Local Football Facility Plan St Albans

Demographics for the area can be seen below:

Local authority

St Albans City & District Council’s 'Council Plan (2023-2028)' seeks to put residents and their needs at the heart of service development, including through its identified priorities to:

• Combat the climate emergency,
• Deliver more social housing,
• Support the local economy,
• Enhance the District's Cultural Offer, and
• Promote equality, inclusion and fairness.

The priorities identified within this plan can help ensure that St Albans has the required facilities to support the community in providing sustainable and inclusive provision, supporting elements of the Council Plan.

The local authority has a Playing Pitch Strategy (PPS) in place; this was adopted in 2023. The key findings and stated overarching priorities are:

• There is an insufficient supply of pitch provision for youth 11v11, youth 9v9, and mini 7v7 pitch formats,
• Shortfalls will increase when considering future demand increases,
• Of the 171 pitches which offer community use, 19 pitches are assessed as good quality, 119 as standard and 33 as poor,
• There are six full size 3G pitches and 11 small sided pitches situated in St Albans. Given the number of teams currently affiliated in St Albans, there is an existing shortfall of five full size pitches.

County Football Association

St Albans is covered by the Hertfordshire 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 Delivery Manager and Regional Technical Project Manager at the Football Foundation work collaboratively with the County FA to provide pre-application support and lead on the delivery of priority projects for potential investment. The Regional Facility Planning Manager (FPM) will lead and be responsible for all aspects of strategic planning and will lead on refreshing of LFFPs.

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). The Watford FC Community Sports and Education Trust runs a variety of health, education, engagement, football and sporting activities within the local area.

Local leisure operator

1Life and Everyone Active are the key leisure operators in St Albans. They currently run several key sites across the District.

Local consultation

This has taken place with a broad and diverse set of community groups in St Albans, including:

• St Albans City & District Council
• Hertfordshire County FA
• Watford FC Community Sports and Education Trust
• Herts Sport & Physical Activity Partnership
• Sport England
• National Governing Bodies of sport, including:
  • England Hockey
  • England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB)
  • Rugby Football Union (RFU)
  • Rugby Football League (RFL)
• Local Football Clubs

Local consultation took place with a broad and diverse set of community groups in the original LFFP. As part of the refresh process a survey was sent via the County FA to all football clubs in the area. Furthermore, it is a requirement that all projects that move through to application phase undertake detailed community engagement to ensure that facilities fully serve the communities they are being designed for.

Clubs

There are over 110,000 community football teams in England, spread over an expansive network of clubs and leagues.

To deliver the goals laid out within the FA Grassroots Football Strategy for male and female football, there must be a vibrant, best-in-class club network around the country. The FA will work to encourage as many clubs as possible to achieve England Football Accreditation, assuring quality in everything they offer, including ever-safer and stronger player pathways. This will be coupled with a commitment to improve the quality of thousands of pitches up and down the country, with a particular focus on grass pitches.

Over the last 10-years there has been a significant national increase in the number of large multi-team football clubs. In St Albans, seven clubs have more than 10 registered teams. The largest of these (based upon 2023-24 affiliation data) are:

• St Albans City Youth FC*** - 105 teams
• Harpenden Colts FC*** - 102 teams
• Wheathampstead Wanderers Youth FC** - 53 teams
• Harvesters FC*** - 40 teams
• London Colney Youth FC* - 20 teams
• London Colney Colts & Cougars** - 19 teams
• St Albans City FC Academy*** - 10 teams

Represents England Football One Star (*) Two Star (**) or Three Star (***) Accreditation level.

Leagues

Nine leagues operate in St Albans. They offer competitive opportunity for many different players, including women and girls, disability, youth and adults.

The largest local leagues (2023-24) include:

• Mid Herts League – 798 teams– home and away
• West Herts Youth League – 711 teams– home and away
• Watford Friendly League – 578 teams – home and away
• Hertfordshire Girls Football Partnership League – 438 teams – home and away
• Herts Youth League – 180 teams – home and away
• Herts Senior County League – 102 teams – home and away
• Hertfordshire 1961 Sunday Football League – 46 teams – home and away
• Watford Sunday Football League – 42 teams – home and away
• Herts Youth Inclusive Football League – 38 teams – central venue

The County FA reports some cross boundary migration between the various local authorities in Hertfordshire.

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 St Albans there are 21 football teams / sessions specifically for people with a disability. It is a priority of the County FA to grow this provision through clubs and Comets opportunities. For talented players the FA runs regional centres and England national squads.

Women and girls

The FA had big ambitions for women and girls football and managed to double levels of participation between 2017 and 2020. To achieve this required a combined effort across four pathways: education, recreation, competition and talent. Despite achieving this ambitious target more places to play are still required for women and girls. The focus now is to give all girls equal access to football by 2024 and this will be a key objective of any facility investment. The FA’s four-year strategy, titled Inspiring Positive Change, pledges to create a sustainable future for women’s and girls’ football in England. The strategy outlines eight transformational objectives to be achieved by 2024, the following across grassroots football:-

• Early Participation – Every primary school-aged girl to have equal access to football in school and in clubs.
• Development Participation – Every girl to have equal access to participate for fun, for competition and for excellence.
• Club Player Pathway – Collaborate with clubs to develop an effective high-performance, inclusive player-centred pathway.
• Football For All – Recruit and support a motivated, diverse range of local leaders organising football for their communities.
• Coaching – Support the development of exceptional coaches at every level of the game who are representative of our society.
• Refereeing – Ensure that every female referee afforded high-quality bespoke learning and development opportunities from grassroots through to the elite game.

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. St Albans has four FA Wildcats girls football centres and the priority is to grow this activity.

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 Hertfordshire Girls Football Partnership 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 Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Women's Football League in which are played on a home and away basis. It is expected to grow its provision in future years.

For talented players, the most local FA Professional Game Academy (PGA) is Arsenal Women, while Watford FC CSE Trust have been allocated as the FA Girls Emerging Talent Centre (ETC) with the main aims of increasing the number of environments to support player transition from participation to excellence, creating a wide base to the pathway that’s fully inclusive and accessible to all players.

Casual football

Casual 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 match play. Casual football demand will be explored as part of the community engagement when a facility project is developed to ensure that the needs are captured. 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. Each project must be mindful to offer opportunities beyond the affiliated game, particularly for women and girls.

The key strengths of local football in St Albans include strong affiliated football team growth, supplemented by small-sided and recreational football opportunities. It is recommended that this is sustained and encouraged to grow further.

Hertfordshire County FA has identified the future football development priorities for St Albans as:

1. Continued growth of female football opportunities.
2. Increased opportunity for disability football.
3. Development of additional recreational programmes through Wildcats, Squad, Just Play and Comets.
4. Sustaining adult male football to drive the Herts Ad League, Herts Senior County League and Watford Sunday League.
5. Supporting the growth of the club network to create full pathways for male, female and disability football.

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. 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 Artificial Grass Pitches (AGPs)
• Improved grass pitches
• Off pitch and ancillary facilities (e.g. toilets, changing rooms, catering)
• 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 pitches 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 3G pitches 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, 3G pitches 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 pitches 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 St Albans include:

• Beaumont School
• Harpenden Town FC
• Katherine Warrington School
• Nicholas Breakspear Catholic School
• Oaklands College
• Roundwood Park School
• Samuel Ryder Academy
• Sandringham School
• St Albans Girls School
• St Columba's College

The Oaklands College FTP is discounted from supply and demand calculations, due to predominant use being from a performance based academy programme utilising most peak time hours.

St Columba's College is discounted as the pitch is not floodlit, and therefore peak time usage is limited.

There are currently 13 small-sided 3G FTP centres in St Albans:

• Cotlandswick Leisure Centre (one 5v5 pitch, plus eight small-sided cages)
• Harvesters FC (7v7)
• Marfold Field (5v5)
• Rothamsted Park (5v5)
• YMCA St Albans (5v5)

Nine pitches are on the FA Register for 3G FTPs (meaning they are quality checked and can be used for football match play). It is strongly recommended that the remaining pitches are assessed and placed on the Register to enable more match play on 3G.

St Albans has a PPS undertaken in 2023. The PPS indicated a shortfall of six full size 3G pitches, based on 399 affiliated teams accessing four community-accessible 3G FTPs. The following facilities have been developed since the PPS was prepared:

• Beaumont School (opened in 2022)
• St Albans Girls' School (opened in 2022)
• Harpenden Town (opened in 2023)
• Katherine Warrington School (opened in 2023)

This would reduce the shortfall to two 3G FTPs, however, parallel to the development of additional facilities, there has been significant team growth locally. As of 2023/24 there are 487 affiliated teams in St Albans. There is therefore considered to be a shortfall of five 3G FTPs.

Given the PPS shortfalls, and additional need generated through team growth, the majority of the shortfall is in the North area, with smaller needs in the Central and South areas.

Further to football demand, consultation with Rugby Football League identified potential for additional 3G FTPs to also support training demand from St Albans Centurions, therefore projects should seek to consult with the club to explore potential multi-sport usage.

Five priority projects for potential investment are identified. The priorities for 3G FTP provision have been listed in geographical sub areas within St Albans. Whilst these represent the preferred distribution of priority projects, it is recognised that in some cases suitable sites may not come forward during the life of this plan, and therefore shortfalls for one area may need to be met by new pitch provision in another. This provides a flexible approach to delivery where confirmed sites for new pitches haven't yet been identified.

The Football Foundation is on a mission to transform the quality of grass football pitches across England, because great facilities enhance physical and mental wellbeing, strengthen communities and empower people. The quality of football pitches is a huge issue for community football; 150,000 matches were postponed due to poor pitches during the last full football season. We are therefore on a mission to improve 20,000 grass pitches across England.

The Football Foundation is on a mission to transform the quality of grass football pitches across England, because great facilities enhance physical and mental wellbeing, strengthen communities and empower people.

The quality of football pitches is a huge issue for community football; 150,000 matches are postponed each year due to poor pitches. We are therefore on a mission to have 20,000 quality grass pitches across England so that everyone has a great place to play. Since the programme began there are over 7000 quality pitches and the next milestone is to have 12,000 quality pitches by 2028.

The key challenge is to create a sustainable approach to provide good quality football pitches for the long term. While the education sector and local authorities are still the principal asset owners of grass pitches, clubs and leagues own or maintain an increasing share and we will continue to prioritise investment into sites that are maintained by clubs or leagues. Investment into new or additional machinery and equipment is an important step towards sustainability for the voluntary sector. Ensuring eligible organisations can maintain their own sites, supplemented by contracted out major works (e.g. aeration) is a more cost-effective approach in the long term.

See the link for more information on grass pitches Football Foundation | Grass Pitch Improvement

Below is a list of opportunities and funding available to support this ambitious work:

PitchPower

PitchPower is the Football Foundation's free web app for inspecting grass football, rugby and cricket pitches. Using a smart phone or tablet, a pitch inspection can be completed at the touch of a button. This provides a detailed assessment report with recommendations on improving the quality of grass pitches. The PitchPower app is available to all pitch operators as a way to assess grass pitch quality and gain access to grass pitch improvement recommendations. See Football Foundation | PitchPower

The Grass Pitch Maintenance Fund

The fund provides eligible organisations with a tapered six-year grant to help them sustain pitches already at a 'good' level and enhance pitches that are either considered 'poor' or 'basic'. to be eligible, organisations such as clubs and leagues must use the PitchPower web app to assess their pitches. Grants are also available towards maintenance machinery and equipment identified through a PitchPower report. Football Foundation | Grass Pitch

Home Advantage

87% of grassroots football is played on grass with local authority-owned pitches making up 60% of those used for the affiliated game. However, budget pressures often mean local authorities lack the resources to maintain their grass pitches to a high standard, contributing towards the thousands of match postponements every season due to poor quality pitches.

The Home Advantage Programme aims to support grassroots clubs and organisations to take on long-term leases of the local authority sites they play at. Click the link to find out more Home Advantage Programme | Football Foundation

The Football Foundation Groundskeeping Community

A free platform that helps connect people to expert grass pitch knowledge and support. The main objectives are:

• To provide accessible learning resources to help further and extend knowledge
• To connect with leading industry experts and peers, to exchange tips & insights with fellow volunteers & professionals across the country
• To collaborate and build a community through case studies and discussion points

Sign up - Football Foundation (hivelearning.com)

Small grants (up to £25k) are also available for items such as fencing and storage containers: Fencing | Football Foundation Storage containers | Football Foundation

Given the range of funding opportunities available, and the comparably shorter-term nature of grants opportunities for grass pitch improvements (versus major capital projects such as 3G FTPs and pavilions), specific investment priorities are not identified via Local Football Facility Plans. Prospective applicants are encouraged to discuss their requirements with their County FA in the first instance.

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. The process of community engagement once a project has been identified means the facility will properly service the local area and it's people, not just for football but potentially for other sports as well. It is essential to speak to female players as part of this process, as the game continues to grow at significant rates, suitable off pitch and ancillary provision for females is essential. It also means, creating environments that are welcoming to players, spectators, volunteers and officials from all sections of the community. See Football Foundation website for design considerations: Changing Pavilion Design Key Considerations | Football Foundation

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 11v11 pitch equivalents. However, as pitch quality is the number one priority for players this is prioritised before investment in changing room pavilions and 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. Where larger scale investment, such as those identified in this section, is not appropriate, small grants are also available to support upgrades and improvements to changing rooms, toilets and clubhouses. See Changing pavilions and clubhouses | Football Foundation

Of the key grass pitch sites that support and deliver grassroots football, as referenced in the Playing Pitch Strategy and/or through the steering group, three sites require improvement/refurbishment and two require new builds/ replacement. In addition, a further allowance for ancillary provision is provided aligned to potential 3G FTP projects (equating to a potential additional three ancillary proposals). Projects are included in this section where it is expected that new or refurbished facilities will contribute to strong sport and community outcomes, such as:

• Large multipitch sites (often three or more pitches) with significant football usage and poor off pitch facilities;
• A priority site for women and girls;
• Club and community sites;
• Sites with new 3G pitches.

Eight 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, the audiences and the various facility types they relate to. Research suggests that small-sided players in teams and leagues, and in organised 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.

Whilst our priorities will always be football led, we believe small sided facilities provide a good opportunity to collaborate with other sports to deliver high quality spaces for people to play recreational sport. This will be achieved via our PlayZones Programme:

Football Foundation PlayZones Programme

PlayZones are modern, safe and engaging facilities that are designed for recreational football and at least one other sport. There are a range of facility types to meet the needs of different sports. Our research shows us that community engagement is the key to developing great small sided facilities and that we shouldn't try and identify sites without first identifying two key things:

• Key priority places within the local authority
• Key priority groups within the local authority

Through this programme we want to address stubborn inequalities in activity levels and access to sports facilities within four priority groups:

• Lower socio-economic groups
• Women and girls
• Disabled people and people with long-term health conditions
• Ethnically diverse communities

When it comes to small sided facilities one size does not fit all and localised design and ownership will yield the greatest engagement from under represented groups. Activation is also as important as the facility itself for these groups. Suitable places will be identified through a combination of mapping, to include identification of our priority groups and crossover with other multi-sport priorities. Further community engagement will be required for design and delivery. All projects will then need to be developed by a cross sector consortium where partners who understand and represent the people and the place come together to drive the project forward and create access and opportunities for priority groups.

More about the programme can be found on The Football Foundation website here: Football Foundation PlayZones Programme | Football Foundation

A range of local agencies and local football clubs, including those which are 2* and 3* England accredited, were invited to participate in the LFFP consultation which was carried out either as part of a Playing Pitch Strategy process or Club Survey. Those that contributed are listed below:

• St Albans City & District Council
• Hertfordshire County FA
• Watford Community Sports & Education Trust
• Herts Sports Partnership
• Sport England
• National Governing Bodies of sport, including:
  • England Hockey
  • England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB)
  • Rugby Football Union (RFU)
  • Rugby Football League (RFL)