Local Football Facility Plan Mid Suffolk

Mid Suffolk is in the East Region.

The current population of the Authority (ONS 2018 Mid-Year Estimate) is 102,493. This is expected to rise to 112,280 by 2039.

Mid Suffolk is ranked 31st out of 45 LAs in the region, and 227th out of 317 LAs nationally on the Indices of Multiple Deprivation (ONS).

Its ethnic composition is primarily white (97.9%). This is higher than the national average (85.4%).

The proportion of Mid Suffolk’s population represented by the BAME community is 2.1%. This is well below the national average (14.6%)

Local authority

The Babergh & Mid Suffolk' Leisure, Sport and Physical Activity Strategy (2017 - 2030) has the strategic aim "to support and enable increased levels of sport and physical activity participation across Babergh & Mid Suffolk; to support the improvement of health and well-being within our communities, particularly those from disadvantaged groups".

The Authority does not have a playing pitch strategy in place.

County football association

Mid Suffolk is covered by Suffolk 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 Ipswich Town Community Trust runs a variety of health, education, engagement, football and sporting activities within the local area, although it has only recently been established and is looking to expand.

Local leisure operator

Abbeycroft Leisure and Everyone Active are the key leisure operators in Mid Suffolk. They operate several centres in the District, although at this time, none are considered to be strategic sites for football.

Local consultation

This has taken place with a broad and diverse set of community groups in Mid Suffolk. 26 individuals (representing 25 local organisations) were spoken to. The agencies consulted include:

• Mid Suffolk District Council
• Active Suffolk
• Ipswich Town Community Trust

(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. Mid Suffolk has a total of 251 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 Mid Suffolk, seven clubs have more than 10 registered teams. These (based upon 2019-20 affiliation data) are:

• Stowupland Falcons FC - 24 teams
• Stowmarket Town Youth FC – 23 teams
• Needham Market FC – 17 teams
• Needham Market Youth FC – 17 teams
• Claydon Youth FC – 15 teams
• Thurston Youth FC – 14 teams
• Walsham Le Willows FC – 14 teams

Leagues

Three leagues cater for clubs and teams playing in Mid Suffolk. They offer competitive opportunities for many different players, including youth and adults. While there is no specific league opportunity for disability football within the district suitable provision is made via the county-wide catchment of the iCAN Football League, based in Ipswich. In addition, opportunities for women, girls’ and veteran players are provided via the county-wide catchment of the Suffolk Girls’ and Women’s Football League and the Norfolk & Suffolk Veterans’ League. The key local leagues (2019-20) are:

• Suffolk Youth Football League – 430 teams – home and away
• Ipswich & Suffolk Youth League – 148 teams – home and away
• Suffolk & Ipswich League – 108 teams – home and away

The County FA reports significant cross-boundary migration to/from Mid Suffolk primarily due to teams migrating outwards to the Suffolk WAYS League, the Bury & District Sunday League and the Ipswich Sunday League.

Disability football

There are 9.4million 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 Mid Suffolk there is one football team 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. Mid Suffolk has three FA Wildcats girls football centres and the priority is to grow this activity.

At 14, Mid Suffolk’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’ and women’s league is the Suffolk Girls’ and Women’s Football League in which matches are played on a home and away basis. It is expected to grow its provision in future years.

For talented players, the most local FA Regional Talent Club (RTC) is Essex County FA Girls Regional Talent Club 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 Ladies FC which provides player pathway opportunities for gifted and talented female players and a spectator interest for fans.

Small sided football

Many different types of small-sided football are played in England, from teams and leagues to recreational and informal. It is an established and important part of the modern game.

Small-sided teams and leagues are organised and competitive activities; typically with players registered to clubs and affiliated to leagues and their county FAs. Examples include futsal and local small-sided leagues running at venues such as sports halls, 3G FTPs or small-sided 3G centres.

There is currently no small sided league running specifically within Mid-Suffolk district.

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 are currently no futsal teams in Mid Suffolk that play in an affiliated league. It is a priority for the County FA to grow 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 two FA Just Play centres in Mid Suffolk. Walking football sessions are delivered by a range of community organisation such as Walsham Le Willows FC and Stowmarket Leisure Centre. Walking football and Just Play are County FA priorities for further growth and development. Other local recreational football programmes include casual bookings delivered by a range of organisations including Needham Market Football Club.

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 Mid Suffolk is played throughout the District. Local parks and recreation grounds are key site locations that are heavily used.

The key strengths of local football in Mid Suffolk include youth and adult provision and it is recommended that this is sustained and encouraged to grow further. However, provision gaps include disability provision, recreational provision and futsal. It is therefore recommended that the future football development priorities for Mid Suffolk are:

1. Develop the recreational offer for all players
2. Improve the female pathway to support women & girls’ development
3. Develop a local futsal offer
4. Retain and increase the local Wildcats offer
5. Retain adult male participation

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

In addition, priority projects that progress to become 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 Mid Suffolk. 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 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 three 3G FTPs in Mid Suffolk are located at:

• Needham Market Football Club (full sized)
• RAF Wattisham Station (full sized)
• Walsham-Le-Willows Sports Club (7v7 size)

Two of the three are available for community use. RAF Watisham Station is unavailable for community use and has therefore been discounted from supply and demand calculations for the district. The full size 3G FTP at Needham Market Football Club is on the FA Register for 3G FTPs (meaning that it is quality checked and can be used for football match play). It is recommended that the small sided venue at Walsham-Le-Willows Sports Club becomes FA approved in the future.

There is no current PPS and, therefore, demand for full sized 3G FTPs has been calculated using the FA training ratio model 1:38. On the basis that there are 251 teams in Mid Suffolk, there is a requirement for six full sized 3G FTPs. As there is currently one (discounting provision at RAF Wattisham Station), there is a shortfall of five.

There are provision gaps in the east, west and central parts of the district. Local consultation confirms common issues faced in respect of limited availability and long travel distances and it is the purpose of this plan and the projects proposed within it to rectify these issues.

Four priority projects for potential investment are identified, equating to four full size 3G FTPs (two within one project) and one small-sided 3G FTP. Each was selected based upon a rationale of good access, high population, geographic spread and existing facility quality.

In relation to the full size 3G FTPs, three site-specific projects are identified plus one area-wide location (for two pitches). A preferred site/s for the latter is to be determined by football partners in the future.

For the final project, a small-sided 9v9 3G pitch is included as opposed to a full sized facility. This is at Debenham Leisure Centre, where it is considered that there is an insufficient level of affiliated football in the Town and its surrounding villages to warrant the development of a full size pitch, but a residual need to accommodate existing levels of 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 11 grass pitch sites in Mid Suffolk with three or more full-size pitch equivalents (or with fewer than three pitches but deemed to be of strategic importance). These contain 35 grass pitches.

Local consultation confirms the common issues faced in respect of poor pitch quality and overplay at specific sites. It is recommended that this is addressed at the sites identified as priorities in this plan.

Of the 11 key pitch sites referenced above it was determined that four of these should be prioritised. This will result in quality improvements to 12 pitches:

Four priority projects for potential investment are identified. Pitch quality rating was evidenced through consultation and was ratified by local partners. Prioritisation was based on a rationale of selecting larger sites in the poorest condition that are, or have the potential to be, 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 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 11 key grass pitch sites in Mid Suffolk 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 (or are not considered to be in need) and six require improvement/replacement.

Six priority projects for potential investment are identified. Five are based around modernising existing facilities at key sites in the District to ensure they remain fit for purpose for key clubs.

The exception is Needham Market FC. It has had recent investment into its clubhouse which is considered to be of a good quality. The Club has plans to expand on its current offer by making general improvements to its community hub which will benefit both affiliated football and educational opportunities.

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. That being said, it is a priority for the County FA to develop a localised futsal offer and therefore further opportunities should be explored to develop facilities in the district in the future.

One potential opportunity for MUGAs is identified. The rationale is based on the providing a facility where provision is currently limited to accommodate local demand for informal football.

Following local consultation, no sites are identified to support small sided informal football. It is considered that opportunities to improve parks and open green spaces will be covered by the potential MUGA projects identified.

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:

• Strategic Lead for Sport & Physical Activity - Babergh District Council
• Community Grants Officer - Babergh District Council
• Director - Active Suffolk
• Principle Planning Officer - Sport England
• Head of Community - Ipswich Town FC
• Chief Executive Officer -Abbeycroft Leisure
• Centre Operational Manager - Inspire Suffolk
• Strategic Lead for Physical Activity - Public Health Suffolk
• Engagement Team - One Life Suffolk
• Chief Executive - Community Action Suffolk
• Lead Provider - Suffolk County Council
• Chief Executive - Action Suffolk
• Development Officer - Suffolk Positive Futures
• Head of Business Operations - Suffolk Mind
• Centre Manager - Befriending Scheme
• Neighbourhood & Partnership Team - Suffolk Constabulary
• Thurston FC
• Stowupland Falcons FC
• Stowmarket Town FC
• Stowmarket Town Youth FC
• Needham Market FC
• Needham Market Youth FC
• Debenham Youth FC
• Claydon FC
• Old Newton FC
• Walsham - Le - Willows FC