Local Football Facility Plan Great Yarmouth

Great Yarmouth is in the East Region.

The current population of the Authority (ONS 2017 Mid-Year Estimate) is 99,370. This is expected to rise to 104,489 by 2039.

Great Yarmouth is ranked one out of the 45 LAs in the region, and 24 out of 326 LAs nationally on the Indices of Multiple Deprivation (ONS).

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

The proportion of the Great Yarmouth population represented by the BAME community is 3%. This is substantially below the national average (14.6%).

Local authority

The Great Yarmouth Borough Council Corporate Plan (2015-2020) identifies six priorities:

• Economic Growth
• Housing,
• Neighbourhoods, Communities and the Environment
• Tourism, Culture and Heritage
• The Great Yarmouth Town Centre
• Transport and Infrastructure.

With regard to Neighbourhoods, Communities and the Environment, the Council states it 'will lead on planning and sponsoring sports and leisure opportunities and making the most out of the Borough’s leisure assets'.

The Authority Playing Pitch Strategy (Sport, Play and Leisure Strategy) was published in 2015 and is now, thus, out of date. However, the concluding messages for football it noted were the need:

• For remarking of some pitches to better suit junior/mini-soccer needs.
• To identify sites with the capacity to lay out additional pitches in the event that they are required.
• To reduce pitch maintenance of those pitches/sites currently unused, and to find additional activities that could make use of them.
• To explore opportunities for off-site winter training opportunities especially with regard to the midweek training needs of local clubs.
• For additional artificial grass pitches for both match play and training.

The document also noted that, at that point in time, demand for grass pitches for match play was unlikely to warrant the provision of additional sites.

County football association

Great Yarmouth is within the administrative area covered by Norfolk County FA. The County FA provides governance for, and development support to, all aspects of local football including coaches, referees, volunteers, clubs and leagues; supporting football for all. It 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 Norwich City Community Sports Foundation (CSF) runs a variety of health, education, engagement, football and sporting activities within the local area.

Local leisure operator

Sentinel Leisure Trust is the key leisure operator in Great Yarmouth Borough. It runs sport and leisure services on behalf of Waveney District Council, Suffolk County Council and Great Yarmouth Borough Council. Facilities it operates include the presently closed Marina Leisure Centre (which is scheduled to be rebuilt by 2021) but it does not run any sites with outdoor football provision.

Local consultation

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

• Great Yarmouth Youth Advisory Board
• Go Geronimo
• Great Yarmouth FC
• Shrublands 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. Great Yarmouth has a total of 145 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 Great Yarmouth, four have more than 10 registered teams. They are (based upon 2018-19 affiliation data):

• Gorleston Rangers FC – 36 teams
• Gorleston FC - 29 teams
• Martham FC – 11 teams
• Caister FC -10 teams

Leagues

Six leagues cater for teams and clubs in Great Yarmouth. They offer competitive opportunities for many different players, including women and girls, youth and adults. There is no specific league opportunity for disability football in the Authority. The largest of the local leagues within which Great Yarmouth teams play (2019-20) include:

• Norfolk Combined Youth Football League – 530 teams (home and away)
• The Norfolk & Suffolk Youth Football League – 237 teams (home and away)
• The Norfolk Women’s & Girls Football League – 116 teams (home and away)
• The Anglian Combination Football League – 103 teams (home and away)

The County FA reports low level cross boundary migration to/from Great Yarmouth primarily due to teams migrating outwards to play in the Lowestoft & District Saturday 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 Great Yarmouth 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. Great Yarmouth has two FA Wildcats girls football centres and the priority is to grow this activity.

Great Yarmouth’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 catering for both women and girls is the Norfolk Women’s & Girls Football League in which matches are played on a home and away basis. It is expected to grow provision for women and girls football in future years.

For talented players, the most local FA Regional Talent Club (RTC) is Essex FA located in Colchester. 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 West Ham United 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:

• Norfolk County FA - FDC Flegg High School and Lynn Grove Academy
• Wellesley Recreation Ground - Soccer Sixes

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 Great Yarmouth. It is a priority for the County FA to grow futsal for male, female, youth, adult 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 Great Yarmouth. Walking football sessions are delivered by a range of community organisation such as Norfolk County FA and Go Geronimo. Walking football and Just Play are County FA priorities for further growth and development. Other local recreational football programmes include All to Play For, Premier League Kicks and pay and play which are delivered by a range of organisations including Active Norfolk, Norwich City CSF and Norfolk County FA.

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 Great Yarmouth is played particularly in the central part of the local authority. Cobholm, Great Yarmouth Beach and Gorleston Recreation Ground are key heavily used site locations.

The key strengths of local football in include women’s, youth and adults’ provision and it is recommended that this is sustained and also encouraged to grow further. However, gaps in provision do exist, these include disability and futsal. It is therefore recommended that the future football development priorities for Great Yarmouth are to:

1. Grow disability football provision
2. Increase the number of youth teams playing futsal
3. Grow female participation growth across all ages
4. Further develop recreational football provision
5. Expand and develop affiliated leagues operating in the district, including the Norfolk Women & Girls Football League, Norfolk & Suffolk Youth Football League and Great Yarmouth & District Football League.

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 in Great Yarmouth. 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 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.

The full-sized (11 v 11) 3G FTPs in Great Yarmouth Borough are located at:

• FDC Flegg High Ormiston Academy
• Lynn Grove Academy

The one small-sided 3G FTP is located at Wellesley Recreation Ground (5v5).

The 2015 PPS is not now considered by Sport England to provide a robust evidence base. As a consequence, demand for full sized 3G FTPs has been calculated using the FA training ratio model 1:38.

On the basis that there are 145 teams in Great Yarmouth Borough, there is a requirement for five full sized 3G FTPs. There are currently two and there is, thus, a shortfall of three.

Priority project Wellesley Recreation Ground is a key site for football in the Borough and has been identified as a site for 3G FTP development. Early exploration suggests that it may not physically be able to accommodate a 3G of full size but could fit a 9v9 sized 3G FTP. In tandem with the other identified 3G FTP projects, this is considered likely to be able to help to address the present shortfall.

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

They are located one in the north and one in the south of the Borough. There is no 3G facility in the central (Caister) area and there are further provision gaps in the central (Great Yarmouth town) and western (Gorleston) localities - despite the fact that there are significant local populations in these areas, considerable deprivation and affiliated team demand. The recommendations in this plan will go some way towards tackling this.

Local consultation reveals common issues faced in respect of limited 3G facility availability and long travel distances - which also need to be addressed.

Four priority projects are identified - selected on the basis of serving specific localities some of which face significant deprivation and contain high proportions of people from lower social economic groups. They should also help to cater for the significant unmet affiliated team demand:

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 eleven grass pitch sites in Great Yarmouth Borough with three or more full-size pitch equivalents (or with fewer than three but deemed to be of strategic importance). These contain 37 grass pitches. Of the eleven sites referenced ten are to be prioritised. This will result in quality improvements to 32 pitches.

Ten priority projects for potential investment have been identified.

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 eleven key grass pitch sites in Great Yarmouth Borough 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, four require improvement/replacement and two (Southtown Common and Martham Recreation Ground) both have no facilities and each requires a new changing pavilion.

In addition to the six sites identified above, there is need for a new changing pavilion building to support the new 11v11 3G FTP at East Norfolk 6th Form College.

Seven 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.

There is some use of indoor facilities in the Borough by Norwich Community Sports Foundation for futsal which is popular in Great Yarmouth amongst the Borough's Portuguese community. GY Galante United plays in the National Futsal League, using Cliff Park Ormiston Academy alongside a number of other venues in the County and neighbouring Suffolk (Lowestoft).

The Marina Leisure Centre based on the Great Yarmouth seafront is closed and a new centre will be rebuilt by 2021. The new building will include a four court sports hall which may present an opportunity for indoor football and futsal, the latter having been played there before it closed.

Local consultation identifies four potential opportunities for MUGA improvements. In each case the rationale is based on the site being in an area of significant population with limited green space and relatively high proportions of people from lower social economic groups.

Following local consultation, no locations are identified to support small sided informal football. However, it may be determined upon further exploration that identified MUGA projects may be better suited by improved recreational open space.

There may be possible further opportunities for informal and recreational football utilising the beachfront and coastal area unique to the Borough. The Marina Leisure Centre has an inflatable pitch which was previously a pop-up offer during summer months. Due to the seasonal nature of the suitability of the beachfront it was determined that this was the best suited facility to meet this opportunity, though new products may become available in future.

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:

• Community Development Manager - Great Yarmouth Borough Council
• Planning Policy Officer - Great Yarmouth Borough Council
• Project Manager - Great Yarmouth Borough Council
• Physical Activity & Health Manager - Sentinel Leisure Trust
• Development Manager - Active Norfolk
• Planning Manager - Sport England
• Facilities Relationship Manager - England Hockey
• Community Development Manager - Norwich Community Sport Foundation
• Great Yarmouth Town FC
• Martham FC
• Shrublands FC
• Caister FC
• DIAL
• Great Yarmouth Youth Advisory Board
• Go Geronimo