Porthcawl’s comprehensive school is in line for a floodlit 3G pitch that local clubs could hire from £22.50 an hour, with £391,000 in grants lined up to pay for it.
Bridgend County Borough Council’s cabinet will be asked to approve the project on Tuesday.
The report describes a seven-a-side pitch with a shock pad, cross-field goals, fencing and LED floodlights, for football and rugby. It would replace the school’s existing artificial pitch, which the report says is in poor condition and used by only “a small number of groups” after hours.
No planning permission is needed, the report says.
What clubs would pay to use the Porthcawl Comprehensive pitch
The council’s financial model uses £22.50 an hour for half the pitch for mini and junior clubs, £45 an hour for the full pitch for youth teams, and £75 an hour for seniors. It describes those as minimum expected rates in a draft usage plan, based on Cymru Football Foundation guidance for council-subsidised pitches.
Pupils would have the pitch during the school day, with the community using it after school, at weekends and in the holidays. The report says there would be slots for women’s and girls’ teams, and that under-used slots should be offered to underprivileged groups.
The school would keep the hire income and use it for maintenance, staffing and floodlighting, with £30,000 a year passed to a council-held fund to replace the surface after ten years. The model expects income of at least £128,700 a year against costs of £60,779.
At Bryntirion Comprehensive, where a similar pitch has recently opened, the report says hire income has paid for two extra caretakers.
Seventeen clubs chasing 39 hours: why Bridgend wants more 3G pitches
When the Bryntirion pitch was offered for hire, 17 groups asked for a total of 226.5 hours a week. There were 39 available, which the report calls “demand of 581% of the available slots”.
It says clubs have been travelling outside the county borough to find a 3G pitch, which shuts out those without transport, and that a dry summer has made ground conditions on grass pitches worse.
Who is paying for Porthcawl’s 3G pitch
The Cymru Football Foundation has conditionally offered £241,473 and Sport Wales £150,000. The council’s own contribution is listed as nothing. The report says the foundation has indicated, in principle, that it would absorb any increase in costs.
The school’s governors approved the management arrangement in principle on 15 July. The work would go out to tender. The report gives no start date or opening date.
Cllr Gary Haines, cabinet member for communities and the environment, said: “There is clear demand for quality artificial pitches across the county borough, and this proposal provides an opportunity to explore how we can increase provision while making the best possible use of external investment.”
Cabinet meets at 2.30pm on Tuesday 22 September.
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