Local Football Facility Plan South Tyneside

South Tyneside is located in the North East region. The current population of the Authority (ONS 2017 Mid-Year Estimate) is 149,555. This is expected to rise to 151,999 by 2039.

South Tyneside's ethnic composition is primarily white (95.93%). This is substantially higher than the national average (85.4%).

The proportion of South Tyneside’s population represented by the BAME community is 4.07%. This is below the national average (14.6%).

South Tyneside is ranked as the 2nd most deprived Local Authority in the North East, and 31st out of 326 English Local Authorities.

Local authority

South Tyneside Council Strategy's (2017-2020) sets out the long term ambition for the Borough. Its vision is to ensure the Authority is an outstanding place to live, invest and bring up families. To achieve this vision, ten key objectives have been set, one of which is to improve the health and well being of residents and visitors. Key targets within this objective include reducing obesity levels, particularly childhood obesity levels, and providing high quality leisure facilities.

The Authority is currently producing its Playing Pitch Strategy; the Assessment Report is complete and the finalised Strategy is due in February 2019. Emerging key findings identify that the majority of community available pitches are rated as either standard or poor quality, with only 12 rated good. Nevertheless, there is current and future spare capacity across most pitch types, apart from youth 11v11 and youth 9v9 pitches, where there is a predicted future shortfall. In addition, there is a shortfall of 3G pitches equating to the need for two additional full sized 3G FTPs.

County football association

South Tyneside is covered by Durham County FA which provides governance 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 club community organisations (CCOs)

These continue to expand and enhance their range of community delivery, offering a variety of programmes and services to support local communities (sporting and non-sporting). Sunderland Foundation of Light operate in South Tyneside. It delivers a number of programmes in the Authority, including a Premier League KICKS programme at Temple Park.

Local leisure operator

The Council owns and manages all key leisure centres in the Borough. These include Temple Park Centre, Monkton Stadium, Jarrow Focus, Haven Point Leisure Centre and Hebburn Central.

Local consultation

This has taken place with a broad and diverse set of community groups in South Tyneside. In total, 17 individuals (representing 12 local organisations) were spoken to. Agencies consulted include:

• South Tyneside Council
• South Tyneside CVS
• Hebburn Football Club
• South Tyneside School Sports Coordinator

(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. South Tyneside has a total of 281 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 South Tyneside seven clubs have more than 10 registered teams. These (based upon 2018-19 affiliation data) are:

• Jarrow FC – 28 teams
• Boldon CA Colts & Girls Youth FC - 25 teams
• South Shields FC – 26 teams
• Harton and Westoe - 20 teams
• Hebburn Town FC - 54 teams
• South Shields Westoe & Harton Juniors FC - 19 teams
• Whitburn & Cleadon Youth FC - 12 teams

Eight leagues operate in South Tyneside. They offer competitive opportunities for many different players, including women & girls, youth and adult. While there is no specific league opportunity for disability football within South Tyneside, the nearest one operates in Cramlington Learning Village (Northumberland), delivered by the Newcastle United Foundation.

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

• Russell Foster Youth League – 204 teams–home and away / central venue / central venue at multiple sites
• South Shields Sunday League (Adult) – 21 teams– home and away

The County FA reports significant cross boundary migration into and from Sunderland, Gateshead and Durham due to the match fixture schedules of teams that play in the Russell Foster Youth & Mini leagues.

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 South Tyneside there are 12 football teams and two recreation session run 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. South Tyneside has 1 FA Wildcats girls football centres and the priority is to grow this activity.

At 21, the number of female teams in South Tyneside 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 Russell Foster Girls’ Youth League in which matches are played on both a home and away and central venue basis. It is expected to grow its provision in future years. The local adult female league is the Durham County FA Women’s League in which matches are played on a home and away basis; it too is expected to grow its provision in future years.

For talented players, the local FA Regional Talent Club (RTC) is Sunderland/Gateshead RTC located in Sunderland. 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 was previously Sunderland AFC Ladies; however, it now plays in the Sunderland FA Women's National League North. It 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

• Soccer Sixes at Harton Sports Centre
• Soccer Sixes at South Shields FC
• Temple Park

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 five youth futsal teams in South Tyneside. These play in the Durham County and local external provider leagues at key site locations including Boldon, South Shields and Hebburn. It is a priority for the County FA to grow Futsal 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 two FA Just Play centres in South Tyneside. Walking football sessions are delivered by a range of community organisations such as Change4Life. Walking football and Just Play are areas that the County FA has prioritised for further growth and development. Other local recreational football programmes include casual bookings which are delivered by a range of organisations including Temple Park Leisure Centre, Hebburn Clegwell CA, Harton Sports Centre, Monkton Stadium and Mariners Park.

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 kickabouts at a local park or on a multi-use games area (MUGA).

Currently, informal football in South Tyneside is played thoughout the Borough. Among many, South Shields West Park MUGA, Horsley Hill CA MUGA, Jarrow West Park MUGA, Boldon CA MUGA, Chuter Ede CA MUGA, Perth Green Play area, Jarrow Cambrian Street MUGA, Clegwell MUGA, Luke's Lane MUGA, School Street MUGA, Monkton Dene MUGA are heavily used key site locations.

The key strengths of local football in South Tyneside include large multi team clubs, youth/adult football and local youth/adult leagues provision; it is recommend that this is sustained and also encouraged to grow further. However, gaps in provision do exist in disability and women and girls football

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

1. Small Sided and Futsal
2. Recreational Offer (including Walking Football, Just Play Centres & Flexible Football)
3. Women and Girls (including Wildcats Programme)
4. Disability Football
5. Affiliated Football (all formats)

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

In addition, 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 South Tyneside. 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 inline with four investment priorities:

1. 3G FTPs
2. Improved grass pitches
3. Changing room pavilions / clubhouses
4. 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 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 national ‘Mini Pitch’ programme delivers small 3G FTPs at primary school sites to provide a high quality introduction to football and get children more physically active. While mini pitches are reviewed in this section, they are not included in the demand and supply analysis for 3G FTPs.

FA data and the PPS states that there are currently five full-sized 3G FTPs in South Tyneside, although only four are available for community use. This is a shortfall of three community available pitches relative to assessed demand.

Existing 3G FTPs in South Tyneside are located at:

• Temple Park
• Mortimer Community Association
• Harton Technology College Sports Centre
• Hebburn Comprehensive,
• Mariners Park (South Shields FC)

As mentioned above, four of the five are available for community use; Mariners Park is home to South Shields FC and is mainly used by the Club to cater for its own teams. As a consequence, time slots for the local community are limited and, on this basis, it was deemed that this pitch should be removed from the overall supply. Four 3G FTPs are on the FA Register for 3G FTPs (meaning they are quality checked and can be used for football match play). It is strongly recommend that the remaining venue (Mortimer Community Association) is assessed and placed on the Register to enable more match play on 3G.

The geographic spread of existing facilities is uneven; the majority are located in the west and north east of the local area. There are provision gaps in the central and southern areas despite the having high levels of population and deprivation; it is recommended that these gaps are addressed.

Local consultation highlights issues associated with limited 3G pitch availability, limited match play options and anti social behaviour at certain sites; it is recommended that these are addressed. Clubs such as Jarrow FC (located in the west) struggle to access a 3G facility as the only facility in the area is at Hebburn School, which is heavily used by Hebburn Town FC. Clubs which use the 3G at Temple Park expressed concern at the lack of security at the site, with regular incidents affecting delivery of training sessions.

Six priority projects for potential investment are identified. These include three full-sized FTPs, two small sided pitch schemes and a pitch refurbishment. Four site options (Temple Park or Harton Academy , Boldon Community Association or Whitburn Academy ) are presented to deliver two of the proposed full-sized 3G FTPs with the remaining project being Perth Green Community Association . Site selection is based on a rationale of good access, capacity to serve a substantial local population and achieving a good geographic spread.

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 standard 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.

Often 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.

PitchFinder indicates that there are currently 15 grass pitch sites in South Tyneside with three or more full-size pitch equivalents (or of a smaller size but deemed to be strategically important). Between them these contain 50 grass pitches.

Of these, five have pitches considered to be of good quality, five have standard quality pitches, four have poor quality pitches and one was not assessed. Pitch quality was assessed through the latest Playing Pitch Strategy and ratified by the Steering Group. The sites which contain predominantly poor and standard rated pitches are those identified for investment.

Local consultation shows common issues with poor quality, in particular drainage; it is recommended that this is addressed

Ten priority projects for potential investment are identified:

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 15 cited key sites in South Tyneside, six have suitable changing room pavilions/clubhouses, eight have facilities that need improvement/ replacement and one has no facility and requires a new changing pavilion.

Nine priority projects for potential investment are, thus, 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 highlights two potential indoor facilities that would benefit from investment to develop small-sided football. Sport England recreational football mapping suggests that both sites identified are well located in respect of proximity to informal football demand from the local population.

Temple Park currently supports the Russell Foster Youth League and services training demand from a number of clubs. As part of the masterplan for the site, the Council and the County FA are keen to see the large sports hall (eight court hall) upgraded to support indoor football, potentially turning it into a football hub.

South Shields FC has recently submitted a planning application to build a new south stand with a sports hall attached. If the application is successful, it will require funding to support the development.

Two potential opportunities for MUGAs are identified. In each case the rationale is based on the site being in an area of high population density and high levels of deprivation and corresponding high local demand for informal football. Sport England recreational football mapping suggests that South Shields and Jarrow are areas that may have a particularly high demand for informal football from the local population.

Following local consultation, no locations are identified at this plan stage to support small-sided informal football within parks and open green spaces.

Asset Manager - South Tyneside Council

Property Service Manager - South Tyneside Council

Planning officer - South Tyneside Council

Outdoor Facilities Officer- South Tyneside Council

Leisure Manager- South Tyneside Council

Disability Officer- South Tyneside Council

South Tyneside School Sports Coordinator

Business Manager- South Tyneside CVS

Centre Manager- Perth Green CA

Club chairman - Boldon School

Club chairman- Whitburn & Cleadon FC

Club chairman - Boldon Colts FC

Club chairman - Harton & Westoe Juniors FC

Club chairman - Hebburn Town FC

Club chairman - South Shields FC

Club chairman - South Tyneside FC

Club chairman - Jarrow FC