Local Football Facility Plan East Cambridgeshire

East Cambridgeshire is in the East Region.

The current population of the Authority (ONS 2018 Mid-Year Estimate) is 89,362. This is expected to rise to 98,626 by 2039.

East Cambridgeshire is ranked 37 out of 45 LAs in the region, and 266 out of 317 LAs nationally on the Indices of Multiple Deprivation (ONS).

East Cambridgeshire's ethnic composition is primarily white (96%). This is higher than the national average (85.4%).

The proportion of East Cambridgeshire’s population represented by the BAME community is 4%. This is below the national average (14.6%)

Local Authority

East Cambridgeshire Council’s Corporate Plan (2019-2023) sets out its five priorities which will be achieved by 2023. These are:

• Sound financial management 
• Integrated transport network
• Housing supply to accommodate all residents
• Cleaner, greener environment
• High quality social and community infrastructure

To achieve a high quality social and community infrastructure, the Authority will work with leisure operators and local organisations to support improvements to sporting and leisure facilities, ensuring these become high quality facilities for all residents and visitors.

The Authority Playing Pitch Strategy was adopted in 2020. The findings illustrate that there are currently three full sized 3G FTPs and a need for a further two to accommodate current demand. Almost one-half of all grass pitches in the area are are rated as good quality, with fewer than one-in-ten assessed as poor.

County football association

East Cambridgeshire is covered by the Cambridgeshire 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 continue to expand and enhance their range of community delivery, offering a variety of programmes and services to support local communities (sporting and non-sporting). The Norwich City Community Sports Foundation runs a variety of engagement, football and sporting activities within the local area, including a KICKs session at the Ross Peers Sports Centre in Soham.

Local leisure operator

There are a number of leisure operators in East Cambridgeshire. These include; GLL which manages the Hive, (which includes a 3G 9v9 FTP), Bottisham Village College which manages Bottisham Sports Centre and Littleport Leisure Trust which runs Littleport Leisure Centre.

Local consultation

This has taken place with a range of community groups in East Cambridgeshire. 11 individuals (representing 11 local organisations) were spoken to. The agencies consulted include:

• East Cambridgeshire Council
• Norwich City Foundation
• A number of football clubs- see appendices.

(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. East Cambridgeshire has a total of 273 teams, a figure 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 East Cambridgeshire, eight clubs have more than 10 registered teams. These (based upon 2019-20 affiliation data) are:

• Newmarket Town - 30 teams
• Isleham United Youth - 26 teams
• Witchford Colts - 19 teams
• Ely Crusaders Youth - 18 teams
• Burwell Tigers - 13 teams
• Soham United Youth - 13 teams
• Bottisham - 10 teams
• Soham Town Rangers Youth - 10 teams

Leagues

The five key leagues which cater for clubs and teams in East Cambridgeshire provide competitive opportunities for many different players, including women and girls, youth and adults. While there is no specific league opportunity for disability within East Cambridgeshire, suitable provision is made in Greater Cambridgeshire.

These local leagues (2019-20) include:

• Cambridgeshire County League - 187 teams of which 21 are from East Cambridgeshire
  (home and away)
• Cambridgeshire Girls and Women’s League - 168 teams of which 18 are from East Cambridgeshire (home and away)
• Cambridgeshire Mini Soccer League - 353 teams of which 70 are from East Cambridgeshire (home and away)
• Cambridgeshire Colts League - 261 teams of which 52 are from East Cambridgeshire
• Cambridge Sunday League - 27 teams of which three are from East Cambridgeshire.

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 East Cambridgeshire there are two 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. East Cambridgeshire has three FA Wildcats girls football centres and the priority is to grow this activity.

At 24, East Cambridgeshire’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. The local league for women and girls is the Cambridgeshire Women's and Girls League in which matches are played on a home and away basis. It expects to grow provision for both women and girls in future years.

For talented players, the most local FA Regional Talent Club (RTC) is Milton Keynes RTC and Cambridgeshire also has an FA Advanced Coaching Centre (located in East Cambridgeshire). Higher level talent pathway opportunities are provided regionally and nationally by the FA, culminating in the England Women’s national squads. The most local Women’s Super League team is Arsenal Ladies which provides player pathway opportunities for gifted and talented female players and a spectator interest for fans.

Small sided football

Many different types of small-sided football are played in England, from teams and leagues to recreational and informal. It is an established and important part of the modern game.

Small-sided teams and leagues are organised and competitive activities; typically with players registered to clubs and affiliated to leagues and their county FAs. Examples include futsal and local small-sided leagues running at venues such as sports halls, 3G FTPs or small-sided 3G centres.

Key local providers include Soccersixes at the Hockey Club, Ely

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 are currently no futsal teams in East Cambridgeshire. It is a priority for the County FA to grow the game for all players across the County and to create a dedicated facility to support clubs and leagues.

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 four FA Just Play centres in East Cambridgeshire. Walking football sessions are delivered by a range of community organisations such as Cambridgeshire FA at the Witchford Sports Centre. Walking football and Just Play are County FA priorities for further growth and development within the Authority.

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 East Cambridgeshire is played particularly in the central area of the Authority. The Hive and The Paradise Centre are current key site locations.

The key strengths of local football in East Cambridgeshire include traditional youth and adult league football provision and it is recommended that these are sustained and also encouraged to grow further. However, gaps do exist including women and girls, disability, futsal and recreational opportunity. It is therefore recommended that the future football development priorities for East Cambridgeshire are to:

1. Continue to grow the male junior and senior game.
2. Support the growth of female football.
3. Promote opportunities for disability football.
4. Increase the number of recreational football opportunities.
5. Work with clubs and other organisations to develop futsal.

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

Priority projects that progress 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 East Cambridgeshire. 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 national ‘Mini Pitch’ programme delivers small 3G FTPs at primary school sites to provide a high quality introduction to football and get children more physically active. While mini pitches are reviewed in this section, they are not included in the demand and supply analysis for 3G FTPs.

The full-sized (11 v 11) 3G FTPs in East Cambridgeshire are located at:

• Newmarket Town FC (1)
• Bottisham Village Sports Centre (1)
• Witchford Village College (1)

In addition, there is one small-sided 3G FTP centre in East Cambridgshire at The Hive (0.75)

The East Cambridgeshire PPS (2020) indicates a shortfall of two full size 3G FTPs.

All three current full sized 3G FTPs are available for community use with those at Witchford and Bottisham both 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 Newmarket Town's venue is assessed and placed on the Register to enable more match play on 3G at the site.

The geographic spread of existing facilities is uneven. Although the north and south are well served, there is a gap in the central area (Soham and Isleham). Local consultation reinforces this, as; Soham Town, Soham United and Isleham United are currently required to access slots at facilities in either Ely or Bottisham.

Three priority projects for potential investment are identified primarily on the basis of the need to support affiliated football. Although the number of projects is greater than the current shortfall, significant housing growth is planned in Littleport (1,000 new dwellings over the next five years), and a new facility would reflect the demand created by, and support, this growth. This demand should be reassessed as housing development progresses.

There are currently 11 grass pitch sites in East Cambridgeshire with three or more full-size pitch equivalents (or with fewer than three but deemed to be of strategic importance). They contain 39 grass pitches. Of these sites, six are considered to have good quality pitches and five are assessed as being of standard or poor quality. Local consultation supports the notion of investment at these sites, with drainage being cited as the main issue.

In addition, a new grass pitch site in Haddenham is to be created through a parish council project. This will create a total of six sites which will require investment.

Six priority projects for potential investment are identified. Pitch quality rating was evidenced by the PPS and ratified by local partners. Prioritisation was informed by local partners with the rationale of selecting sites which were either rated as either standard or poor in the latest PPS and which are best placed to support affiliated football.

Of the 11 key grass pitch sites in East Cambridgeshire with three or more full-size pitch equivalents (or with fewer than three but deemed to be of strategic importance), five have suitable changing rooms and fiver have no facilities and require new facilities.

In addition, the new site at Haddenham will also require a welfare block, resulting in six sites requiring investment.

Six priority projects for potential investment are identified.

Good facilities are important to all small sided football players, but it is important to understand the different formats of the small-sided game and the various facility types they relate to.

Research suggests that small-sided players in teams and leagues, and in recreational sessions, prefer a 3G surface type because it replicates a good standard natural turf pitch. These facilities have already been covered in the 3G FTP section of this LFFP.

Indoor environments currently accommodate 20% of football participation and are also popular with players in teams and leagues and recreational sessions . Indoor sports halls are most popular, along with some community halls and indoor 3G centres. Environments need to be engaging, have clear line-marking and the correct size goalposts.

Informal players require facilities that are open and free to access as this enables play opportunities that are often spontaneous. In these circumstances multi-use games areas (MUGAs) can be effective in areas of high urban population and limited green space. Such facilities can be modern, bright, creative and engaging. While this plan will identify suitable locations for such facilities, the design and specifics of the facility type can be agreed at a later stage with Football Foundation staff when projects are ready to progress to pre-application stage.

Parks and open green spaces are also important to informal play and require goalposts and zones that are free from litter and dog fouling.

Local consultation indicates that, at present, no indoor facilities require improvements to develop small sided football, however, there is a requirement for a dedicated facility within the County of Cambridgeshire to support the growth in the sport in the region. Certain options are being considered - these are outlined in the Central Cambridgeshire LFFP.

Four potential opportunities to develop MUGAs were debated for investment. These could support both recreational football in key population areas and local clubs. Further feasibility work is required to determine which sites should be taken forward for consideration.

Local consultation indicates that, at present, no parks or open green spaces require improvement to develop small sided 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:

• East Cambridgeshire Council
• Burwell Sports Federation
• Cambs Futsal League
• Soham Town FC
• Littleport Town FC,
• Ely City FC,
• Isleham United,
• Cambridge County League,
• Witchford FC,
• Norwich City Foundation,
• Cambridgeshire Acre FC.