 2018 Mid-Year Estimate) is 115,803. This is expected to rise to 127,275 by 2039.

Dover is ranked ten out of 67 LAs in the region, and 115 out of 326 LAs nationally on the Indices of Multiple Deprivation (ONS).

Its ethnic composition is primarily white (97%). This is substantially higher than the national average (85.4%).

The proportion of Dover’s population represented by the BAME community is 3%. This is significantly below the national average (14.6%).

Local authority

The Dover Corporate Plan (2016-2020) identifies four key priorities, the achievement of which will help to achieve its overal vision which is 'securing a prosperous future for the District, which will be a place where people want to live, work, invest and visit'. Key outcomes it wishes to see delivered include the one that aims to ensure that people will be heathier and more engaged and empowered to achieve their potential. Its Priority Three: Healthier People and Communities also references how the District will 'work to address the wider determinants of health by, for example, improving housing and promoting healthy lifestyles and behaviours, including increasing participation in sport and leisure.

The Authority Playing Pitch Strategy was delivered in 2019. The key recommendations relate to the need to increase the supply of 3G FTPs in Dover and the district's rural areas and to improve quality of grass football pitches at key sites for formal participation.

County football association

Dover 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). On occasion the Charlton Athletic FC Community Trust runs a variety of health, education, engagement, football and sporting activities within the local area.

Local leisure operator

Several leisure operators manage key sites in the District. The new Dover Leisure Centre is managed by Places Leisure; it includes a 4-court sports hall and two 5v5 3G FTPs. Aylesham Welfare Leisure Centre (which includes a 7v7 3G FTP, grass pitches and a floodlit MUGA) and Sandwich Sports Centre (which has a full sized 3G FTP and a 4-court sports hall) are both managed by Freedom Leisure.

Local consultation

This has taken place with a range of community groups in Dover. Nine individuals (representing eight local organisations) were spoken to. Agencies consulted include:

• Charlton Athletic FC Community Trust
• Kent Sport
• Dover Rangers Colts FC

(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. Dover has a total of 148 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 ten years there has been a significant national increase in the number of large multi-team football clubs. In Dover, five clubs have more than ten registered teams. These (based upon 2018-19 affiliation data) are:

• Deal Town Rangers - 23 teams
• Dover Rangers Colts - 14 teams
• Woodnesborough - 14 teams
• Saint Margarets - 11 teams
• Betteshanger Welfare - 10 teams

Leagues

The Dover & District Sunday Football League caters for a significant proportion of local adult men's teams. It offers competitive opportunity for adults. While there is no specific league opportunity for disability, youth or women and girls in Dover, suitable provision is made in neighbouring local authority areas.

The County FA reports significant cross boundary migration to/from Dover due to its teams migrating outwards to play in the following leagues:

• Canterbury and District Football League.
• East Kent Youth League
• Faversham & District Youth Football League
• Herne Bay and Whitstable Sunday League
• Kent County Football League
• Kent Disability Football League
• Kent Girls/Ladies Football League
• Kent Youth League
• National League U19 Alliance
• Southern Counties East Football League
• Thanet And District Football League
• Thanet Sunday Football League
• The National League

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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 Dover there are seven football teams / sessions specifically for people with a disability. It is a priority of the County FA to 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. Dover has one FA Wildcats girls football centre and the priority is to sustain this activity.

At four, Dover’s number of female teams is lower than local areas of a similar size. The County FA’s priority is to support existing clubs to grow and encourage more of them to develop playing opportunities for females. The local girl's league is the Kent Girls & Ladies Football 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 leagues are the Kent Girls/Ladies Football League and South East Counties Women's League both of which organise matches on a home and away basis. They expect to grow 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 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 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. The nearest small sided football leagues are located in Margate and operated by Leisure Leagues.

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 affiliated futsal team in Dover which plays in the Kent FA Youth Futsal League at key site locations including Stour Centre. It is a priority for the County FA to sustain futsal for youth 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 Dover. Walking football sessions are delivered by a range of community organisations such as Dover FC, Tides Leisure Centre and Deal and Dover Leisure Centre. 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).

Northbourne Avenue Park in Dover, in the southern area of the authority, is reportedly a well-used site location for informal football.

The key strengths of local football in Dover include youth and mini soccer and it is recommended that this is sustained and encouraged to grow further. Provision gaps include adult male 11v11, women and girls football and informal football sessions. It is therefore recommended that the future football development priorities for Dover are to:

1. Support the transition of youth teams and players into adult male 11v11 leagues.
2. Increase the number of women's and girl's teams and entry level provision delivered via informal female sessions.
3. Extend the FA Wildcats programme in the local area.
4. Grow youth futsal provision.
5. Develop comprehensive support to volunteers to allow clubs to retain, grow and provide opportunity to all.

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

Projects 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 Dover. 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 Dover are located at:

• Goodwin Academy
• Sandwich Leisure Centre

In addition, there are four sites with small-sided 3G FTPs (totalling six small-sided pitches) located at:

• Aylesham Welfare Leisure Centre (one 7v7, one 5v5 ).
• Baypoint Leisure Centre (one 5v5)
• Woodnesborough FC (one 5v5)
• Dover Leisure Centre (two 5v5)

Dover's PPS was produced in 2019. It is set out on the basis of there being three key sub-areas for football; Deal, Dover and Rural. It indicates a shortfall of two full sized 3G FTPs; a requirement for one additional full sized 3G FTP in each of the Dover and Rural areas.

Both existing full sized 3G FTPs are available for community use and are on the FA Register (meaning they are quality checked and can be used for football match play).

The majority of existing 3G facilities are located in the key settlements in the south (Dover) and east (Deal) of the Authority where the majority of the population resides. There are no facilities in the north or central areas.

The Dover PPS also identifies that the carpet at Goodwin Academy in Deal is now of poor quality. The venue was developed in 2007, supported by Football Foundation grant funding and should, as a consequence, be resurfaced in the short term using the the sinking fund accrued as part of the terms and conditions incorporated in the funding agreement. However, the Academy is investigating the possibility of developing a sports hall on the site and, linked to this, has approached Kent FA to discuss the potential to relocate and increase the size (adding run off areas) of the full sized 3G FTP .

Consultation confirms that the 7v7 3G FTP at Ayelsham Welfare Leisure Centre is identified as being in poor condition. There is some identified potential for future Section 106 funding to undertake the required resurfacing exclusive of Football Foundation support.

Betteshanger Welfare identified that it is presently exploring options to develop a 3G FTP on the site of the Betteshanger Social & Welfare Sports Club. However, it is located within the Deal sub-area where the PPS identifies that current and future demand can be met by existing provision.

Two priority projects for potential investment are identified. These will serve key currently under-provided for local areas:

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 15 grass pitch sites in Dover with three or more full-size pitch equivalents (or with fewer than three pitches but deemed to be of strategic importance). These contain 58 grass pitches. The 2019 PPS identifies that 12 sites contain pitches considered to be of standard quality, one site includes good quality pitches and two are assessed as having poor quality pitches.

Of the 15 key pitch sites referenced, six are prioritised. This will result in quality improvements to 25 pitches:

Six priority projects for potential investment have been identified. Pitch quality rating was evidenced in the PPS and further ratified via LFFP-based consultation with by local partners. Prioritisation was based on a rationale of selecting sites with a good number of pitches that are, or offer potential to be, well-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 15 key grass pitch sites in Dover with three or more full-size pitch equivalents (or with fewer than three but deemed to be of strategic importance) 12 have suitable changing rooms and two are identified as requiring improvement. One further site (Bay Point Leisure Centre) has changing provision at present however new, better quality provision is considered to be required to support proposed 3G FTP development.

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

Four potential options to improve existing MUGAs have been identified. In each case the rationale is based on the site being in an urban area in which there is considered to be significant potential demand for informal football. These are:

• Northbourne Avenue (Dover)
• Victoria Park
• The Butts Recreation Ground (Sandwich)
• Hill Crescent (Aylesham)

Local consultation indicates that, at present, no parks and open green spaces facilities require improvement to develop informal and recreational football.

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

• Engagement Manager – Football Foundation
• Football Development Manager – Kent FA
• Planning Manager - Sport England
• Head of Commercial Services – Dover District Council
• Strategic Development Lead (Leisure) – Dover District Council
• Fundraising & Partnerships Manager - Kent Sport
• Head of Community – Charlton Athletic FC Community Trust
• Deal Town Rangers FC
• Dover Rangers Colts FC
• Betteshanger Welfare FC