Plymouth's long term plan for sport pitches

Plymouth is pitching its long term plan for sport pitches across the city as part of its vision of a healthy city as well as a great place to live

The Council has carried out an extensive survey of what the city has as well as what it could need for the future and it has teamed up with local and national partners produce a Plan for Playing Pitches in the city.

The plan outlines the priorities for football, rugby, cricket and hockey in the city and contributes to delivering the objectives for sport and health improvements in the award winning Plymouth Plan.

Councillor Brian Vincent, Cabinet member for Streetscene said: “Playing pitches are hugely important in helping the city achieve its strategic objective to ‘deliver a healthy city’ and make Plymouth a great place to live.

“Pitches play an enormous contribution in keeping our residents healthy, feeling good about themselves, socialising and enjoying their free time.”

There are 187 pitches including 60 adult football pitches, 30 youth ones and 30 adult rugby pitches. Football is, unsurprising, the most popular pitch sport in Plymouth. There are 387 teams – 138 adult male, 13 adult females, 134 youth males, 22 youth females, 80 mixed mini-soccer teams.

These figures are ‘snapshot’ in time, and can change but take into account, as far as possible, clubs and teams that have a strong affinity with the city of Plymouth.

A comprehensive Plan for Playing Pitches has been drawn up which sets out key priorities for the city such as forming a steering group, including representatives from South Hams and West Devon to identify projects and sites to meet needs of local people regardless of boundaries.

The aim is to also develop a partnership with educational institutions to enable community use agreements to be drawn up with colleges and schools across the city, so that community teams have better access to facilities.

The plan also sets out a list of pitches and work needed in order to improve their quality by introducing better maintenance, and drainage regimes.

Councillor Vincent added: “This sets out what we need to look at and where we need to turn our attention to when budgets permit. We’ve already made a start on the to-do list and have collaborated with the Football Foundation, Sport England and Plymouth University to invest £500,000 in the Staddiscombe Playing Fields this year.”