Local Football Facility Plan Ryedale

Ryedale is in the Yorkshire Region.

The current population of the Authority (ONS 2017 Mid-Year Estimate) is 54,311. This is expected to rise to 59,197 by 2039.

Ryedale is ranked 14 out of 21 LAs in the region, and 185 out of 326 LAs nationally on the Indices of Multiple Deprivation (ONS).

Ryedale's ethnic composition is primarily white (99%). This is higher than the national average (85.4%).

The proportion of Ryedale’s population represented by the BAME community is 1%. This is below the national average (14.6%).

Local authority

The Ryedale Sport and Active Lives Strategy (2013-2023) states that by 2023 it will see more people in Ryedale enjoying the benefits associated with a more active lifestyle. This means:

• More people aspiring to take part in sport and active recreation.
• More people actually taking part in sport and active recreation.
• More people becoming involved as volunteers in sport and active recreation.
• Increased participation amongst people already taking part in sport and active recreation.
• Increased satisfaction with facilities and opportunities for sport and active recreation in the Ryedale area.
• Increased usage across all Ryedale owned leisure facilities.

In particular, the Council wants to see:

• A year on year increase in participation in sport and active recreation in Ryedale (based on a baseline of the 2009/11 Active People Survey results).
• Increased capacity within the local community to enable the above through support of existing and creation of; new sports clubs, coaches and officials and improved facilities.
• Engagement of young people, adult males and hard to reach groups such as people with a disability, and older people to encourage and facilitate opportunities for them to remain healthy by being active.
• Promotion, maintenance and development of quality indoor and outdoor leisure facilities, as well as support for the utilisation of village halls etc as small community sports facilities in the villages and small towns.
• Development of better levels of public transport, safer roads and walking and cycling infrastructure, encouraging sustainable travel and improved transport to facilities in the principal settlements.

In order to focus on achieving the above, three key themes are identified:

• Activating Change
• Active More Often
• Active Places and Spaces
  

The local authority does not have a current playing pitch strategy.

County football association

Ryedale is covered by the North Riding 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). There is no active CCO in Ryedale .

Local leisure operator

Everyone Active is the key leisure operator in Ryedale. It currently runs one key site, which has a sports centre and one sand dressed artificial grass pitch (AGP).

Local consultation

This has taken place with a broad and diverse set of community groups in Ryedale. 16 individuals (representing 14 local organisations) were spoken to. The agencies consulted include:

• Kirkby Misperton Parish Council
• Ryedale School
• Molton Community Sports Centre

(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. Ryedale has a total of 96 affiliated teams, which is lower than 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 ten years there has been a significant national increase in the number of large multi-team football clubs. Two of the largest clubs in Ryedale (based upon 2018-19 affiliation data) are:

• Brooklyn Juniors - 23 teams
• Kirkbymoorside Juniors - 9 teams

Leagues

Five leagues cater for clubs and teams in Ryedale. They offer competitive opportunities for many different players, including youth and adults. The largest of these (2018-19) are the:

• Beckett Football League – 18 teams – home and away
• York & Ryedale Junior League– 191 teams– home and away

The County FA reports significant cross boundary migration to/from Ryedale primarily due to teams playing in the York & Ryedale 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 Ryedale there is no football team / session 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. Ryedale has one FA Wildcats girls football centre and the priority is to grow and sustain this activity.

At four teams, Ryedale’s number of female teams 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 girls’ league is the York Girls League in which matches are played on a home and away basis. It is expected to grow its provision in future years. The local adult female league is the North Riding Women’s League. It too plays matches on a home and away basis and is expected to grow its provision in future years.

For talented players, the most local FA Regional Talent Club (RTC) is located in York. Higher level talent pathway opportunities are also provided regionally and nationally by the FA, culminating in the England Women’s national squads

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 the Malton 3G.

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 four 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 Ryedale . It is a priority for the County FA to grow the game 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 Ryedale. Walking football sessions are delivered by a range of community organisation such as York City Football Club Foundation. Walking football and Just Play are County FA priorities for further growth and development. Other local recreational football programmes are delivered by a range of organisations including Hawkes Health.

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 Ryedale is played across the authority. Due to its rural nature it is a key priority to develop facilities of appropriate scale in key locations.

The key strengths of local football in Ryedale include strong club based opportunities, development of high quality football facilities and it is recommended that this is sustained and also encouraged to grow further. However gaps in provision do exist these include developing further opportunities for women and girls, people with disabilities and the recreational offer. It is therefore recommended that the future football development priorities for Ryedale are:

1. Increasing womem and girls football
2. Sustaining and growing the affiliated game
3. Grow participation in disability football
4. Ensuring an affiliated futsal offer is available
5. Improve the Recreational offer for rurally isolated communities

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 Ryedale. 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 (11 v 11) 3G FTP in Ryedale located at Malton Community Sports Centre.

There is no current PPS and, therefore, demand for full sized 3G FTPs has been calculated using the FA training ratio model 1:38. Based on the 96 teams in Ryedale, there is a requirement for one full sized 3G FTP and current supply is sufficient. However, the demand created by 96 teams falls just short of creating a need for two full size 3G FTPs. Taking this into account and the large and rural make-up up of the area (which, for example, makes it difficult for a number of teams located in the north of the District to access existing 3G provision in the South) it has been agreed that the shortfall position should be increased to one.

The pitch at Malton Community Sports Centre is available for community use but it is not on the FA Register for 3G FTPs (which would mean that it was quality checked and able to be used for football match play). It is strongly recommended that the 3G FTP at Malton Community Sports Centre as well as any provision developed in the future is assessed and placed on the Register.

The existing 3G FTP is located in the south of the Authority. There are facilities / provision gaps in the north despite there being substantial football demand and pockets of higher population (and deprivation). Local consultation confirmed the issues faced in respect of long travel distances and the plan is to make recommendations which, in part, will address this.

One priority project for potential investment is identified. It should also be noted that the 3G FTP at Malton Community Sports Centre based on recommended carpet lifespan, will likely require a resurface within the next two to three years. At this point, match funding from the Football Foundation, in tandem with sinking fund commitments made in the initial contract, will be explored.

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 ten grass pitch sites in Ryedale with three or more full-size pitch equivalents (or with fewer than three pitches but deemed to be of strategic importance). These contain 25 grass pitches. Local consultation confirms the need to improve (and then maintain) the quality of grass pitch provision and also raise playing pitch capacity for larger clubs such as Brooklyn FC.

Of the ten key pitch sites referenced it was determined that five should be prioritised. This will result in quality improvements to seven pitches, with the potential for additional provision to be made at three sites; Broughton, Swinton and Amotherby Sports Centre, Fitzwilliam Sports Association/adjoining land and Heslerton Sports Ground.

Five priority projects for potential investment are identified. Prioritisation was based on a rationale of selecting well utilised sites which reflect the Authority's strategic focus.

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 ten key grass pitch sites in Ryedale with three or more full-size pitch equivalents (or with fewer than three but deemed to be of strategic importance), seven have suitable changing rooms and three require improvement to/replacement of existing ancillary provision.

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.

Two potential opportunities for MUGAs are. These are:

1. Duncombe Park - a historic venue with visitor attractions where a sports site is being developed. it will have one full size pitch equivalent and will be accessed by Duncombe Park FC. The Club is hoping to further develop its junior section and would like a MUGA to support with this. Parts of this projects are being supported by a developer but the Club requires further support to realise its aspirations.
   
2. Woodhead Field Lane - a site with one full size pitch equivalent and sand based MUGA, with plans to develop a community pavilion. It is in a rural location where the Parish Council (Kirby Misperton PC) is keen to run football to tackle rural isolation and has also applied for a grant to run dementia football. The Parish Council is looking to improve the onsite MUGA to enable this to take place.
   
   Further to the above, consideration should be given to MUGA projects in the south of the authority in order to tackle rural isolation. Villages in this area also have higher levels of deprivation and subsequent health inequalities. The best locations for MUGAs; however, need to be further explored to ensure good levels of usage and sustainability.
   

Following local consultation, no locations in addition to those above have been identified to support small sided informal football.

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:

• Brooklyn FC - Development Officer
• Duncombe Park FC - Manager
• Football Foundation - Engagement Manager
• Heslerton Junior FC - Club Welfare Officer
• Kirkbymoorside Junior FC - Secretary
• Kirby Misperton Parish Council - Parish Clerk
• Molton Community Sports Club - Community Sport Manager
• North Riding County FA - Football Development Manager
• North Yorkshire County Council - Strategic Planning Team
• North Yorkshire Sport - Head of Development
• North Yorkshire Sport - Workforce Development Manager
• Old Malton St Mary's FC - Secretary
• Ryedale District Council - Senior Commissioning Officer
• Ryedale School - Headteacher
• Sport England - Planning Manager