Kingswood United pitch development

The Pitch

Problem statement

Kingswood United was formed in 2019 to get more children into sport, engage with others and therefore promoting physical and mental fitness. In the time we have been active, the club has become one of the biggest in the East Riding area with over 600 players taking part in sport every week. Currently, our club is run purely by volunteers. We are very lucky to have our own football ground which hosts four different sized football pitches. This ground is located in Bransholme and the area is in the highest 10% for social deprivation. As well as this, the pitches are built on top of an old primary school and therefore is subject to flooding in the winter months.

Solution

As a club, we want to ensure that our pitches can be used as much as possible so that our children can play games every week. Already this year we have had to postpone games for two weeks due to the poor pitch conditions. Obviously, this was a huge disappointment to our children, parents and opposing teams. We would like to further develop our pitches to ensure that they are of the best quality for a grassroots club. This includes aerating pitches with the correct equipment as well as including piping to each pitch so that it can drain more quickly and have no standing water for sustained periods. We would also purchase further resources including soil and seed to build our pitches further

Why are we best placed to deliver?

As the biggest grassroots club in Hull and the East Riding, we want to ensure that we can provide the best facilities for our children. Our grounds volunteers have been supporting football at this level since its inception. We have members of the club playing at our Soccer School from the age of 4 up to our recently formed ladies team with a mix of boys and girls teams from U7 to U16. The club is at the heart of the community and we want to ensure that we can support the people in and around the club as much as possible through delivering the best sporting equipment we can. The better our facilities, the more opportunities we can offer to our local community.

Focus Areas

Delivery plan

Budget breakdown

Beneficiaries

700 people

Who will benefit

Expected impact

With this funding, we will be able to ensure that our pitches are open and usable to all teams as well as opening our facilities to further members of the local community. We already serve 600+ club members every week and by having this equipment, it will make sure that we have high quality pitches that have a reduced risk to weathering and therefore games being called off. The aeration of each pitch will reduce the standing water that we currently endure when there are sustained periods of wet weather and added to that, the additional drainage at each pitch will also remove this barrier for playing. With these high-quality pitches, we will also be able to offer the use of our pitches to community groups with a reduced risk to the deterioration of them thus benefitting the health and well-being of groups outside of our club. As an area with a need for the promotion of physical and mental health, this will have a great impact on our members and the wider community.

Track record

All of our previous projects have been self-funded to develop the facilities for the members of our club. Within eighteen months of having our own home ground we have sited our own community and welfare buildings, made our own car-parking facility as well as raising funds to have water and electricity connections on site. This has all been through fund-raising and time donated from our volunteers and parents of children in the club. As a club, we welcome any support and help to make sure that our children have the best possible facilities so that they always have the chance of playing sport with their team-mates. Our club has a huge positive impact on the local area and this funding would fully enhance this further.