Local Football Facility Plan St. Helens

Demographics for the area can be seen below:

Local authority

The St Helens Borough Local Plan (2020-2035) sets out the framework for the growth and development of the Borough. It identifies how and where new development and regeneration should take place and thereby promotes and manages the future development of the Borough. It will also shape the investment plans of the Council, other public and voluntary organisations, and the private sector. The Local Plan, once implemented, will significantly contribute to the delivery of a prosperous, well connected and attractive Borough, supporting healthy communities, performing a key role within the Liverpool City Region and well positioned to respond to future economic and social changes and challenges.

The Local Plan and Playing Pitch & Outdoor Sport Strategy (PPOSS) contribute by ensuring the Borough’s communities have good health and well-being facilities which provide inclusive programmes. This includes that any proposed or relocated health and community facilities are located in accessible locations with adequate access by walking, cycling and public transport and opportunities to widen the Borough’s cultural, sport, recreation and leisure offer are supported. Such services and facilities can contribute to community cohesion and identity and can present opportunities for residents to pursue healthy and fulfilling lifestyles.

The local authority has a PPOSS which is expected to be adopted in late 2022. The key findings and stated overarching priorities identify a shortfall of full size 3G AGPs with more pitches required, as well a need to improve the quality of grass pitches to help reduce shortfalls, particularly for 11v11 provision. The Council is developing a policy for asset transfer and is looking to embrace and increase club/community led management and maintenance models at more of its playing field sites. A key priority of the PPOSS and the LFFP should be to support these organisations to take on and improve facilities for football.

Undertaken alongside the PPOSS, St Helens has an Indoor & Built Facilities Strategy which identifies a key need for a new leisure facility in the Parr area, underpinned by a need to develop additional swimming pool capacity. Opportunity exists to provide a wider leisure offer for both indoor and outdoor sport across the site, including new 3G AGP provision for football.

County Football Association

St Helens is covered by the Liverpool County FA, with some clubs also affiliating to Lancashire FA. County FAs provide governance for, and development support to, all aspects of local football including coaches, referees, volunteers, clubs and leagues; supporting football for all. The County FAs each have 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. There is no active CCO in St Helens.

Local leisure operator

GoActive is the leisure brand of St Helens Borough Council which manages and operates its key leisure facilities/services in the Borough. GoActive operates its four main leisure centres, Newton-le-Willows Health & Fitness, Sutton Leisure Centre (dual use site with The Sutton Academy), Queens Park Health & Fitness and Parr Swimming & Fitness centre (currently closed).

This includes management of outdoor sports facilities including the full size sand based AGP and grass football pitch at Newton-le-Willows Health & Fitness, as well as the full size sand based AGP, athletics track and facilities, grass football pitch and full size 3G pitch at Sutton Leisure Centre.

Local consultation

Local consultation took place with a broad and diverse set of community groups in the original LFFP (2019) and to inform the recent PPOSS (2021). See Appendix B for full list of consultees who helped inform the LFFP update.

Clubs

There are over 91,000 community football teams in England, spread over an expansive network of clubs and leagues. St Helens has a total of 410 teams (2022/23 season).

Survive. Revive. Thrive is the FA Grassroots Football Strategy 2020-2024. To deliver the goals 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 FA-Accredited status, 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 Helens, 15 clubs have more than 10 registered teams. The largest of these (based upon 2022/23 affiliation data) are:

• Newton Le Willows – 39 teams
• Rainhill United – 37 teams
• Rainford Rangers- 35 teams
• Pilkington – 32 teams
• Bleak Hill Rovers – 29 teams
• Vulcan – 27 teams
• Parkdale Sidac – 26 teams
• Earlstown Athletic- 24 teams
• Penlake – 22 teams
• FC St Helens - 20 teams
• Rainford Ladies – 19 teams
• Bold Rangers – 19 teams
• Haydock – 18 teams
• Billinge Juniors - 18 teams
• Seneley & Garswood – 14 teams

Leagues

The only league operating in St Helens is the Merseyside Youth Football League (formerly St Helens & Rainhill Junior Alliance League) which offers competitive opportunities for mini soccer and youth male players. It caters for 163 teams playing both central venue (in Knowsley and Liverpool) and home and away format matches. While there are no specific league opportunities for disability within St Helens, there is however suitable provision provided within the Merseyside Ability Counts League in Liverpool.

Both Liverpool FA and Lancashire FA report some cross boundary migration in and out of the Authority due to teams migrating outwards to play in a number of leagues. As well as the aforementioned Merseyside Youth Football League central venues which are hosted in Knowsley and Liverpool, the largest league attracting St Helens clubs is the Warrington Junior League. In addition, there are also a number of other leagues such as the Warrington District League, High Town Junior Football League (Liverpool), Mossley Hill Junior football league (Liverpool), Wigan & District Amateur League, Cheshire Adult League and South Lancashire Counties League (Wigan).

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. Helens there are six football teams specifically for people with a disability. It is a priority of the County FA to grow this provision. St. Helens based disability teams migrate to play in Liverpool central venue leagues 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 Helens has 16 FA Wildcats girls football centres and the priority is to sustain and grow this activity. FA Squad Girls' football sessions provide girls aged 12-14 with a fun, non-competitive way to play football locally with friends, whether completely new to football, transitioning from Wildcats, or simply wanting to play. There are four Squad sessions operating in St Helens.

St Helens has 45 female teams, with 15 of these dedicated girls mini soccer teams. 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 leagues are the Liverpool Girls League (Liverpool central venue), Liverpool County Premier League (Liverpool central venue), Warrington Girls League, Hightown Girls League (Sefton central venue), Liverpool Women & Youth Football League and The She Inspires Football League (Sefton central venue). These leagues are expected to grow their provisions in future years. The local adult female league is the Liverpool Women & Youth Football League in which matches are played on a home and away across Merseyside.

For talented players, the most local FA Regional Talent Clubs (RTC) are Everton Ladies and Liverpool Women, both in Liverpool at Jericho Lane Sports Hub and Jeffrey Humble Sports Ground respectively. Higher level talent pathway opportunities are also provided regionally and nationally by the FA, culminating in the England Women’s national squads. The two most local Women’s Super League teams are Everton and Liverpool Ladies which 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.

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 AGPs or small-sided 3G centres.

Key local providers include

• Ruskin Drive Sports Complex
• Rainhill High School
• Cowley International College
• Fives Football at Carmel College

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 St Helens. Walking football sessions are delivered by St Helens Borough Council Sports Development and St Helens Walking Football Club (not affiliated). Walking football and Just Play are County FA priorities for further growth and development.

The key strengths of local football in St Helens include adult male, youth male and mini soccer provision and it is recommend that this is sustained and also encouraged to grow further. However, gaps in provision do exist , these include adult female, disability provision, adult male and recreational football.

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

1. Adult female
2. Junior and Youth female (focus on girls youth/foundation provision)
3. Disability football
4. Adult male
5. Recreational 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 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 AGPs 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 AGPs 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 AGPs 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 AGP 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 AGPs 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 AGPs in St Helens include:

• Ruskin Drive Sports Village (1x football build, 1x rugby league build - also World Rugby compliant)
• Rainhill High School
• Cowley International College
• Sutton Leisure Centre

There are a further five smaller size 3G AGPs servicing St Helens, of which all have floodlighting and are available for community use:

• Carmel College - 103x19m
• King George V Playing Fields (Haydock) - 60x40m (no run-off areas)
• St Cuthbert’s Catholic High School - 58x32m (rugby shockpad)
• Thatto Heath Crusaders ARLFC (Crusader Park) - 45x28m
• St Augustine of Canterbury Catholic High School - 54x30m (rugby shockpad)

A hybrid grass pitch was installed in 2021 at Thatto Heath Crusaders ARLFC (Crusader Park), the development supported by funding secured from Sport England, RLWC 2021 and St Helens Borough Council, towards a total project cost of over a million pounds. Alongside upgrading of the sports lighting servicing the pitch, this hybrid turf pitch will provide increased capacity for use and greater resilience in poor weather beyond what the former grass pitch could, offering similar characteristics to grass but able to sustain greater levels of use. Primarily a rugby league pitch, it also accommodates some football activity, including team training and small sided/recreational play.

St Helens has a Playing Pitch & Outdoor Sport Strategy (PPOSS) undertaken in 2022. The PPOSS indicates that there is a potential theoretical shortfall of seven full size 3G AGPs for football, potentially increasing to eight to meet future growth in demand for football, notwithstanding any demand for rugby union or rugby league use of 3G AGPs. In addition to the shortfall of full size 3G AGPs, the FF funded 3G AGP at Rainhill High School will require replacement within the lifespan of the LFFP, as will the full size 3G AGP at Cowley International College which was not FF funded. The LFFP steering group agreed that one full size 3G AGP and several small sided sided 3G AGPs should be proposed in the Parr & Town Centre area, therefore six rather than seven projects for full size 3G AGPs are identified.

All five of the full size pitches are available for community use and all are on the FA 3G Pitch Register (meaning they are quality checked and can be used for football match play).

The geographic spread of existing facilities is uneven with the majority located in the central (Ecclestone, Windle) and south (Sutton, Rainhill) areas of the Borough. There are provision gaps in the north (Rainford Billinge) and east (Newton, Haydock) areas despite high levels of population, high levels of deprivation in this area and large number of affiliated teams. It is recommended that these issues are addressed by developing new provision. There are no full size 3G AGPs north of the East Lancashire Road which intersects the Borough, identified as a strategic spatial deficiency. Local consultation reveals common issues with low availability and long travel distances and it is recommended that these are addressed.

The FA has seen unprecedented growth over the last five years, particularly in the youth and women & girls game. Overall participation is estimated to grow year on year, equating to an additional 178 teams in the local authority by 2030, of which 63 will come from women and girls. This could represent the equivalent of up to five additional 11v11 3G FTPs, displayed as a future participation growth project below.

Allowances will be made for in the LFFP for ancillary provision for each pitch if needed, however this is subject to the final agreed location of any additional future provision and an assessment as to whether there are existing suitable facilities available. This is displayed as a future participation growth project below.

The following priority projects for potential investment are 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 Grass Pitch Maintenance Fund is a £21m fund that provides eligible organsations 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'. In order to be eligible, organisations such as clubs and leagues must use the PitchPower app to assess their pitches. This provides a detailed assessment report with recommendations on improving the quality of grass pitches. The PitchPower app is available to all pitch owners as a way to assess grass pitch quality and gain access to grass pitch improvement recommendations. See PitchPower.

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.

Through the use of PitchPower we are able to identify the demand for investment into new or additional machinery and equipment and see this as an important step towards sustainability for the voluntary sector. Ensuring clubs and leagues can maintain their own sites, supplemented by contracted out major works (e.g. aeration) is potentially a more cost effective approach in the long term.

While the education sector (23.8%) and local authorities (51.8%) are still the principal asset owners of grass pitches and have the heaviest reliance for affiliated matches, clubs / leagues own or maintain an increasing share and we will continue to prioritise investment into sites that are maintained by clubs or leagues.

From the time of the original LFFP the introduction of PitchPower has allowed all Club owned and leased sites to apply for funding to improve grass pitch maintenance. The Holt Playing Fields and Newton Sports Club were amongst sites previously highlighted in the 2018 LFFP as pitch improvement projects and have since been awarded Football Foundation investment.

Some clubs/sites have since been awarded Football Foundation investment through the Grass Pitch Maintenance Fund, which should result in pitch quality improving over the next couple of seasons. The aim now should be to get the pitches up to the 'good' standard and work to sustain them. Clubs that have accessed the funding to improve pitches are:

• Clockface Miners Welfare & Recreation Club (Clock Face Miners AFC)
• Newton Sports Club​ (Newton-le-Willows FC)
• The Hive​ (Earlstown Athletic JFC)
• The Holt Playing Fields​ (Rainhill Rockets FC)
• Windleshaw Sports​ (FC St Helens/FC St Helens Community CIC - now used within National League System and no longer receiving funding)

There are currently 17 grass pitch sites in the local area with 39 pitches which have been assessed via PitchPower and are currently maintained, in part or whole, by grassroots clubs or leagues. In total there are nine pitches known to be good or better (high or advanced) quality, 11 basic quality and 19 poor quality pitches.

The total number of pitches includes club owned or operated sites which are a priority for grass pitch investment and are eligible for the Football Foundation's grass pitch maintenance fund. These sites are listed below (if possible):

• Albert Fellowes Park (Rainhill United FC)
• Garswood United FC (Simms Lane End)
• John Eddleston Trust Playing Fields (Billinge Juniors FC)
• Rainford Jubilee Playing Field (Rainford Rangers)
• Sherdley Park Playing Field (Parkdale Sidac FC)
• The Rainford X Sports & Social Club (Rainford Ladies Athletic)
• Vulcan Sports Club (Vulcan FC)

New pitches at Cromdale Grove (Penlake FC) are to be developed without funding via the Football Foundation. This site is to be redeveloped as new playing pitches and leased to Penlake FC, which will be relocated from current site Beeches Playing Fields to be developed for housing. The redeveloped site will include equivalent of four full size pitches (seven pitches across different formats), with new pavilion, car parking spaces and new secure fencing.

The priority now is to concentrate on those local authority owned sites that require improvements and agree sustainable solutions for pitch maintenance going forward. The first step is to ensure that all pitches have a baseline quality assessment done via PitchPower. The Council has undertaken PitchPower assessments across its football pitch portfolio. Twelve Council managed sites have been assessed via PitchPower and are known to have one good quality pitch, ten basic quality pitches and 15 poor.

Of the 17 key club/league maintained pitch sites referenced above it was determined that six of these should be prioritised for improvements, along with one education site and one managed by a private organisation (CISWO). A further five local authority managed sites and four Parish/Town Council/Trust managed sites should be prioritised for improvements, some which may hold opportunity for future transfer to club/league-led management and maintenance models. In total this will result in quality improvements to 49 pitches.

Seventeen priority projects for potential investment have been identified. Pitch quality rating was evidenced by PitchPower or the PPOSS and ratified by local partners where PitchPower data isn't available. Prioritisation was based on a rationale of selecting sites that had the most pitches and/or were most well utilised, as well as a strategic focus to improve local authority and 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 AGPs 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 key grass pitch sites that support and deliver grassroots football, as referenced through the steering group, eight sites require improvement/refurbishment and two require new builds/replacement. 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 multi-pitch 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.

Newton-le-Willows Health & Fitness and Parr Swimming & Fitness Centre each require new or additional changing facilities within built leisure facility infrastructure to service proposed new 3G AGPs .

A new changing pavilion will be developed at Cromdale Grove without Football Foundation funding. The site will be redeveloped with new pitches, pavilion, car park and secure fencing for Penlake FC, which will be relocated from Beeches Playing Field before it is then developed for housing.

Haydock FC junior teams use changing and social facilities at Haydock Cricket Club, adjacent to King George Playing Field (Haydock) where the pitches are located. There is a need for expanded/improved changing facilities to meet the needs of both football and cricket from the site. It is anticipated that FF Small Grants funding will support this aspiration.

Of the key sites in St Helens where grass pitch improvements have been prioritised, seven also require refurbished changing facilities.

The FA has seen unprecedented growth over the last five years, particularly in the youth and women & girls game. Overall participation is estimated to grow year on year, equating to an additional 178 teams in the local authority by 2030, of which 63 will come from women and girls. This could represent the equivalent of up to five additional 11v11 3G FTPs, displayed as a future participation growth project below.

Allowances will be made for in the LFFP for ancillary provision for each pitch if needed, however this is subject to the final agreed location of any additional future provision and an assessment as to whether there are existing suitable facilities available. This is displayed as a future participation growth project below.

The list below identifies priority projects for potential investment:

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 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 AGP 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.

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 PlayZone 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.

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

Our research also shows us that 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. This section of the LFFP will concentrate on suitable places for PlayZones.

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. Where some engagement has already been carried out projects will appear in the project list.

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.

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

Once these two things are identified local community engagement is required to identify potential sites for investment. In St Helens the starting point for priority places, identified through previous Local Authority work around deprivation and inactivity, is:

• Parr & Merton Bank
• West Park
• Sutton
• Ashtons Green & Broad Oak

The key priority groups in St Helens are:

• Women and girls
• People with a limiting illness or disability
• People aged 55 years and over
• Children and young people aged 5 to 18

This priority group of places and people will be ratified through consultation and the next step is to now begin community engagement to help identify where the specific sites are that will help to tackle inequalities and provide spaces for activity.

A range of local agencies were invited to participate in the LFFP consultation. Those that contributed are listed below:

• Head of Culture & Welbeing - St Helens Borough Council
• Sports Development Programme Manager - St Helens Borough Council
• Sports Facility Manager - St Helens Borough Council
• Recreation Manager - St Helens Borough Council
• Interim Chief Executive Officer - Liverpool FA
• Head of Facilities & Investment - Lancashire FA
• Planning Manager - Sport England
• Director - Merseyside Sport
• Facilities Development Manager (North) - Rugby Football Union
• Facilities Planning Manager (Recreational Game) - England & Wales Cricket Board
• Cricket Development Manager - Lancashire Cricket Foundation
• Facilities Relationship Manager - England Hockey
• National Clubs Manager - Rugby Football League