Local Football Facility Plan Forest of Dean

Forest of Dean is located in the Gloucestershire region. In Forest of Dean, the population size has increased by 6.1%, from around 82,000 in 2011 to 87,000 in 2021. This is lower than the overall increase for England (6.6%), where the population grew by nearly 3.5 million to 56,489,800. (ONS Sensus, 2021. How the population changed in Forest of Dean: Census 2021 28 June 2022)

31.9% of the Forest of Deans's population is within NS SEC classification 6-8 (lower socio-economic groups). This figure is higher than the national average (30.6%)

Forest of Dean’s ethnic composition is primarily White (98.5%) and this is higher than the national average (85.4%).

The proportion of Forest of Dean's population represented by the BAME community is 1.5%. This is below the national average (14.6%).

Local authority

The Forest of Dean district Council's plan for 2024-2028 has an overarching principle of 'We strive to meet the needs of the Forest of Dean while taking into account the needs of the Forest’s future generations' where the aim is to do everything in the most environmentally sustainable manner possible. There are three main priorities for the Forest of Dean District Council, these are:

• Thriving Communities

To foster resilient and inclusive communities that are motivated and competent to adapt to the challenges and opportunities posed by the climate and nature emergencies.

• Decarbonisation and nature recovery

For the Forest of Dean to have a protected and enhanced natural environment, and be on target to be carbon neutral by 2030.

• Sustainable Economy

To foster economic prosperity while ensuring environmental sustainability and social well-being

The Forest of Dean District Council Underlying Principles are to maximise:

1. Social Value
2. Public Engagement
3. Value for Money
4. Financial Sustainability

With Core Council Values of; Engagement, Inclusion & Kindness.

The local authority has a Playing Pitch Strategy in place; this was adopted in 2022. The strategy found that the majority of match play demand could be met by grass pitches if pitch quality were to improve in the district. The key finding of the 2022 PPS for 3G AGPs was a shortfall for football and a need to develop more new 3G AGPs in the central analysis area.

County Football Association

The Forest of Dean is covered by the Gloucestershire 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 Delivery 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. The Regional Facility Planning Manager (FPM) will lead and be responsible for all aspects of strategic planning and will lead on refreshing of LFFPs.

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 Forest of Dean district.

Local leisure operator

Freedom Leisure is the key leisure operator in Forest of Dean. It currently operates five key sites across the District including key strategic site Freedom Leisure Cinderford, which has a full size 3G FTP.

Local consultation

Clubs were consulted via the PPS and therefore this information has been used as part of the LFFP refresh process.

Clubs

There are over 91,000 community football teams in England, spread over an expansive network of clubs and leagues. Forest of Dean has a total of 144 teams.

Survive. Revive. Thrive is the FA Grassroots Football Strategy 2020-2024. To deliver the goals for male and female football, there must be a vibrant, best-in-class club network around the country. The FA will work to encourage as many clubs as possible to achieve FA-Accredited status, assuring quality in everything they offer, including ever-safer and stronger player pathways. This will be coupled with a commitment to improve the quality of thousands of pitches up and down the country, with a particular focus on grass pitches.

Over the last 10-years there has been a significant national increase in the number of large multi-team football clubs. In Forest of Dean, 2 clubs have more than 10 registered teams. The largest of these (based upon 2022-23 affiliation data) are:

• Cinderford Town Youth - 16 teams
• Lydney Town Youth - 20 teams

Leagues

Four leagues operate in Forest of Dean. They offer competitive opportunity for many different players, including Women and girls, youth and adults.

Forest of Dean largest local leagues (2022-23) include:

• Severn Valley Youth League
• Cheltenham Youth League
• Mid-Glos Mini Soccer League
• North Gloucestershire League
• Gloucestershire FA Vets 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 Forest of Dean there are 3 football teams specifically for people with a disability. It is a priority of the County FA to sustain and increase this provision. For talented players the FA runs regional centres and England national squads.

Women and girls

The FA had big ambitions for women and girls football and managed to double levels of participation between 2017 and 2020. To achieve this required a combined effort across four pathways: education, recreation, competition and talent. Despite achieving this ambitious target more places to play are still required for women and girls. The focus now is to give all girls equal access to football by 2024 and this will be a key objective of any facility investment. The FA’s four-year strategy, titled Inspiring Positive Change, pledges to create a sustainable future for women’s and girls’ football in England. The strategy outlines eight transformational objectives to be achieved by 2024, the following across grassroots football:-

• Early Participation – Every primary school-aged girl to have equal access to football in school and in clubs.
• Development Participation – Every girl to have equal access to participate for fun, for competition and for excellence.
• Club Player Pathway – Collaborate with clubs to develop an effective high-performance, inclusive player-centred pathway.
• Football For All – Recruit and support a motivated, diverse range of local leaders organising football for their communities.
• Coaching – Support the development of exceptional coaches at every level of the game who are representative of our society.
• Refereeing – Ensure that every female referee afforded high-quality bespoke learning and development opportunities from grassroots through to the elite game.

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. Forest of Dean has 4 FA Wildcats girls football centres and the priority is to sustain this number and grow where unmet demand exists.

At 8, Forest of Dean’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 girls’ league is the Gloucestershire County Girls League. It is expected to grow its provision in future years. The local adult female league is the Gloucestershire County Women's League. It is expected to grow its provision in future years.

For talented players, the most local FA Regional Talent Club (RTC) is Bristol City Women's FC which is located in Bristol area. 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 Bristol City Women 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

• Freedom Leisure, Cinderford/Newent/Lydney

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 3 FA Just Play centres in Forest of Dean. Just Play is a County FA priority to be sustained.

The key strengths of local football in Forest of Dean include youth provision and it is recommended that this is sustained and also encouraged to grow further. However, there are aspects of football provision that lower than local authorities of a similar size, these include Women's and Girls and disability.

It is therefore recommended that the future football development priorities for Forest of Dean are:

1. Sustain & Increase the number of Youth & Adult Female teams
2. Sustain & Increase Adult Male 11v11 Football
3. Sustain & Increase Disability football provision
4. Retain youth and Mini-Soccer participation
5. Increase Small-Sided, Futsal & Recreational playing opportunities

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

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. 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 Artificial Grass Pitches (AGPs)
• Improved grass pitches
• Off pitch and ancillary facilities (e.g. toilets, changing rooms, catering)
• 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 pitches 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. All 3G pitches 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, 3G AGPs 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. An 11v11 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 AGPs 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 AGPs.

Existing 11 v 11 3G AGPs in Forest of Dean include:

• Hartpury College (2x pitches)
• The Forest High School, Cinderford

All three current pitches are available for community use although it is identified that pitches at Hartpury College offer reduced community availability due to the high levels of student programming. None of the pitches are on the FA Register for 3G AGPs (meaning they are quality checked and can be used for football match play). It is strongly recommended that all the pitches are put on the register to enable match play on 3G.

The geographical spread of existing facilities is uneven; the two pitches operated by Hartpury College are located in the north east of the District and the pitch at Forest High School in Cinderford is centrally located. There are identified provision gaps in the central and south areas of the District.

Local consultation reveals long travel distances as well as lack of match play on 3G and it is recommended that these are addressed.

Forest of Dean has a PPS which was adopted in 2022. The PPS indicates that there is a shortfall of two 3G AGPs in the central area and a potential football shortfall of provision in the southern area. The Southern Area hasn't been added as a project at this time but an additional 3G pitch may be required in the future if growth in participation is realised.

There is a potential Multi-Sport opportunity in the area as identified in the PPS which shows shortfalls for rugby pitch provision in this area and an additional 3G AGP may help cater for this shortfall.

Although the PPS identified the Central area as requiring a 3G, there is difficulty in finding a suitable location. It is now the opinion of the LFFP Steering Group that further research is undertaken to identify a suitable solution to provide a site for a new 11v11 3G. The PPS also identified the Five Acres Leisure Centre and Community Hub site as suitable for a 3G in the central area. There is still a potential shortfall of an additional 3G AGP in the Southern area where further analysis would be required as well as being dependant on the creation of two 11v11 3Gs.

In addition to the shortfall of 3G AGPs in the Forest of Dean area, the Forest High School 3G AGP in Cinderford also requires resurfacing. This site was previously funded by Football Foundation and therefore hasn't been added as a project as the site should have a pitch replacement fund.

Two priority projects for potential investment are identified. This was selected based upon a rationale of good access, high population, geographic spread, existing facility quality :

The Football Foundation is on a mission to transform the quality of grass football pitches across England, because great facilities enhance physical and mental wellbeing, strengthen communities and empower people. The quality of football pitches is a huge issue for community football; 150,000 matches were postponed due to poor pitches during the last full football season. We are therefore on a mission to improve 20,000 grass pitches across England.

The Grass Pitch Maintenance Fund is a £21m fund that provides eligible clubs and leagues with a tapered six-year grant to help them sustain pitches already at a 'good' level and enhance pitches that are either considered 'poor' or 'basic'. In order to be eligible, clubs and leagues must use the PitchPower app to assess their pitches. This provides a detailed assessment report with recommendations on improving the quality of grass pitches. The PitchPower app is available to all pitch owners as a way to assess grass pitch quality and gain access to grass pitch improvement recommendations. See Football Foundation | PitchPower

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.

Through the use of PitchPower we are able to identify the demand for investment into new or additional machinery and equipment and see this as an important step towards sustainability for the voluntary sector. Ensuring clubs and leagues can maintain their own sites, supplemented by contracted out major works (e.g. aeration) is potentially a more cost effective approach in the long term.

While the education sector (23.8%) and local authorities (51.8%) are still the principal asset owners of grass pitches and have the heaviest reliance for affiliated matches, clubs / leagues own or maintain an increasing share and we will continue to prioritise investment into sites that are maintained by clubs or leagues.

The original LFFP introduced PitchPower which has allowed all Club owned and leased sites to apply for funding to improve grass pitch maintenance. The aim now should be to get all pitches up to the 'good' standard and work to sustain them. Two sites, Five Acres Development and Lakers School were both previously highlighted as pitch improvement projects. These have merged and Lakers School is now part of the Five Acres site development, where new pitch provision is being provided, they are yet to be identified in the PitchPower assessment.

The priority now is to concentrate on those priority sites that require improvements and agree sustainable solutions for pitch maintenance going forward. The first step is to ensure that all pitches have a baseline quality assessment done via PitchPower.

There are six sites in the Forest of Dean area with Pitch Power assessments.

Of the sixteen key pitch sites referenced above it was determined that fifteen of these should be prioritised for improvements. This will result in quality improvements to 42 pitches:

Fifteen priority projects for potential investment have been identified. Pitch quality rating was evidenced by the PPS and ratified by local partners where PitchPower data isn't available. Prioritisation was based on a rationale of selecting sites that had the most pitches and were most 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 AGPs 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 sixteen key grass pitch sites in Forest of Dean with three or more full-size pitch equivalents (or with fewer than three but deemed to be of strategic importance), twelve sites have suitable changing rooms, three sites require improvement/replacement and one has no facilities and requires a new build.

The only changing room projects identified in the last LFFP is Five Acres Leisure Centre and Community Hub, and is supported by the Football Foundation. Of the key sites in Forest of Dean four sites require new or refurbished changing facilities.

Four 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, the audiences and the various facility types they relate to. Research suggests that small-sided players in teams and leagues, and in organised 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.

Whilst our priorities will always be football led, we believe small sided facilities provide a good opportunity to collaborate with other sports to deliver high quality spaces for people to play recreational sport. This will be achieved via our PlayZones Programme:

Football Foundation PlayZones Programme

PlayZones are modern, safe and engaging facilities that are designed for recreational football and at least one other sport. There are a range of facility types to meet the needs of different sports. Our research shows us that community engagement is the key to developing great small sided facilities and that we shouldn't try and identify sites without first identifying two key things:

• Key priority places within the local authority
• Key priority groups within the local authority

Through this programme we want to address stubborn inequalities in activity levels and access to sports facilities within four priority groups:

• Lower socio-economic groups
• Women and girls
• Disabled people and people with long-term health conditions
• Ethnically diverse communities

When it comes to small sided facilities one size does not fit all and localised design and ownership will yield the greatest engagement from under represented groups. Activation is also as important as the facility itself for these groups. Suitable places will be identified through a combination of mapping, to include identification of our priority groups and crossover with other multi-sport priorities. Further community engagement will be required for design and delivery. All projects will then need to be developed by a cross sector consortium where partners who understand and represent the people and the place come together to drive the project forward and create access and opportunities for priority groups.

More about the programme can be found on The Football Foundation website here: Football Foundation PlayZones Programme | Football Foundation

A range of local agencies and football clubs were invited to participate in the LFFP consultation. Those that contributed are listed below:

• Strategic Projects Lead (Leisure) - Forest of Dean District Council
• Head of Strategy and Delivery - Gloucestershire FA
• Football Development Officer - Gloucestershire FA
• Delivery Manager - Football Foundation
• Principal Planning Manager - Sport England
• Facilities Development Manager (South West) – Rugby Football Union
• Facilities Planning Manager (Recreational Game) - England & Wales Cricket Board
• Facilities Relationship Manager - England Hockey
• National Clubs Manager - Rugby Football League