Sheffield park football scheme hits hitch but goes forward

Sheffield City Council was keen to set up PlayZones as part of a scheme organised by sports charity the Football Foundation. However, the council’s communities, parks and leisure committee heard that the project, which aims to widen participation in the sport, may actually exclude groups through its ‘one size fits all’ approach and strict criteria that councils must meet to get funding.

The committee agreed to approach the foundation to get funding for a PlayZone at Ecclesfield Park and a Sheffield Wednesday Community Programme-run facility in the Jubilee Sports Ground on Clay Wheels Lane, near Middlewood. As these would be first PlayZones in the country, the council is proposing to run them with a ‘test and learn’ approach to see how they can work best.

A report to the committee said that the Football Foundation launched its PlayZones project last year, offering funding “to create safe, inclusive, and accessible outdoor sports facilities that bring communities together through recreational forms of football and a range of other sports and physical activities”.PlayZones will be football led but will offer multi-sports courts. The funding target women and girls, lower socio-economic groups, disabled people, those with a long-term health condition and ethnically diverse communities, said the report.

Council officers started work last year to find suitable sites, with the aim of applying for funding for phased programme creating a total of 15-20 sites, which could involve an investment of £1.5-£2 million. To win the PlayZone funding, they must be fenced off with a lockable gate, floodlit and at least some sessions must be booked by users through an online system.

The committee heard that those requirements made it very difficult to identify potential sites.

Ageing

“Our initial approach was to update our slightly ageing MUGAs (multi-use games areas) in existing parks and green spaces and unfortunately a number of those spaces have fallen down on some of those requirements that I’ve mentioned previously, most notably the one around being gated and bookable,” said Kathryn Mudge, the council’s service manager for sport, health and leisure.

She told councillors that six months of consultation with more than 70 different groups about replacing publicly-accessible space that anyone can use with a PlayZone showed that could “actually detract, rather than add value to the leisure offer in Sheffield”.

East Ecclesfield ward councillor Robert Reiss was enthusiastic about the idea. He said: “One thing I’ve noticed talking to local residents is that this is a bit of a tired park and this would be very, very welcome in the local community.”

Ms Mudge said that local communities and groups would be consulted about the idea in both areas as part of a community engagement plan to identify in detail what people want to see.

West Ecclesfield ward councillor Alan Hooper said: “I really, really welcome this, it’s really good, and I think if phase one can be made successful, and I’m sure it will be, they can run it out across the city.”

He said that, as chair of the council’s North local area committee (LAC) and an Ecclesfield parish councillor, he could help to seek funding for the Ecclesfield Park PlayZone from both groups.

Councillors agreed to approach the Football Foundation with the ‘test and learn’ idea.

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