Local Football Facility Plan Scarborough

Scarborough is in the Yorkshire Region.

The current population of the Authority (ONS 2017 Mid-Year Estimate) is 108,370. This is expected to fall slightly to 108,217 by 2039.

Scarborough is ranked 9th out of 21 LAs in the region, and 81st out of 326 LAs nationally on the Indices of Multiple Deprivation (ONS).

Scarborough's ethnic composition is primarily white (98%). This is higher than the national average (85.4%).

The proportion of Scarborough’s population represented by the BAME community is 2%. This is significantly below the national average (14.6%)

Local authority

Scarborough Council’s Local Plan (2011-32) includes the aim 'to build upon the excellent opportunities for communities to access good quality open space for recreational and reflective purposes and to increase opportunities for participation in sport and health benefiting activities'.

The Authority does not have a playing pitch strategy but there is an intention to undertake a new assessment during 2019. This should be reflected in future iterations of the LFFP.

County football association

Scarborough is covered in the main by the North Riding FA, however the areas of Filey and Hummanby are covered by East Riding FA . Both CFAs provide governance for, and development support to, all aspects of local football including coaches, referees, volunteers, clubs and leagues; supporting football for all. Both County FAs have designated facilities investment lead officers 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 Scarborough .

Local leisure operator

Everyone Active is the key leisure operator in Scarborough. It currently runs Scarborough Sports Village , and Pindar Leisure Centre which both contain full sized 3G FTPs, and Whitby Leisure Centre.

Local consultation

This has taken place with a broad and diverse set of community groups in Scarborough. 13 individuals (representing 12 local organisations) were spoken to. The agencies consulted include:

• North Yorkshire County Council
• Scarborough Athletic
• Scarborough Ladies
• Scarborough, Whitby & Ryedale Mind

(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. Scarborough District has a total of 124 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 Scarborough District, three clubs have more than 10 registered teams. These (based upon 2018-19 affiliation data) are:

• Fc Seamer Juniors - 10 teams
• Scarborough Athletic - 14 teams
• Whitby Fishermens Society - 11 teams

Leagues

Three leagues cater for clubs and teams in Scarborough District. They offer competitive opportunities for many different players, including [women and girls, youth and adults; these (2018-19) are the:

• Scarborough District Saturday League - 24 teams
• Scarborough District Sunday League - 13 teams
• Scarborough Minor League - 41 teams.

The County FA reports significant cross boundary migration to/from Scarborough District due to teams migrating outwards to play in both York and in the East Riding.

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 Scarborough District two football sessions run specifically for people with a disability and the Authority employs a sport development officer with a specific remit for disability sport. It is a priority of the County FA to grow this provision. For talented players the FA runs regional centres and England national squads. The nearest talent centre is in Middlesbrough.

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. Scarborough currently has four FA Wildcats girls football centres and the priority is to grow this activity within the district.

At 23, the number of female teams is comparable to local areas of a similar size. The priority of North Riding County FA is to support existing clubs to grow and encourage more clubs to develop playing opportunities for females. The local girl's league is the City of 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 Womens League in which matches are played on a home and away. It is expected to grow/sustain its provision in future years.

For talented players, the most local FA regional talent club (RTC) is either York or Teesside. Higher level talent pathway opportunities are also provided regionally and nationally by the FA, culminating in the England Women’s national squads. Middlesbrough Ladies compete in the FA Women’s National League Northern Premier Division (Tier 3) and provide 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.

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.

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 with 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 16 futsal teams in Scarborough District playing in the Scarborough Minor League which runs a ‘Futsal Phase’ as part of its season.

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 2 FA Just Play centres in Scarborough District. Walking football sessions are delivered by a range of community organisation. Walking football and Just Play are priorities for the County FAs - 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 Scarborough District is played across all of the local authority.

The key strengths of local football in Scarborough include strong club based opportunities, a proactive leisure strategy from the local authority & numerous opportunities for growth in key development areas and it is recommended that this is sustained and also encouraged to grow further. However, gaps in provision do exist, these include growing the game for women and girls, people with disabilities and the recreational offer.

It is therefore recommended that the future football development priorities for Scarborough are:

• Male affiliated and regular-recorded recreational players “Increase male footballers in the game by 10%”
• Female affiliated and regular-recorded recreational players “Support a doubling of female football via 75% growth”
• Disability affiliated and regular-recorded recreational players “Grow participation in disability football by 30%”
• Futsal affiliated and regular-recorded recreational players “Ensure affiliated futsal is available across the area

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 Scarborough. 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.

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

• George Pindar School
• Scarborough Sports Village

A full sized Football Foundation funded 3G FTP is also being developed at Eskdale School (Whitby). This facility is hoped to be completed for the start of the 2020 – 21 season.

In addition, there are two small-sided 3G FTPs in Scarborough at:

• Scarborough Tech
• Ebor Academy (Filey).

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 124 teams in Scarborough, there is a requirement for three full sized 3G FTPs. The current shortfall of one full sized 3G FTP will, thus, be addressed by the new facility at Eskdale School.

All the 3G FTPs are available for community use, however consultation with Everyone Active revealed that additional use could be facilitated at Pindar Leisure Centre via provision of external changing / portakabin facilities. The 3G FTP at Pindar Leisure Centre is on the FA Register for 3G FTPs (meaning it is quality checked and can be used for football match play). It is strongly recommended that the facility at Scarborough Sports Village and the new one being developed at Eskdale School are assessed and placed on the Register to enable more match play on 3G..

The geographic spread of existing facilities will be relatively even once the Eskdale School venue is in place, with the main settlements of Scarborough and Whitby being adequately provided for. Local consultation nevertheless reveals common issues related to facility hire cost, limited availability/community access and lack of match play on 3G and it is recommended that these are addressed.

No priority projects for potential investment are identified at this point in time.

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 10 grass pitch sites in Scarborough with three or more full-size pitch equivalents (or with fewer than three pitches but deemed to be of strategic importance). These contain 41 grass pitches.

Scarborough BC is about to commission a PPS. When the needs assessment is completed it will be in a position to update the LFFP and provide relevant pitch quality ratings.

Local consultation confirms common issues with poor grass pitch quality and it is recommended that these are addressed, particularly with respect to the Olivers Mount site which with improved quality could become a grass pitch hub site for affiliated football in Scarborough town. Consultation also suggested that there is potential for local leagues e.g., the Scarborough Sunday League to take more responsibility in respect of the maintenance and upkeep of the site on the basis of an initial capital investment.

Of the 10 key pitch sites referenced above it was determined that two should be prioritised. This will result in quality improvements to 12 pitches:

Two priority projects for potential investment are identified. Pitch quality rating was ratified by local consultation and the two priorities are based upon a rationale of selecting sites with a substantial number of pitches which are in poor condition related to the broader strategic focus to improve local authority / club pitches.

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 Scarbrough with three or more full-size pitch equivalents (or with fewer than three but deemed to be of strategic importance) nine have suitable changing rooms, and two sites (Olivers Mount and Pindar School) require improvement/replacement.

Two 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.

Six potential opportunities for MUGA development are identified . In each case the rationale is based on the site serving an area of relatively high population with limited green space and catering for a relatively high proportions of people from lower social economic groups:

Following local consultation, no locations are 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:

• Secretary - Scarborough Athletic
• Representative - Scarborough Ladies
• Youth Services - Area Prevention North Yorkshire County Council
• CEO - Scarborough, Whitby & Ryedale Mind
• Funding & Development Manager - Carers Resource Scarborough
• Programme Director - LA/Scarborough Opportunity Area Coast Opportunity Area
• Scarborough Sunday League
• Scarborough and District Minor League
• Scarborough Saturday League
• Parks & Countryside Officer - Scarborough Council
• Planning Policy Officer - Scarborough Council
• Estates Manager - Scarborough TEC
• Area Prevention Manager - North Yorkshire County Council