Agenda item

Presentation to be given by Mark Coulson, Parklife Programme Manager

The Chair introduced Mark Coulson, the Football Association’s national Lead for the Parklife Football Hubs Programme, who gave a presentation about the restructuring of the FA and their change of focus onto strategic planning.

The presentation outlined some significant challenges for grassroots football in terms of drop-off participation levels, poor levels of transition into adult football, and the participation of the 14-16 age group. Key aspects of the strategic plan included a goal to double their player and fan base for women’s football, to provide more flexible, inclusive and accessible playing opportunities for all, and supporting volunteers and staff across all disciplines to encourage a diverse workforce.

The FA’s facilities strategy was shared with members and they were told that a considerable amount of investment was going into facilities in England but that there are significant challenges to meet demand for good facilities going forward. Shared national investment priorities set by the FA, the Premier League and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS)/Sport England have been agreed, with their headline outcomes focused towards football being played by more people. The FA hopes that these outcomes will lead to better physical and mental wellbeing, individual, social and community development, as well as economic development. The key to this is that there are a number of offers available for different customer groups so projects are not imposed on groups who cannot afford 3G pitches, for example. Projects will be assessed on football outcomes as well as social added value.

The FA wants to roll out their national strategy to councils as soon as possible and have a commitment to having plans for football facilities in every local authority. The Park Life programme is the FA-led response to invest in public sector stock to make it more accessible and sustainable. Mr Coulson said they were aware that councils cannot continue subsidising pitches the same level they used to, so they want to provide a new management and operational approach to grassroots football facilities, where local charities may be brought in to help manage sites.

There is a match funding requirement of 40% for any applications and while Mr Coulson acknowledged that this can be tough for local authorities, the FA will have individual discussions with councils about their potential sites.

Following the presentation, members made the following comments:

·         Members welcomed the report and asked how the strategy could be extended to rural areas with smaller populations. Mr Coulson suggested that a threshold was in place and was needed to make a programme worth investing in financial, which perhaps meant that Park Life may not be a solution for rural areas. He said, however, that they are keen to receive more feedback from local authorities about what their key requirements are so that programmes could be designed to better reflect the varying needs across the country.

·         Members said that idea of sports hubs or centres where a number of sports and activities can be played seem to be the way forward but that it can be difficult to establish a balance which ensures that all members of the community can get something out of it. Members noted that different areas have different needs, which Mr Coulson said the FA agreed with. He suggested that a whole sport approach can help but that existing infrastructure does not always make this easy.

·         Members asked whether there was any data available on the overall picture in terms of sports pitches. The FA has acknowledged that collating this data is a challenge but that a whole games system allows verification of pitches when a club affiliates to the FA. It is thought that this data is generally getting better.

·         Comments were made about the number of playing fields sold off for development purposes and members felt that more needs to be done with planning departments in local authorities. Sport England is a consultee in the planning process as a statutory body and have seen the majority of applications for developments on playing fields rejected but there is a great deal of pressure on football teams to use leisure centre pitches which need to be pre-booked. There were some concerns that this takes the spontaneity out of the equation and that there were prohibitive associated costs incurred when groups need to book leisure centre pitches.

·         It was noted that match funding is not possible to secure each time improvements are needed and it was asked whether a local authority can apply for funding through the FA for works of this nature. Mr Coulson noted that either the club or the authority could apply and that while there is a pitch improvement programme in place, it needs to go further.

·         The Chair noted that the LGA officers are still working on this issue and that while the FA and Sport England are working alongside the LGA, there is more work to be done.

Decision

Members noted the report.

Action

Officers to progress as appropriate.