Help us care for pitches to play again

THERE IS no doubt that Covid-19 has led to a renewed appreciation of our parks and outdoor spaces. Lockdown has meant everyone had to ‘stay at home’, except to do one daily form of exercise, with many understandably choosing to spend this time at their nearest park.

While local team sports have not yet resumed, we’re currently allowed to meet with friends or family outside, where the risk of infection is lower. This means that, particularly in our towns and cities, we’re seeing people flocking to their nearest park, pitch or recreation ground.

Despite this growing gratitude for our parks, the Grounds Management Association’s recent research has shown us that our community green spaces and sports pitches – and the people that maintain them – are currently being neglected, with a risk of many of these becoming unplayable without action.

In England today, we have around 56,891 rugby union and league, football, and cricket pitches. That’s one pitch for every 984 people. Many of these pitches have been overplayed over the last decade, due to rising demand and a lack of funding to care for them. This is resulting in a steady deterioration of existing grounds.

Following Covid-19, demand for pitches will only increase. We’ve been unable to play for months, which will have impacted on both our physical and mental wellbeing, so access to sports will be crucial to the national recovery.

But the demand for pitches, and the resulting overplay, will probably be met with a backdrop of cuts to local services. With pitches not valued as a statutory service, continued under-investment will result in unsafe pitches, more cancellations, and a loss in participation.

Unfortunately, if this trend continues as it is now, the amount of sport being played will be reduced. Our report has suggested a fifth of people who play rugby and football will be unable to play every week, and more than half of people who play cricket will see matches reduced.

This unhappy trend would be a huge loss for our communities, especially as we’re seeing growing demand from both adults and young people for outdoor spaces to play sport in Yorkshire.

Just over 60 per cent of children aged seven to 18 years in Yorkshire recently stated that they would like to see more grass pitches in the area, alongside 45 per cent of adults in the region.

Fifty seven per cent of children said they would play more team sports on grass surfaces if they could, while 62 per cent of adults in the area also said that playing in a local sports league is good for people’s mental health.

With 51 per cent of adults agreeing that playing weekly team sports is a British pastime, it’s clear that pitches and green spaces are important to people in the area. The priority should therefore be increasing participation levels in sport, rather than allow them to decrease.

We know that, nationally, if we started taking better care of our existing grass pitches, almost 1.4 million more children could play rugby or football every week and 489,859 more could play cricket every season.

At a local level, volunteers are a vital part of making this possible. Sports turf volunteers and professionals are key to making surfaces ready for play. Through investing in local pitches, encouraging more volunteering, and promoting careers in the profession, we can get more people playing sport than ever before.

With our Back to Play campaign, we’re calling for members of Yorkshire’s local communities to get in touch, and start volunteering at local sports clubs and parks, to help keep pitches playable.

While play isn’t currently happening, we’re urging people to get involved and contact local teams right now. Local government, sports bodies and members of the public who love sport must help protect existing pitches to keep the region playing.

We’ve seen hundreds of thousands of people volunteering to help out in their community throughout the Covid-19 crisis, be that through signing up to support the NHS, or helping out an elderly neighbour. It’s vital that this spirit continues.

Matches and training cannot take place without a suitable playing surface. Clubs need great pitches, and they need grounds staff and volunteers to make that possible.

It’s imperative that more volunteers look to support local pitches, even just for a couple of hours a month. Get involved today.