Local Football Facility Plan Enfield

Enfield is in the Greater London Region.

The current population of the Authority (ONS 2017 Mid-Year Estimate) is 332,705. This is expected to rise to 388,520 by 2039.

Enfield is ranked 14 out of 33 LAs in the region, and 53 out of 326 LAs nationally on the Indices of Multiple Deprivation (ONS).

Enfield's ethnic composition is primarily white 61%. This is significantly lower than the national average (85.4%).

The proportion of Enfield’s population represented by the BAME community is 39%. This is significantly above the national average (14.6%).

Local Authority

The Enfield Council Corporate Strategy (2018-2022) sets out its aim to create a lifetime of opportunities in the Authority within the Strategy time-frame. To achieve this, it has identified three key objectives:

• Create good homes in well-connected neighbourhoods
• Sustain strong and healthy communities
• Build our local economy to create a thriving place.

For communities to remain strong and healthy, the Authority is committed to maintaining leisure provision to the highest of standards and to ensuring that they deliver a range of physical activities for people of all ages and abilities. This includes the Authority owned leisure centres and the strategic sites of Lee Valley Athletics Centre and the Queen Elizabeth II Stadium.

The Authority Playing Pitch Strategy was adopted in 2018. The key findings suggest that there is demand for eight full sized 3G FTPs based on the 1:42 training demand model and 338 teams and that there are presently seven. The shortfall, based on this ratio, is one full sized 3G FTP. Sites suggested at which to locate a facility to address the shortfall include Latymer School or Firs Farm (which could become a hub site). In terms of grass pitches, the PPS calculates there is spare weekly capacity across all grass pitch sites; a total of 84 match equivalent sessions.

County Football Association

Enfield is covered by Middlesex and Amateur Football Alliance County FAs. It provides governance for, and development support to, all aspects of local football including coaches, referees, volunteers, clubs and leagues; supporting football for all. Both county FAs have 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 Tottenham Hotspur Foundation delivers a number of sessions in the Borough. Most of the football sessions take place in schools, however, they also deliver weekly KICKs community sessions including a Monday night session at Oasis Hadley School.

Local leisure operator

Fusion is the key leisure operator in Enfield. It currently manages six key sites including Southbury and Edmonton leisure centres. There is a full sized 3G FTP at Southbury and it is also reported that the sports hall at the centre is popular for walking football.

Local consultation

This has taken place with a broad and diverse set of community groups in Enfield. 14 individuals (representing 12 local organisations) were spoken to. The agencies consulted include:

• Enfield Council
• Friends of Firs Park
• Enfield Town FC
• Alevi Foundation

(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. Enfield has a total of 396 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 Enfield, 10 clubs have more than 10 registered teams. These (based upon 2018-19 affiliation data) are:

• Omonia Youth FC – 29 teams
• Enfield Town FC – 20 teams
• Norsemen FC – 20 teams
• GFA Enfield FC – 16 teams
• AFC Southgate (Youth) FC – 14 teams
• Winchmore Hill FC – 14 teams
• Enfield Rangers FC – 13 teams
• Edmonton Rangers FC – 12 teams
• Protec Youth FC – 11 teams
• White Star (Youth) FC – 10 teams

Leagues

Twelve leagues service clubs and teams in Enfield. They offer competitive opportunities for many different players, including women and girls, youth and adults. While there is no specific league opportunity for disability football within Enfield, suitable provision is provided in Hillingdon.

Then largest local leagues serving clubs in Enfield (2018-19) include:

• Watford Friendly League– home and away
• Barnet Football league – home and away
• Cheshunt Youth league – home and away

The County FA reports some cross boundary migration to/from Enfield largely due to teams migrating northwards to play in Hertfordshire.

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 Enfield 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. Enfield has one FA Wildcats girls football centre and the priority is to grow this activity.

At 11, Enfield’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 clubs to develop playing opportunities for females. The local girl's league is the Capitals Girls League in which matches are played on both a home and away and central venue basis. The local adult female league is the Greater London Womens Football League. It too plays matches on a home and away basis. Both leagues are expected to grow their provision in future years.

For talented players, the most local FA Regional Talent Club (RTC) is Arsenal Ladies; located in London Colney, Hertfordshire. 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 Arsenal 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:

• Powerleague Enfield
• Fusion – Enfield

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 Enfield; it plays in the FA National Futsal League. It is a priority for the County FA to grow opportunity to play futsal for all 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 four FA Just Play centres in Enfield. Walking football sessions are delivered by a range of community organisation such as Enfield Town FC and Southbury Leisure Centre. Walking football and Just Play are County FA priorities for further growth and development.

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 Enfield is played particularly in Jubilee Park and Pymmes Park.

The key strengths of local football in Enfield include youth/adult male and community provision and it is recommended that this is sustained and also encouraged to grow further. However, gaps in provision do exist, these include female and disability.

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

1. Female
2. Disability
3. SSE Wildcats
4. Just Play

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 Enfield. 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 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.

Community accessible full-sized (11 v 11) 3G FTPs in Enfield are located at

• Southbury Leisure Centre
• Enfield Grammar School
• Enfield Playing Fields
• CONEL (Enfield Centre)
• Powerleague Enfield/Edmonton County School
• Heron Hall Academy

In addition, there are currently four small-sided 3G FTP centres in Enfield:

• Winchmore Hill CC (one 5v5 )- (0.25)
• Powerleague Enfield/Edmonton County School (six 5v5) - (1.5)
• Orchardside School (one 60x40) (0.5)
• Nightingale Academy (one 60x40) (0.5) + (one 5v5) (0.25)

Planning permission has been granted for a new football development centre at Brimsdown Sport Ground. The plans include the development of one full-sized 3G FTP and six indoor 5v5 FTP cages. This is being funded privately, however, the Design and Access Statement from Sport England does state that “local schools, clubs and the community will have full access to use of the facilities.”

Timescales for this project are uncertain, however, this Plan acknowledges the development. Presuming that it goes ahead as specified and the the community availability matches Sport England's statement, it will bring the overall 3G FTP supply (including all existing provision) up to 11.5 full sized equivalents.

As noted earlier, the Enfield PPS (2018) indicates demand for eight 3G FTPs, with suggested sites for future investment being Latymer School and Firs Farm Playing Fields. However, in the PPS demand was calculated using the FA demand model of 1:42 and not the latest model which applies a ratio of 1:38.

Using the current model and current affiliation data, there is deemed to be a need for 11 full-sized 3G FTPs based on affiliated demand.In Enfield however, based on FA modelling, demand for recreational football is higher than that for the affiliated game, equating to 19 full sized 3G FTP equivalents. On this basis, there is a shortfall of 7.5 full sized pitch equivalents (even taking into account the Brimsdown development).

All six existing full sized 3G FTPs are all available for community use and two (Enfield Playing Fields and Enfield Grammar) are on the FA Register for 3G FTPs (meaning they are quality checked to enable use for football match play). It is strongly recommended that the remainder are assessed and placed on the Register to enable more match play on 3G.

The majority of existing facilities are centrally located and there are notable provision gaps in the south of the Authority. Local club consultation state that hire prices at school sites vary considerably and that at the higher charging levels restrict the amount of time/sessions that certain clubs can afford to deliver. A number of the school-based 3G FTPs were not funded by the Foundation and the County FA thus has a slightly less specific mandate to address charging disparities.

Six projects for potential investment have been identified comprising four new full sized 3G FTPs, one refurbished 5v5 3G FTP (at St Georges Field) and a final project which incorporates the installation of floodlights at the Southgate School 3G FTP. This will increase the community accessible 3G supply to 12.5 full sized pitch equivalents in the Authority.

This Plan also acknowledges the Meridian Water development. This is a major regeneration project in the south east of the Authority based upon a proposal to create 10,000 new homes over the next 20 years. As part of the development, it is anticipated that there will be two secondary schools built which will both have 3G FTP provision, however, no formal plans or site location are currently available. The project is referenced in this plan at the specific request of the London Borough of Enfield.

It is anticipated that a proportion of the remaining shortfall in Enfield can be absorbed through the proposed hub project at Bull Lane - a site owned by the Borough of Haringey but residing within the Enfield LA boundary on its southern border. Bull Lane will play an important role in accommodating teams located in the south of the Authority and it is anticipated that provision will include two full sized 3G FTPs , grass pitches and changing provision. The Bull Lane football hub is part of the wider Selby masterplan project for the site, which proposes to create a community hub, in partnership with the Selby Trust . The exact configuration will be confirmed once the overall masterplan is developed.

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, many 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 25 grass pitch sites in Enfield with three or more full-size pitch equivalents (or with fewer than three pitches but deemed to be of strategic importance). These contain 120 grass pitches. Of these, 10 are considered to have good quality pitches, and 14 contain pitches that are of either standard or poor quality. 14 sites have been prioritised. This will result in quality improvements to 71 pitches.

Local consultation confirms the poor quality of pitches at certain sites and this Plan seeks to address this.

14 priority projects for potential investment are identified. Pitch quality rating was evidenced by the PPS and ratified by local partners. Prioritisation was based on a rationale of selecting sites with significant numbers of pitches rated as either poor or standard.

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 25 key grass pitch sites in Enfield with three or more full-size pitch equivalents (or with fewer than three pitches but deemed to be of strategic importance), 15 have suitable changing rooms, five require improvement/replacement and five have no facilities and need new changing provision.

Ten 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 & 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 is one indoor facility that requires improvement to develop small-sided football. Southbury Leisure Centre sports hall is rated as poor quality, however it is popular for recreational football and also hosts a number of walking football sessions.

Four potential opportunities for MUGAs are identified. In each case the rationale is based on the site being in an area of significant urban population and with relatively high proportions of people from lower social economic groups - plus corresponding high local demand for informal football. In addition, each has the opportunity to be linked with organisations which can deliver social change programmes from the site.

Local consultation indicates no parks or open spaces that presently require investment to develop 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:

Enfield Council: Sport and Physical Activity Manager

Enfield Council: Planning Manager

Omonia Youth: Club Secretary

Winchmore Hill: Club Secretary

Enfield Rangers: Club Secretary

Alevi Foundation: Site Manager

Friends of Firs Farm: Community Manager

Enfield Town FC: Club Secretary

Enfield Rangers FC: Club Secretary

Enfield Sport:

GFA Enfield: Club Secretary

Edmonton and District League: League Secretary

Norseman FC: Club Secretary

Camden Community Football and Sports Association: Community Manager