Local Football Facility Plan The Borough of Oadby and Wigston

The Borough of Oadby and Wigston is located within the East Midlands Region.

The population of the Authority is 56,352 (2018). This is expected to rise to 58,866 by 2039.

The Borough of Oadby and Wigston is ranked 33rd out of 40 LAs in the region, and 249 out of 326 LAs nationally on the Indices of Multiple Deprivation (ONS).

The Borough of Oadby and Wigston's ethnic composition is primarily white (73.01%). This is lower than the national average (85.4%).

The proportion of the Borough of Oadby and Wigston's population represented by the BAME community is 26.99%. This is nearly double the national average (14.6%).

Local Authority

The vision set out within the Borough of Oadby and Wigston's new Local Plan (2019) is to ensure that people aspire to live in the borough because it is a safe, clean and an attractive place, with a prosperous economy, vibrant town centres and healthy empowered communities.

To enable communities to be healthy and feel empowered, the Council will provide residents with good access to a network of high quality leisure facilities in the Borough.

The Council's current Playing Pitch Strategy was adopted in 2018. It illustrates that, overall, there is a current and future over-supply of adult grass pitch provision in the Borough but a current and future under supply of youth and mini grass pitches. It identified an additional need for one 3G FTP which has now been addressed through the new pitch at Beauchamp College.

County Football Association

The Borough of Oadby and Wigston is covered by the Leicestershire and Rutland County FA. It provides governance for, and development support to, all aspects of local football including coaches, referees, volunteers, clubs and leagues; as well as 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

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)

CCO's offer a variety of programmes and services to support local communities (sporting and non-sporting). The Leicester City Football Club Community Trust operates in the Borough area delivering a weekly Premier League Kicks session at Wigston College on a Friday evening, and has plans to utilise the new facilities proposed at Beauchamp College.

Local Leisure Operator

Everyone Active is the main leisure operator in the Borough of Oadby and Wigston. It currently operates both Parklands and Wigston Leisure Centres, however, there is no outdoor football provision at either of these sites.

Local consultation

This has taken place with a broad and diverse set of community groups in (The Borough of Oadby and Wigston). Nine individuals (representing five local organisations) were spoken to. The agencies consulted include:

• Oadby and Wigston Borough Council
• Oadby Owls
• Wigston Foxes
• Willow 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. The Borough of Oadby and Wigston has a total of 85 teams.

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 the Borough of Oadby and Wigston, one club has more than 10 registered teams. This club (based upon 2018-19 affiliation data) is:

• Oadby Owls, 48 teams

Leagues

18 leagues operate in Leicestershire and Rutland. They offer competitive opportunities for many different players, including women and girls, disability, youth and adults. Male, female and youth futsal leagues are also in place in Leicestershire and Rutland.

Leicestershire and Rutland's largest adult local leagues (2018-19) include:

• The Alliance Football League – 74 teams– home and away
• Leicester and Charnwood Sunday Football League – 43 teams– home and away
• Leicestershire Senior League – 40 teams– home and away
• Leicester City Football League- veterans – 40 teams– home and away
• North Leicestershire Football League – 37 teams– home and away
• Leicester and District Football League – 33 teams– home and away
• Hinckley and District Sunday Football League - 21 teams– home and away
• Leicestershire Senior County Women’s Football League - 11 teams– home and away

Leicestershire and Rutland's largest youth local leagues (2018-19) include:

• Leicester and District Mutual Football League, U7-U10 – 452 teams– home and away
• Leicester and District Sunday Junior U13-U15– 218 teams– home and away
• Leicestershire Foxes Sunday League U11-U12 – 201 teams– home and away
• Leicester City County Girls League U8-U18 – 142 teams– home and away
• MDH Teamwear Leicestershire Youth League U16 – U18 – 89 teams– home and away
• Leicestershire Midweek Floodlit Youth League U18 – 20 teams– home and away

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 the Borough of Oadby and Wigston there are three football teams 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. Leicestershire and Rutland operates a number of Wildcats girls sessions and the priority is to grow this activity to 15 successful and sustainable centres across the county by 2021.

There are eight female teams in The Borough of Oadby and Wigston, which 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 Leicester City County Girls U8-U18 League in which matches are played on a home and away basis. It is expected to grow its provision in future years particularly at mini soccer age groups. The local adult female league is the Leicestershire Senior County Women’s Football League. It too plays matches on a home and away basis and expects to grow its provision in future years.

For talented players, the nearest FA Regional Talent Club (RTC) is Leicester City Women’s FC which is located in Leicester City. Higher level talent pathway opportunities are also provided regionally and nationally by the FA, culminating in the England Women’s national squads. The nearest Women’s Super League team is Leicester City Women’s 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.

Key local providers are:

• Champions Soccer at St Margaret's Pastures
• Power Play at Brockington College
• Football Mundial at Harborough Town.

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 Futsal is available across the country.

There are currently 106 futsal teams in Leicestershire and Rutland that play in the Leicestershire Futsal Fives Female and Male Leagues and the Leicestershire and Rutland Youth Futsal League at key site locations including Crown Hills Community College, Judgemeadow Community College, Babington Academy and Brockington College. It is a priority for the County FA to grow Futsal across all areas of the game both affiliated and recreational.

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 12 FA Just Play centres in Leicestershire and Rutland and the County FA is working towards having 15 in place by 2021. 16 walking football sessions are delivered at/by a range of community organisation including leisure centres, community centres and clubs. The County FA has prioritised walking football and Just Play for further growth. Other local recreational football programmes are primarily delivered through Leicester City Community Trust projects.

Informal football is played in local parks and green spaces – it is free, open access and often played spontaneously. Common examples include a kick-about at a local park or on a multi-use games area (MUGA).

Currently, informal football in the Borough of Oadby and Wigston can be played at a number of parks sites including Willow Park, Blaby Road Park and Uplands Park.

The key strengths of local football in Leicestershire and Rutland include the vibrant club structure and proven track record of investment into charter standard clubs. The overarching future football development priorities for Leicestershire and Rutland are:

1.Increasing access and provision of 3G Football Turf Pitches (FTP's) for training and match play.

2.Improving changing room facilities for adult football.

3.Improving or enhancing facilities to support women and girls football.

4.Providing appropriate facilities to support participants within our BAME communities.

5.Working with clubs and partners to provide access to appropriate high quality facilities.

6.Developing or enabling access to suitable facilities countywide to support the development of futsal.

7.Providing opportunities to support informal provision and recreational play.

8. Improving and enhancing the quality of existing and future Natural Turf Pitches (NTP) in the Borough.

The facilities required to assist this in the Borough of Oadby and Wigston are 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 the Borough of Oadby and Wigston. 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 Football Turf Pitches (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 minimal 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 FTP 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 are two existing full-sized (11 v 11) 3G FTP in the Borough of Oadby and Wigston. These are;

• Wigston College.
• Beauchamp College (opening late 2019).

There is also currently one small-sided 3G FTP (5v5 pitch) in the Borough at the University of Leicester's Roger Bettles Sports Centre.

Based on the Council's PPS (2018) there are currently no shortfalls of full size 3G FTPs.

Wigston College's full size 3G FTP is available for community use, however, it is not on the FA Register for 3G FTP's. The carpet on the pitch (which was funded through an original Football Foundation grant in 2007) at this site is of poor quality and needs to be replaced. This is, however, not identified as a priority project as the College is expected to replace the surface as part of the terms and conditions of the original Foundation grant.

It should also be noted that the small sided provision at the University of Leicester has limited community use and predominantly only accommodates student and gym member demand. There is also a 60 x 40m 3G at Oval Park, Leicester Tigers training ground but access is limited.

Local consultation reveals common issues with the distances travelled to play matches on, and limited availability for match play at, 3G FTPs and this needs to be addressed.

This document identifies one priority project for potential investment, which is the installation of two small sided 5v5 FTPs in the South Wigston area.

This was selected based upon the need to support South Leicestershire College, provide small sided opportunities for the local community and it's potential to reduce the disparity between the life expectancy, as highlighted in a recent report by Leicestershire County Council's Public Health Department, of residents (which is below the national average) in Wigston, in comparison to those in Oadby. Introduction of FTP facilities in South Wigston could help to reduce this disparity.

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 resource 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 nine grass pitch sites in the Borough of Oadby and Wigston with three or more full-size pitch equivalents (or with fewer than three but deemed to be of strategic importance). These contain 24 grass pitches. Of these sites, three are considered to have good quality pitches, three are of standard quality and three of poor quality.

Of the nine key pitch sites referenced above, six are prioritised for improvements by this document. This will result in quality improvements to 20 pitches.

Six priority projects for potential investment are identified. Pitch quality rating was evidenced by the PPS and also ratified by local partners. Prioritisation was based on a rationale of selecting sites in the poorest condition 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 nine key grass pitch sites in the Borough of Oadby and Wigston with three or more full-size pitch equivalents (or with fewer than three pitches but deemed to be of strategic importance), six have suitable changing rooms and three could benefit from refurbishment.

Three LFFP priority projects for potential investment are identified:

Good facilities are important to all small sided football, 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 the Football Foundation when projects are ready to progress to pre-application stage.

Parks and open green spaces are also important to informal play and require goalposts and zones that are free from litter and dog fouling.

Local consultation reveals no indoor facilities currently require investment to develop small sided football.

Four potential opportunities for MUGAs have been identified. In each case the rationale is based on them serving an area of relatively high population, with high levels of reported anti social behaviour and substantial high relatively local demand for informal football.

No current projects have been identified, however, further consultation is required to determine whether investment in to recreational football in parks is required.

A range of local agencies plus larger (usually 10 plus team) local football clubs were invited to participate in the LFFP consultation. Those that contributed are listed below:

• Leisure and Wellbeing Manager- Oadby and Wigston Borough Council
• Head of Leisure and Wellbeing Services- Oadby and Wigston Borough Council
• Economic Regeneration Manager- Oadby and Wigston Borough Council
• Senior Planning Policy Officer- Oadby and Wigston Borough Council
• ASB Officer: Oadby and Wigston Borough Council
• Club Secretary: Oadby Owls
• Club Secretary: Wigston Foxes
• Club Secretary: Willow FC