Local Football Facility Plan King's Lynn and West Norfolk

King's Lynn & West Norfolk Borough Council is in the East Region.

The current population of the Authority (ONS 2018 Mid-Year Estimate) is 151,811. This is expected to rise to 165,852 by 2039.

It is ranked 8 out of 45 LAs in the region, and 80 out of 326 LAs nationally on the Indices of Multiple Deprivation (ONS).

The Borough's ethnic composition is primarily white (97%). This is much higher than the national average (85.4%).

The proportion of King's Lynn & West Norfolk’s population represented by the BAME community is 3%. This is substantially below the national average (14.6%).

Local authority

The King's Lynn & West Norfolk Corporate Business Plan (2015/16-2019/20) sets out six key priorities indicating how it will succeed in 'making West Norfolk a better place'. Priorty One 'to provide important local services within our available resources' is the most pertinent to sport . The Council states that one of the ways in which it intends to achieve this is via 'securing third-party income (and grants) wherever this supports our priorities for the area'. Sport also features within Priority 4: Celebrate our local heritage and culture which states that the Council will ' support leisure and tourism within the Borough'.

The Council is currently in the process of reviewing it's Local Plan which will run to 2036. Pre-submission consultation is expected early summer 2020. Kings Lynn (including West Lynn) is the sub regional centre therefore development and growth is important to be directed there to strengthen its function within retail, leisure and employment. Other key towns are Downham Market and Hunstanton.

The Authority has no playing pitch strategy nor does it have any other strategies related to the provision of sport and physical activity or built facilities in the borough.

County football association

King's Lynn & West Norfolk is covered by Norfolk County FA. It provides governance for, and development support to, all aspects of local football including coaches, referees, volunteers, clubs and leagues; supporting football for all. The County FA has a designated facilities investment lead officer who works to ensure the right facilities are located in the right locations.

Football Foundation

The Regional Engagement Manager and Regional Technical Project Manager at the Football Foundation work collaboratively with the County FA to provide pre-application support to priority projects for potential investment.

Sport England

Has a network of planning managers who have a statutory role in the planning system to protect playing fields and provide consultation responses to planning applications relating to sporting facilities . They also play a key role in strategic planning for sports facilities, providing advice and support to local authorities to assess need for facilities in their local area.

Professional community club organisations (CCOs)

These offer a variety of programmes and services to support local communities (sporting and non-sporting). The Norwich City Community Sports Foundation runs a variety of health, education, engagement, football and sporting activities within the local area but would like to increase the level of activity delivered in the Borough.

Local leisure operator

Alive is the key leisure operator in King's Lynn & West Norfolk. It currently runs five sites across the Borough including sports centres Lynnsport (1x 11v11 3G FTP, 3x grass pitches at adjacent River Lane Playing Fields) and dual use site Downham Leisure (based at Downham Market Academy where the Academy operates use of the 2x grass pitches).

Local consultation

This has taken place with a broad and diverse set of community groups in King's Lynn & West Norfolk. Thirteen individuals (representing 12 local organisations) were spoken to. The agencies consulted include:

• Downham Market Academy
• West Norfolk Academies Trust
• Alive
• King's Lynn Community Football Players

(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. King's Lynn & West Norfolk has a total of 197 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 King's Lynn & West Norfolk, seven clubs have more than 10 registered teams. They are (based upon 2019-20 affiliation data):

• Terrington Tigers Youth FC - 15 teams
• Reffley Youth FC - 13 teams
• Downham Town FC - 13 teams
• Dersingham Rovers FC - 13 teams
• King’s Lynn Community Football Players - 12 teams
• Woottons (The) FC - 12 teams
• Clenchwarton FC - 10 teams

Leagues

Seven leagues cater for clubs and teams in King’s Lynn & West Norfolk. They offer competitive opportunities for many different players, including women and girls, youth and adults. There is no specific league opportunity for disability football within the Authority. The largest of the local leagues (2019-20) include:

• Norfolk Combined Youth Football League – 530 teams (home and away)
• The Mid Norfolk Youth Football League – 148 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 levels of cross boundary migration to/from King’s Lynn & West Norfolk. What there is - is primarily due to teams migrating outwards to play in the Spalding & District Sunday 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 King’s Lynn & West Norfolk 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. King’s Lynn & West Norfolk has one FA Wildcats girls football centre and the priority is to grow this activity.

The number of female teams in the Authority 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 women and girls’ league is the Norfolk Women & Girls Football League in which matches are played on a home and away basis. It is expected to grow provision for both the women's and girls' game 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. A key local provider is Alive Lynnsport - Football Mundial

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 no affiliated futsal team in King’s Lynn & West Norfolk. It is a priority for the County FA to grow futsal for male, female, youth and 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 no FA Just Play centres in King’s Lynn & West Norfolk. Walking football and Just Play are County FA priorities for further growth and development.

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 King’s Lynn & West Norfolk is played particularly in the central part of the local authority. Lynnsport, The Walks, and River Lane Playing Fields are key heavily used site locations.

The key strengths of local football in King’s Lynn & West Norfolk 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 King’s Lynn & West Norfolk 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 within the district, including the Mid Norfolk Youth Football League, North West Norfolk Football League and Norfolk Women & Girls 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 King's Lynn & West Norfolk. It identifies current issues and presents opportunities for improvements, including a list of priority projects for potential investment. Local assets and opportunities have been reviewed in line with four investment priorities:

• 3G FTPs
• Improved grass pitches
• Changing room pavilions / clubhouses
• Small sided facilities

To ensure a consistent and high quality approach, each local area is reviewed applying a standard approach, supplemented by input from consultation with local partners and stakeholder organisations.

While investment priorities are reviewed individually, it is understood that they can be inter-reliant; account is, thus, taken of these potential connections.

3G FTPs are a high quality and indispensable part of modern football facilities; their impact cannot be underestimated. In recent years the industry has seen major innovations and improvements to artificial surfaces (and sports lighting). This has created playing surfaces that replicate a good standard natural turf pitch whilst significantly increasing levels of use (x20). All FTPs must have sports lighting to achieve this.

The high quality, consistent playing surface is the ideal environment to play the game and for young people to learn. With regular maintenance programmes, FTPs can be heavily used all year round with no decline in quality. They almost completely negate annoying fixture cancellations during winter months, helping football to be a key part of a regular physical activity habit.

High capacity levels offer a great opportunity to embrace all formats and engage all participants. A full-sized 3G caters for an average of 1,200 participants per week and is suitable for various location types. That means being fully inclusive to all sections of the community, with a particular focus on under-represented groups such as women and girls, people with a disability, BAME communities and people from lower socio-economic groups.

The way 3G FTPs are used is rapidly changing; current line-marking systems allow for match play across all formats of football (5v5, 7v7, 9v9 and 11v11). This enables significant levels of match-play to be transferred from grass to 3G.

There is one full sized (11v11) 3G FTP in King's Lynn & West Norfolk located at Alive Leisure - Lynnsport.

There are no small-sided 3G FTP centres in the Borough, although there is a single 5v5 3G FTP at Station Road Playing Fields in Heacham.

There is no current PPS so, 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 197 teams in King's Lynn & West Norfolk, there is a requirement for five full sized 3G FTPs. Given that there is currently one the shortfall is four.

Much of the Borough is rural. Travel times to get to market towns and the more densely populated key settlements are significant. Local consultation confirms the fact that clubs, teams and individuals must travel significant distances to access facilities. It has, however, been agreed that the shortfall position with regard to full size 3G FTPs should be slightly reduced - recommending provision of three full sized 3G FTPs and one small sized 3G FTP.

Alive Leisure Lynnsport is available for community use and its 3G FTP is on the FA Register (meaning that it is quality checked and can be used for football match play).

It is located in the centre of the Authority area (in King's Lynn). There are no facilities in the north (Hunstanton and coastal settlements), south (Downham and surrounding villages) and west (Terrington and Clenchwarton). There is also a provision gap relative to levels of demand in the central area (King's Lynn). In borough terms this area has a significant population and high levels of deprivation.

Four priority projects for potential investment are identified based upon the need to address key provision gaps and service the Borough's main settlements:

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 17 grass pitch sites in King's Lynn & West Norfolk with three or more full-size pitch equivalents (or with fewer than three pitches but deemed to be of strategic importance). These contain 53 grass pitches.

In addition to the key grass pitch sites noted, new playing field land is likely to be provided as part of the significant new housing development at West Winch. This could see the provision of as many as 4,000 new homes. This may present an opportunity for future Football Foundation investment to supplement and enhance the community sports facilities proposed as part of the development subject to specific analysis of the sports and users to be accommodated.

In the absence of PPS-based analysis, local consultation confirms the issues faced with regard to poor grass pitch quality. A number of sites prioritised for improvement in this plan have already engaged with the FA Pitch Improvement Programme. This has helped to evidence the quality issues faced at these venues.

Of the 17 key pitch sites referenced, nine are prioritised, This will result in quality improvements to 22 pitches, with one at River Lane Playing Fields proposed for conversion to 3G FTP.

Nine priority projects for potential investment are identified. The primary rationale relates to the preference given to sites which have the most pitches and that are, or have the potential to be, best 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 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 17 key grass pitch sites in King's Lynn & West Norfolk with three or more full-size pitch equivalents (or with fewer than three but deemed to be of strategic importance), 14 have suitable changing rooms and three require improvement.

Three 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.

An opportunity to improve one existing MUGA is identified. It is located at Kings Way Playing Field which serves an area with a significant catchment population and relatively high proportions of people from lower social economic groups. there is corresponding high local demand for informal football. The formal football pitches at the site complement the informal, free to access offer.

Following local consultation one location is identified to support small sided informal football: the Fairstead and Gaywood area hasa substantial local population but only limited green space and there are relatively high levels of inactivity.

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:

• Head of Development - Alive West Norfolk
• Assistant Planner - King's Lynn & West Norfolk Borough Council
• Development Manager - Active Norfolk
• Planning Manager - Sport England
• Facilities Relationship Manager - England Hockey
• Community Development Manager - Norwich Community Sport Foundation
• Executive Headteacher - West Norfolk Academies Trust
• Head of PE - Downham Market Academy
• Headteacher - Downham Market Academy
• King's Lynn Community Football
• Downham Town FC
• Clenchwarton FC
• Dersingham Rovers FC
• King's Lynn Town FC
• Reffley Youth FC
• Woottons FC