Local Football Facility Plan Elmbridge

Elmbridge is in the South East Region.

The current population of the authority (ONS 2017 Mid-Year Estimate) is 136,379. This is expected to rise to 147,742 by 2039.

Elmbridge is ranked 63 out of 67 LAs in the region, and 322 out of 326 LAs nationally on the Indices of Multiple Deprivation (ONS).

Elmbridge's ethnic composition is primarily white 90.26%. This is higher than the national average (85.4%).

The proportion of Elmbridge’s population represented by the BAME community is 9.74%. This is below the national average (14.6%).

Local authority

The ‘Elmbridge Active Every Day Physical Activity Strategy 2015 - 2020’ (2015) sets out the Authority's vision and direction in respect of its ambition to increase levels of physical activity. The stated Strategy vision refers to ‘working with partners to increase the levels of physical activity within Elmbridge by 1% year on year’ and the aims are to:

- Increase levels of physical activity throughout the Borough.

- Focus on certain areas of deprivation and low levels of physical activity within the Borough.

- Promote the benefits of achieving a healthy and active lifestyle.

- Widen access to physical activity opportunities for all residents

Key Strategy themes are:

- Start moving - support children and young people to have an active start in life.

- Move every day - encourage adults to build activity into their everyday lives.

- Stay moving - support older adults to live longer and lead more active lives.

The ‘Elmbridge Core Strategy’ (2011) is the principal planning document that sets out the vision, spatial strategy and core policies used to shape future development in the Borough up to 2026. Its strategic objectives include one for leisure, culture and sport which is to 'promote provision of high quality sports, leisure, cultural and health facilities for all ages across the borough by.

- Enabling people to adopt healthy lifestyles.

- Supporting the provision of high quality design in public buildings and spaces.

- Encouraging innovative ideas for activities and facilities.

- Encouraging investment in technologies to enable remote access to services.

Elmbridge Borough Council is currently preparing a new Local Plan. The Local Plan will set out the level of development required in the Borough to 2035 and where this should be located.

It is widely acknowledged that access to high quality open spaces and leisure facilities can make an important contribution to the health and wellbeing for both individuals and wider communities. Planning has a role to play in ensuring the right balance of land use to ensure sustainable development is achieved which includes, amongst other things, leisure pursuits.

Elmbridge Borough Council has recently undertaken public consultation on its Local Plan Strategic Options document. This set out options for meeting development needs within the Borough. The Council is currently awaiting the Government’s consultation on a standardised approach to assessing housing need, in order to understand the impact this would have on housing need identified through the Strategic Housing Market Assessment. Part of the ongoing plan preparation work will involve producing an Infrastructure Delivery Plan to set out the infrastructure required to support the development.

The Authority Playing Pitch Strategy will be finalised in summer 2019. The stated overarching priorities are to improve the quality of grass pitches at key strategic sites throughout the borough and to improve the overall quality of available ancillary provision available to grassroots community clubs.

County Football Association

Elmbridge is covered by the Surrey 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). The Chelsea Foundation runs a variety of health, education, engagement, football and sporting activities within the local area.

Local leisure operator

Places for People Leisure Management Ltd is the key leisure operator in Elmbridge. It manages both the Xcel Sports Hub and Xcel Leisure Centre (which are adjacent to each other) in the Walton-on-Thames area. The site is considered to have significant strategic value to football, not only within Elmbridge, but the wider county of Surrey. The site contains three full-sized 3G FTPs, a grass adult football pitch, and a eight court sports hall.

Local consultation

This has taken place with a broad and diverse set of community groups in Elmbridge. 13 individuals (representing 11 local organisations) were spoken to. The agencies consulted include:

• Chelsea FC Foundation
• Places for People
• Elmbridge Borough Council

(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. Elmbridge has a total of 349 teams, which is higher than 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 Elmbridge, 12 clubs have more than ten registered teams. These (based upon 2018-19 affiliation data) are:

• Claygate Royals Youth - 45 teams
• Walton Casuals Juniors - 40 teams
• Esher Youth - 36 teams
• Metropolitan Police Youth - 30 teams
• Oxshott Royals Youth - 30 teams
• Molesey Juniors - 20 teams
• Walton and Hersham Juniors - 18 teams
• Cobham - 18 teams
• Elm Grove Colts - 14 teams
• Chelsea Foundation Pan-Disability- 12 teams
• Hersham Youth - 11 teams
• Walton Warriors - 11 teams

Leagues

14 leagues oserve clubs and teams in Elmbridge. They offer competitive opportunities for many different players, including women and girls, disability, youth and adults. The largest local leagues (2018-19) in the locality include:

• Surrey Youth League – 127 teams– home and away
• Epsom & Ewell League – 61 teams– home and away
• Surrey Primary Youth League – 53 teams– home and away

The County FA reports low levels of cross boundary migration to/from Elmbridge; what there is - is due to teams migrating inwards to play in the Surrey Football For All League.

Disability football

There are 9.4 million people in England with a long-standing limiting disability, illness or condition which equates to 18% of the population – almost one in five. Football playing opportunities should be flexible, inclusive and accessible for everyone, whatever their level of ability. This could entail inclusion in mainstream activity or teams / sessions specifically for people with a disability.

In Elmbridge there are 19 football teams / sessions specifically for people with a disability. It is a priority of the County FA to maintain and, where feasible, 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. Elmbridge has four FA Wildcats girls football centres and the priority is to grow this activity.

At 33, Elmbridge’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 Surrey County Women and Girls League in which matches are played on a home and away basis. It is expected to grow its provision in future years. The local adult female league is not in operation within Surrey currently but a flexible small sided 7v7 ladies league is operational in which matches are played on a home and away basis; it too is expected to grow its provision in future years.

For talented players, the most local FA Regional Talent Club (RTC) is Chelsea FC which is located in Elmbridge . 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 Chelsea 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. Locally, there are no providers of small sided 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 futsal team in Elmbridge. It plays in the JPL League at key site locations including St Georges College, Weybridge. It is a priority for the County FA to grow futsal for all players within the authority.

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 Elmbridge. Walking football sessions are delivered by a range of community organisation such as Walton Walking Football Club. Walking football and Just Play are areas that the County FA has prioritised for further growth and development. Other local recreational football programmes include casual bookings, which are delivered by a range of organisations.

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).

Informal football is played throughout Elmbridge. Xcel Leisure Centre and Coronation Playing Fields are key well used site locations.

The key strengths of local football in Elmbridge include female, walking football and disability provision and it is recommended that this is sustained and also encouraged to grow further. However, gaps in provision do exist, these include recreational football (other than walking football), and small sided provision.

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

1. Recreational Football: Just Play centres not aimed at Walking Football
2. Small Sided competition provision
3. Disability football - youth and adult
4. Adult female 11v11 teams

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

Each 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 Elmbridge. 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, local areas are 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.

Existing full-sized (11 v 11) 3G FTPs in Elmbridge are located at:

• Xcel Leisure Centre
• Xcel Sports Hub (x2)
• Three Rivers Academy

There are also four small-sided 3G FTPs in Elmbridge:

• Chelsea FC training ground (x2)
• Hinchley Wood School
• St Lawrence Junior School

Metropolitan Police FC has aspirations to deliver a full size 3G FTP at Imber Court and has gained outline planning permission to deliver the project. It will not require Football Foundation funding but should be recognised as contributing to the meeting of localised demand for 3G FTP provision for the adult team itself and Metropolitan Police Youth FC with which it primarily shares this - its home site. Further to this, Cobham Free School has recently announced a partnership with Cobham Rugby & Sports Association to deliver a full size 3G FTP. This will also be delivered without Football Foundation Funding and it should be recognised that this pitch will, predominantly, service rugby union and the others sports provided at the Cobham Rugby & Sports Association. There may, however, be scope for grassroots football access to satisfy midweek training demand.

The Elmbridge 2019 PPS indicates a shortfall of four full sized, floodlit 3G FTPs. Four potential projects for capital investment are identified within the LFFP, but these should be considered in the context of the potential impact of delivery of the abovementioned provision at Imber Court and Cobham Rugby Club.

Following the delivery of the aforementioned 3G FTP projects at Metropolitan Police FC and Cobham Rugby Sports Association, there may need to be a further specific assessment to determine whether all four 3G FTPs projects set out in this LFFP are still required to satisfy local football demand.

All four existing full sized 3G FTPs are available for community use and on the FA Register for 3G FTPs (meaning they are quality checked and can be used for football match play). The geographic spread of existing facilities is uneven; with more located in the north of the local area. There are provision gaps in the south despite high demand from local football clubs and this Plan seeks to address this.

Local consultation confirms common issues with limited 3G FTP availability and long travel times/distances and it is recommended that these issues are addressed .

Four priority projects for potential investment are identified based upon a rationale of addressing key provision gaps, improving geographic spread and serving the affiliated game.

There are currently 17 grass pitch sites in Elmbridge with three or more full-size pitch equivalents (or with fewer than 3 pitches but deemed to be of strategic importance). These contain 71 grass pitches. It should be noted that of these 17 key sites, four are located at private schools (equating to 20 full size pitch equivalents) which do not allow community use by local football clubs/teams.

Three of these sites are prioritised for improvement; this will affect the quality of a total of 17 pitches. The 2019 PPS identified that of these 17 pitches, 15 are standard and two are poor quality.

Three 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 in the poorest condition and/or that are, or have the potential to be best utilised.

Of the 17 key grass pitch sites in Elmbridge with three or more full-size pitch equivalents (or with fewer than three but of strategic importance), 11 have suitable changing rooms and six require improvement/replacement.

Six priority projects for potential investment are identified. Prioritisation was informed by local partners with the rationale of selecting sites deemed to have an unsuitable pavilion which needs to be refurbished or replaced:

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

One potential opportunity to develop a MUGA is identified. This will serve an area with a significant population with a locally relatively high proportion of people from lower social economic groups.

One potential opportunity for an informal outdoor football offering is identified. This site being will also serve a well populated area with a relatively high proportion of people from lower social economic groups.

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:

• Surrey FA - Football Development Manager
• Football Foundation - Engagement Officer
• Chelsea Foundation - Head of Development
• Elmbridge Borough Council - Head of Leisure & Cultural Services
• Elmbridge Borough Council - Head of Planning
• Elmbridge Borough Council - Sports Development Officer
• Places for Leisure - Xcel Sports Hub Manager
• Walton Casuals Juniors FC - Club Secretary
• Met Police Youth FC - Club Secretary
• Esher Youth - Club Secretary
• Molesey Juniors FC - Club Secretary
• Walton & Hersham Casual Juniors - Club Secretary
• Oxshott Royals FC - Club Secretary