Local Football Facility Plan Slough

Slough is in the south east region.

The current population of the authority (ONS 2017 Mid-Year Estimate) is 148,768. This is expected to rise to 160,964 by 2039.

Slough is ranked 5 out of 87 LAs in the region, and 81 out of 326 LAs nationally on the Indices of Multiple Deprivation (ONS).

Slough's ethnic composition is primarily represented by the BAME community (55%). This is significantly higher than the national average (14.6%).

The proportion of Slough’s population represented by the white community is 45%. This is significantly below the national average (85.4%).

Local authority

Get Active Slough: A Leisure Strategy for Slough, seeks to deliver to deliver the ambition for Slough of ‘more people, more active, more often’. In order to do so, the council will:

• Provide community leadership; working with partners from the private, public and voluntary sector to improve and promote access to resources, quality provision and activity programmes in local neighbourhoods targeting priority groups.
• Ensure that there is a wide offer of indoor and outdoor leisure facilities which meet the current and future needs of the town.
• Work within neighbourhoods to deliver a comprehensive programme of sports and physical activity sessions including the ‘Get Active’ programme, targeting communities experiencing higher levels of health inequalities.
• Use the opportunity of the ending of the Slough Community Leisure contract in 2017 to get a new offer that focuses on the priorities of this strategy and which is targeted to achieve our key outcomes.
• Champion and promote the benefits of physical activity and sports participation in achieving health, community cohesion and community safety outcomes.

The local authority is producing a Playing Pitch Strategy, to be completed in 2020. The LFFP should be reviewed in line with the findings and qualitative assessments of football pitch provision.

County football association

Slough is covered by the Berks & Bucks 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 Slough.

Local leisure operator

Everyone Active is the key leisure operator in Slough. It currently runs four sites including the recently rebuilt The Centre and Langley Leisure Centre which both have indoor sports centres able to be used for football.

Local consultation

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

• Slough Town
• Slough Town Youth
• Thames Valley Youth
• Ujala Foundation

(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. Slough has a total of 83 teams, which is much 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 10-years there has been a significant national increase in the number of large multi-team football clubs. In Slough, two clubs have more than 10 registered teams, they are are:

• Langley FC - 11 teams
• Thames Valley Youth - 10 teams

Leagues

Five leagues operate in Slough. They offer competitive opportunity for many different players, including women and girls, youth and adults. While there are no specific league opportunities for disability within Slough, there is suitable provision provided in neighbouring Oxford.

Slough largest local leagues (2018-19) include:

Slough's largest local leagues (2018-19) include:

• Wycombe & South Bucks Minor Football League – 233 teams (home and away)
• Thames Valley Football Development League – 170 teams (home and away)
• Thames Valley Sunday Football League – 31 teams (home and away)

Slough Borough Council is confident that there is significant migration of players from Slough into neighbouring local authorities South Bucks and Windsor & Maidenhead. This should be taken into consideration in the future if/when clear empirical data on players is available to be readily analysed. This affect the need for additional 3G FTPs in the future.

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 Slough there are three football teams / sessions specifically for people with a disability. It is a priority of the County FA to grow this provision. For talented players the FA runs regional centres and England national squads.

Women and girls

The FA has big ambitions for the female game and aims to double levels of participation by 2020. To achieve this requires a combined effort across four pathways: education, recreation, competition and talent.

Education environments have a huge impact on the first experience of football for young girls. This pathway can offer many opportunities for females of all ages to develop and grow a lifelong interest in football.

FA Wildcats girls football centres provide the first step on the recreational pathway, the programme provides girls aged 5-11 with regular opportunities to play football in a fun and engaging environment. Slough has five FA Wildcats girls football centres and the priority is to sustain this activity.

At three, Slough’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 Berkshire County Girls Football League and matches are played on a home and away basis. The league is expected to grow its provision in future years. The local adult female league is the Thames Valley County Womens' League and matches are played on a home and away and the league is expected to grow its provision in future years.

For talented players, the most local FA Regional Talent Club (RTC) is Reading FC which is located in Reading. 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 Reading FC Women 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 include

• Powerleague - at Slough & Eton CE Business & Enterprise College
• Leisure Leagues - at Arbour Park Community Sports Stadium

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 Slough. It is a priority for the County FA to grow Futsal for youth 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 five FA Just Play centres in Slough. Walking football sessions are delivered by a range of community organisation such as Slough Town FC. Walking football and Just Play are County FA priorities for further growth and development. Other local recreational football programmes include Man vs Fat, Little Lions and Active Teen Sessions which are delivered by a range of organisations including Slough Borough Council and Berks & Bucks FA.

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 Slough is played particularly in the north and central part of the local authority. Salt Hill Park and Manor Field are key site locations that are heavily used.

The key strengths of local football in Slough include Adult Male Recreational and FA Wildcats provision and it is recommended that this is sustained and also encouraged to grow further. However, gaps in provision do exist , these include Adult Female and Futsal

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

1. Adult Female Growth
2. Youth Female Growth
3. Youth Male Growth
4. Futsal
5. Adult Male Growth

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 Slough. 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.

Existing full-sized (11 v 11) 3G FTPs in Slough include:

• Arbor Park Community Sports Stadium
• Langley Academy

Additionally, there are currently small-sided 3G FTPs at:

• Ditton Park Academy - 7v7 3G FTP
• Powerleague Slough - 5v5 3G FTPs x9

There are plans for the development of a new 11v11 3G FTP without Football Foundation funding at Thames Valley Athletics Centre, located in adjacent Windsor & Maidenhead, close to the border with Slough. A Community Use Agreement will secure use, predominantly for Windsor & Maidenhead based teams, though the site will be accessible to Slough teams who may seek to use it.

Local club 4 Your Future plans to install 3G carpet on the site of unused tennis courts at Salt Hill Park. This would not be able to host match play, whilst guidance should be offered to the Club to ensure that this facility would be safe and fit for purpose.

A new Slough PPS is under development and will be finalised in 2020. Therefore, demand for full sized 3G FTPs has been calculated using the FA training ratio model 1:38.

On the basis that there are 83 teams in Slough, there is a requirement for two full sized 3G FTPs. There are currently two full sized 3G FTPs in Slough and there is thus no present shortfall of full sized 3G FTPs.

Both pitches are on the FA Register for 3G FTPs (meaning they are quality checked and can be used for football match play) and are available for community use. However, there are limitations to accessible capacity at both Arbor Park Community Stadium (FIFA Quality Pro surface offers can sustain fewer hours per week, plus midweek National League System matches) and Langley Academy (reported reduced availability though Community Use Agreement exists). Consequently, anticipating future growth in demand, there may be need to consider a requirement for one more 11v11 3G FTP. The sand based surface at Wexham School has scope for possible conversion to 3G in future but should be reviewed alongside growth in demand both in Slough and neighbouring South Bucks border areas.

The geographic spread of existing facilities is uneven, the majority are located in the north (Slough Town) and east (Langley) of the local area. There are 11v11 provision gaps in the west (Cippenham) which should be reviewed in line with future growth, though small size 3G FTPs at Powerleague presently play a role in partly meeting this demand. Local consultation reveals common issues with no community access due to the aforementioned conditions and it is recommended that these are addressed.

No priority projects for potential investment are identified as the present 3G FTP requirement is able to be met by existing full size provision.

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 nine grass pitch sites in Slough with three or more full-size pitch equivalents (or with fewer than three pitches but deemed to be of strategic importance), containing 27 grass pitches. The emerging Slough PPS should be used to determine which of these have good, standard or poor quality pitches. Local consultation shows no common issues.

It was determined that all nine key pitch sites should be prioritised for improvements. This will result in quality improvements to 27 pitches:

Nine priority projects for potential investment have been identified. Prioritisation was based on a rationale of selecting sites that had the most pitches, that were most well utilised and strategic focus to improve local authority 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 nine key grass pitch sites in Slough with three or more full-size pitch equivalents (or with fewer than three but deemed to be of strategic importance), six sites have suitable changing rooms, two sites require improvement and one (Upton Court Park) has facilities which are unfit for use and requires a new changing room. Pavilion provision at Salt Hill Park is deemed suitable, with toilet provision accessible within the adjacent tennis centre.

The changing pavilion at Mercian Way Recreation Ground was previously funded by the Football Foundation. Consequently, any refurbishment must be approved by the Football Foundation, pending it being in the best interests of football. Whilst the pavilion is identified as needing further improvement, this has not been identified as a priority project for further Football Foundation investment and should be pursued via other funding sources.

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.

Local consultation reveals that no MUGAs are required to develop small sided football.

One location has been identified to support small sided informal football. Here, the rationale is based on the site being located in a densely populated area with little green space, of high relative level of deprivation.

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:

• Active Communities Manager - Slough Borough Council
• Leisure Development and Client Manager - Slough Borough Council
• Facilities Relationship Manager - England Hockey
• Slough Town
• Slough Town Youth
• Thames Valley Youth
• Golden Eagles FC
• Ujala Foundation