Local Football Facility Plan Watford

Demographics for the area can be seen below:

Local authority

Watford Borough Council’s Local Plan commits it to embracing its role as a major urban centre that acts as a focus for employment, homes, leisure, caring for its Town Centre and green spaces whilst making the most of its excellent connections to the capital and surrounding areas. The Local Plan's vision identifies a population which will be healthier, with more opportunities to get active, through walking and cycling and access to high quality open spaces. The plan also seeks for growth to be supported by a range of high-quality infrastructure.

The Local Plan provides synergy with the Local Football Facility Plan, which sets out needs and opportunities across the borough relating to the provision of football facilities to meet the needs of the local population.

The Watford Borough Council Sports and Physical Activity Development Framework (2019-2023) sets out a vision to develop "affordable, accessible and appropriate sport and physical activity opportunities for everyone". Its stated aim is that: "through an enabling role with partners and key stakeholder organisations the framework will drive sport and physical activity forward, delivering actions across each of our objectives". Its objectives are to:

• Improve the quality of life of Watford residents through a vibrant, collaborative and targeted approach to the delivery of sport and physical activity programmes and opportunities.
• Enhance the health and well-being of Watford residents by reducing inactivity levels.
• Strengthen the local sporting infrastructure through support of community sports clubs and volunteers.
• Match sports development programmes to major sports facilities investment, linking with the Sports Facility Strategy.

The local authority has a Playing Pitch Strategy in place; this was adopted in 2019. The key findings and overarching priorities are:

• That there is a current shortfall of youth 11v11 and youth 9v9 pitches. This will be exacerbated by future demand, and a new shortfall will emerge on mini 7v7 pitch formats.
• There is a clear shortfall of 3G Artificial Grass Pitches (AGPs).
• That playing pitch provision currently in use, and those no longer in use but having potential for meeting current and future needs, should be protected.

County Football Association

Watford 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 to 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 & Education Trust runs a variety of health, education, engagement, football and sporting activities within the local area.

Local leisure operator

Everyone Active is the leisure operator in Watford. It currently runs two key sites including Watford Leisure Central and Watford Leisure Centre Woodside. The Central centre has no dedicated football provision; however, Woodside's artificial pitch has recently been refurbished, replacing the sand-dressed surface with a 3G rubber crumb surface which provides for a range of local football activity.

Local consultation

This has taken place with a range of organisations and stakeholders in Watford. The agencies consulted include:

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

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 91,000 community football teams in England, spread over an expansive network of clubs and leagues. Watford has a total of 140 teams.

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 Watford, four clubs have more than 10 registered teams. These, (based upon 2022-23 affiliation data) are:

• Everett Rovers Youth - 43 teams
• Watford Youth Sports - 22 teams
• Sun Sports Youth - 14 teams
• Watford FC CSE Trust - 11 teams

Leagues

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

Watford's largest local leagues (2022-23) include:

• Watford Friendly League - home and away
• West Herts Youth Leage - home and away
• Hertfordshire Girls Football Partnership League - home and away
• Herts Senior County League - home and away
• Herts Advertiser Sunday Football League - home and away
• Herts Youth Inclusive Football League - home and away
• Watford Sunday Football League - home and away

The County FA reports significant cross boundary migration to / from Watford based upon teams travelling both to compete with clubs / teams based in other authorities, and to access suitable training facilities.

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 Watford, there are seven football teams / sessions specifically for people with a disability, including multiple teams utilising Woodside Leisure Centre for the delivery of sessions. It is a priority of the County FA to sustain this provision and support participants with a disability to access appropriate 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. Watford has three 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 & Hertfordshire County Women's League in which matches are played on a home and away basis. It is expected to sustain 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.

The most local Women’s Super League team is Arsenal 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 providers in Hertfordshire are:

• Railway Friendly Flexi League
• Herts 6s at Westfield Academy & Wodson Park
• Youth Futsal Series at Longdean School and The Hemel Hempstead School
• Ultimate Football at Monks Walk School
• Roundwood Park Vets League at Roundwood Park School.

In addition to the above, Powerleague Watford is also expected to service some demand from Watford, although it is located in neighbouring Hertsmere.

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 no FA Just Play centres in Watford. Walking football sessions are delivered by a range of community organisations such as Watford CSE Trust and Watford Borough Council. Walking football and Just Play are County FA priorities for further growth and development. Other local recreational football programmes include pro club community programmes and casual bookings delivered by a range of organisations including; Watford CSE Trust, Watford Borough Council and local community clubs.

The key strengths of local football in Watford include significant growth in the number of affiliated teams (versus 2019 Playing Pitch Strategy data), including increased popularity of youth female football and it is recommended that this is sustained and also encouraged to grow further. However, gaps in provision do exist, these include a lack of Just Play provision, and opportunities to develop further recreational provision.

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

1. Continued growth of female participation.
2. Development of the transitional league offer.
3. Expansion of recreational provision - including through Wildcats, Squad and Just Play.
4. Continue to work with clubs in neighbouring local authorities to offer opportunities to Watford residents.

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 FTPs
• 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 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, ethnically diverse 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 Watford include:

• Westfield Academy
• Watford Leisure Centre Woodside
• Everett Rovers FC (Leggatts Way)

Additionally, there are currently two small-sided 3G FTPs in Watford:

• Meriden Community Centre (9 v 9)
• West Herts Sports Club (5 v 5)

Watford has a PPS undertaken in 2020. The PPS indicates that there is a current shortfall of one full size 3G FTP, increasing to 1.5 pitches when accounting for future demand. The PPS also notes that Watford is lacking World Rugby compliant provision and is a potential target area for future delivery of this provision, therefore future projects should consider opportunities for shared football and rugby uses.

The PPS demand was based on 92 teams in the borough at the time of writing, with an anticipated 116 teams used to calculate future demand. On the basis there are 140 teams now registered in the area, actual demand for full sized 3G FTPs calculated using the FA training ratio model 1:38 suggests there is now a requirement for 3.7 full size 3G FTPs (rounded up to four).

When considering the existing full-sized provision in Watford, there remains a shortfall of one full size 3G FTPs. Whilst the additional small-sided facilities provide additional capacity for local football, on the basis that there is high demand for the existing provision with pitches at or near capacity, and additional demand expressed by clubs for access to 3G FTPs, the steering group has agreed a need for one additional full-sized pitch.

Whilst the calculation of 3G AGP demand is based upon a recognised FA training demand model, it should be noted that these pitches also support other activity, and play an important role in getting "more people, more active, more often". This includes social and recreational football delivered by many different providers from volunteers in clubs, sports and community organisations such Watford FC Community Sports & Education Trust (i.e. 'shape up', 'empower', 'kicks', 'man on!') or other providers, as well as other sports uses. The content of this plan therefore shouldn't preclude potential additional projects in the future, should demand over and above that captured via affiliated teams numbers mean that further provision is required.

All five of the current pitches are available for community use. Westfield Academy is on the FA Register for 3G FTPs (meaning it is quality checked and can be used for football match play), and the pitch at Everett Rovers will be included on the register once complete. It is strongly recommended that the remaining pitches are assessed and placed on the Register to enable more match play on 3G.

The geographic spread of existing facilities is even; and therefore, location of future facilities should be targeted in areas of greatest demand. A nearby facility is located at Southway Playing Fields in neighbouring Three Rivers to the North-West, however this is a small-sided facility with use by Watford-based clubs anticipated to be extremely limited.

One priority project for potential investment is identified. This was selected based upon a rationale of good access, high population, expressed local demand, high levels of deprivation, and high proportions of people from lower social economic groups:

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 clubs and leagues 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, 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 Football Foundation | 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.

PitchPower allows for all club owned and leased sites to apply for funding to improve grass pitch maintenance. In Watford, there are a small number of club owned and leased sites, of which two - West Herts FC and Everett Rovers - are in receipt of Grass Pitch Maintenance Funding and therefore progressing pitch improvements. The remaining eligible site is Sun Postal Sports & Social Club, and it is therefore recommended that PitchPower reports are undertaken to allow for an assessment of pitch quality - with a view to an application for Grass Pitch Maintenance Funding.

In addition to the remaining club site, the priority now is to concentrate on school and/or 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. There are eight key pitch sites, and it was determined that four sites should be prioritised for improvements. This will result in quality improvements to 23 pitches at these locations:

• King George V Playing Fields
• Sun Postal Sports & Social Club
• Woodside Playing Fields
• Westfield Academy

Four priority projects for potential investment have been identified. Prioritisation was based on a rationale of selecting sites with three or more pitches, that were well utilised, and recognised as requiring qualitative improvements.

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 eight key grass pitch sites in Watford with three or more full-size pitch equivalents (or with fewer than three but deemed to be of strategic importance), four sites have suitable changing rooms, and four sites require improvement/replacement.

Of the key sites in Watford where pitch improvements have been prioritised, three sites also require new or refurbished changing facilities.

Furthermore, Woodside Leisure Centre has been identified through consultation as a key location to support disability football, with a number of wheelchair teams using the facilities. The club have expressed challenges with limited storage provision, and would benefit from additional storage space to support their activities. Such storage is outside the scope of the LFFP for ancillary facilities, but is a recognised local need for consideration separately.

Four 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 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.

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 Watford the starting point for priority places, identified through previous Local Authority and Active Partnership work around deprivation and inactivity, is:

• Watford Central
• Holywell

Each of these areas have been supported through Active Local - a place-based approach to tackling inequalities and reducing inactivity in areas of most deprivation across each district in Hertfordshire, led by Herts Sports Partnership.

The key priority groups in Watford are:

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

This priority group of places and people will be ratified throughout the process 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. Some sites identified through early conversations, and those that need testing through community engagement, are below:

1. Cassiobury Park
2. King George V Playing Fields

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

• Watford Borough Council
• Hertfordshire County FA
• The Football Foundation
• Watford FC Community Sports & Education Trust
• Herts Sports Partnership
• Sport England
• National Governing Bodies of sport, including:
  • England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB)
  • Hertfordshire Cricket
  • England Hockey
  • Rugby Football Union (RFU)
  • Rugby Football League (RFL)
• London Girls Development Academy FC
• Fullerians FC