New artificial football pitch for the Flitwick and Ampthill area – complete!
Thursday, 17 August 2023
We have successfully secured £884K of funding to deliver a new state-of-the-art synthetic 3G pitch to serve Flitwick, Ampthill and the wider area.
The new pitch has been delivered on the Flitwick Community Football Centre, which is owned by us and managed locally by the Flitwick Together charity; a partnership between Flitwick Eagles Football Club and Flitwick Town Football Club.
The project has been funded by a grant of £676k from the Football Foundation, a developer contribution of £160k and investment from both Flitwick football clubs. We have worked in partnership with Flitwick Together and the Bedfordshire FA to develop the application and secure the Football Foundation funding.
The project supports our Leisure Strategy in addressing the current quantity and quality of outdoor sports facilities in Flitwick and the surrounding area – to meet the needs of current residents and address the housing growth identified in our Local Plan.
The Flitwick Football Centre current provides a range of grass football pitches, and the new full-size (91m x 51m) floodlit FIFA-compliant 3G pitch will bring all-weather and all-season access to high quality facilities for both matches and training. The pitch will help to address the growing popularity of football for all age groups in the Flitwick/Ampthill and surrounding area.
Councillor Rebecca Hares, Executive Member for Health and Wellbeing and Communities, said:
It’s fantastic to see the transformation that’s taken place and thanks to the funding secured, the new state-of-the-art pitch will enable more local people with the opportunity to discover their football talents – we could maybe even see a future lion or lioness! The project couldn’t have happened without the collaboration of the many great partners involved who all shared the same aim to provide the community with a new facility to enjoy.
Robert Sullivan, Chief Executive of the Football Foundation, said:
The Football Foundation is working closely with our partners – the Premier League, The FA and Government – to transform the quality of grassroots facilities in England by delivering projects like this across the country. Good quality playing facilities have a transformative impact on physical and mental health and play an important role in bringing people together and strengthening local communities. This grant award to Central Bedfordshire Council towards developing a new 3G football turf pitch is fantastic news for the local community and will help give more people access to a great place to play.
All pricing is benchmarked in line with similar sites in the surrounding local area to ensure cost is affordable and accessible to all and will be reviewed annually by all parties, including us and Football Foundation. Prices will be available once the facility is open for matches, approximately at the end of August, the start of September. The facility is currently open for training.
The new facility will be available for use, including by affiliated clubs and residents by the end of the summer. For more information please visit the Flitwick Community Football website.