Sports Pitch Allocation Policy

Outdoor Sports Pitch Allocation Policy

The criteria for pitch allocation for East Renfrewshire Culture and Leisure (ERCL) Football Pitches and Training venues are as follows:

1  All teams / clubs / organisations wishing to make use of East Renfrewshire Culture and Leisure outdoor sports pitch facilities must be registered under the Registration Scheme, which is free of charge.

2  Teams must be registered with a local or national association to apply for ERCL sports pitch bookings. (One off requests e.g., gala / charity day matches will be exempt and the small five a side pitches e.g., Woodfarm will be available to groups, if they are vacant).

3  All teams from four-a-side up to and including nineteen’s age group level must have achieved or commenced Scottish Football Association Quality Mark and evidence must be submitted to the council confirming this to qualify for lets. Amateur teams and under twenty-one level teams do not need to have the SFA quality mark but are encouraged to work towards it.

4  Teams will continue to play and train at their current venues and these venues will be deemed their home pitch and training venue.

5  Requests from teams to change their venue will not be permitted unless a venue has been vacated by another team or a new venue has been made available.

6  Teams progressing from seven-a-side football to eleven-a-side will be given priority to any available eleven-a-side pitches, if their affiliated club has achieved SFA Quality Mark. If there are more teams than venues, a ballot will be held to see who is allocated a pitch booking.

7  When all pitches have been allocated to developing teams (from 7-a-side to 11-aside), any remaining pitches will be offered to teams who have applied for a pitch and have achieved SFA Quality Mark. If there are more teams than venues following this process, then a ballot will be held to allocate the remaining pitch bookings.

8  Pitches will be allocated on a season long basis to teams, not clubs.

9  Where venues become available part way through the season, ERCL will look to allocate these two teams who have registered interest at the beginning of the season.

10  Any team / club seeking additional venues / facilities must contact outdoorsportspitches@ercultureandleisure.org to check availability. ERCL will not be held responsible should teams sign up for a league but there are no pitches available.

11  Teams who book a pitch and fail to turn up on more than three consecutive occasions and do not notify ERCL of a cancellation, will be charged full price on each occasion. After a third non-appearance, their pitch booking cancelled will be cancelled.

12  A date will be set annually for the pitch application process. Late applications will only be considered once all other allocations have been made, including allocations of pitches to new teams.

13  Applications from teams who have an outstanding debt will not be considered.

Any new / additional pitches will be allocated based on assessment of need and requirements of interested clubs as outlined in this policy.

ERCL retain the right at any time to refuse or cancel a booking or to review its booking policy.

 Review date: 11 August 2023