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Vision of the future

February 5, 2018/in Turf Spotlight/by Turf Matters

Vision of the future: Laurence Gale finds out what’s behind Gloucester City Council’s successful PPS Initiative. As an ex-local authority manager, I fully understand many of issues councils are facing in the light of the Government’s tight rein on council budgets and, notably, understanding the frustrations of many practising Parks Managers who for many years […]

Say Goodbye To Standing Water With Apex Soil Solutions

February 5, 2018/in Turf Spotlight/by Turf Matters

Say goodbye to standing water with Apex Soil Solutions: There is always a conflict of interest when it comes to golf. Course Managers like to get as much air under their greens as possible, but golfers detest the disruption it causes to the surface. Apex Soil Solutions have been working in the industry to demonstrate the […]

Vision of the future

February 5, 2018/in Turf Spotlight/by Turf Matters

Say Goodbye To Standing Water With Apex Soil Solutions

February 5, 2018/in Turf Spotlight/by Turf Matters

Full Sized Blog Element (Big Preview Pic)

Vision of the future

February 5, 2018/in Turf Spotlight/by Turf Matters

Vision of the future: Laurence Gale finds out what’s behind Gloucester City Council’s successful PPS Initiative.

As an ex-local authority manager, I fully understand many of issues councils are facing in the light of the Government’s tight rein on council budgets and, notably, understanding the frustrations of many practising Parks Managers who for many years have been forced to reduce service delivery in their parks and amenity open spaces.

However, to combat these cut backs, councils are now seeking new ways of working and obtaining funding from other sources. Without doubt the National Lottery and Heritage Funding Schemes have helped enormously in recent years, with millions of pounds filtering down to councils who have been savvy enough to understand, and learn quickly, how to make the most of these funding opportunities.

Another way of saving money and operating effectively is by working with new partners who are willing to take on the maintenance and management of some of the land assets. For example, in recent years we have seen local councils pass on this responsibility of these to town and parish councils and local sports clubs.

However, this can only be achieved, after investing in a detailed survey and consultation with many organisations, sports clubs and evaluating current working practises and costing of any proposed schemes.

This usually is achieved by the process of the council formulating and producing a Playing Pitch Strategy (PPS) to evaluate the way ahead. This strategy is usually set between 5-10 years depending on the size and scale of the project.

The existence of a robust and up-to-date PPS will enable informed and evidence-based decisions and actions to be made across a range of agendas including sports development, strategic planning and planning applications, educational provision, funding, facility and asset management, public health and the management and maintenance of provision of high quality playing pitches and playing fields to meet the sporting needs of local communities. All local authority areas should have an up-to-date PPS. By providing valuable evidence and direction a PPS can be of significant benefit to a wide variety of parties and agendas.

A recent visit to Gloucester gave me the opportunity to meet up with a very forward thinking local authority which has initiated its own PPS and is now starting to see the fruits of its labours. In terms of having a vision, they now have a set of local projects to improve the delivery of better pitches and facilities in the Gloucester area.

I met up with two of the lead officers who have been working on the PPS, David Pritchett, Open Spaces

Strategy Officer, and Adam Gooch, Principal Planning Officer. Their PPS runs from 2015 -2025, a 10 year programme. Now well into its second year the council is starting to see the benefits of its actions, with plenty of improvements to the maintenance and management of its pitches.

Since the PPS was adopted in January 2016, improvements in some form or other have been made to over 40% of playing field sites. This includes things like verti-draining but also reconfiguring pitches to provide for the community’s needs.

One of the main reasons for the success is the Delivery Group, which meets at least every six months and has representation from Sport England, FA, RFU, ECB, England Hockey, Active Gloucestershire and Aspire Sports and Cultural Trust. The relationships they have built have been instrumental in developing a very positive and focussed partnership in delivering the aims and objectives of the PPS.

The key aims of the Gloucester PPS are:

To protect the existing supply of sports pitches for meeting current and future needs.
Secure tenure and access to sites for high quality, development minded clubs, through a range of solutions and partnership agreements.
Maximise community use of outdoor sports facilities where there is a need to do so.
To enhance outdoor sports facilities through improving quality and management of sites.
Adopt a tiered approach (hierarchy of provision) for the management and improvement of sites.
Work in partnership with stakeholders to secure funding.
To provide new outdoor sports facilities where there is a current or future demand to do so.
To achieve this, the PPS makes the following strategic recommendations: a) Secure planning gain for playing pitches from housing growth; b) Rectify quantitative shortfalls in current pitch stock; and c) Identify opportunities to add to the overall stock to accommodate both current and future demand.

Since the PPS was adopted the following projects or tasks have been completed or are being implemented by the Delivery Group:

A range of improvements have been made to priority sites by the NGBs and/or sports clubs. In some cases this has included a visit from a specialist FA/RFU ‘Pitch Improvement Advisor’; this tends to be where the NGB funds the assessment and improvement measures in the first year, with a commitment from the club for the two following years.
Improvements works undertaken to pitches so far include top-dressing, verti-draining and over-seeding. Sites that have benefitted are Gala Wilton, Gordon League RFC, Hucclecote Playing Fields, Saw Mills End Playing Field, Longlevens Recreation Ground and Waterwells Sports Centre.
The FA, RFU and ECB have offered training courses for grounds men and women of Gloucester sports clubs to enable improved skills for maintaining and improving playing fields in the City and will continue to do in the future.
The Council has also worked closely with the local County Sports Partnership, Active Gloucestershire, in preparing workshops with local schools, to explore opportunities for increased community use of educational facilities.
A new multi-sports hub is being developed to the north of the city on land owned by the University of Gloucestershire and the City Council. This will include two 3G pitches, the first of their type in the city.

Looking ahead to the future, the Delivery Group has recently completed an Interim Review of the PPS to make sure it remains up-to-date. This has been endorsed by the City Council and will ensure that decisions are based on up-to-date evidence and reflect the needs of the local community.

Council Officers continue to work with the NGBs to identify priority clubs that would benefit from increased security of tenure on pitches that are in City Council ownership. This will enable those clubs to bid for funds for the improvement of pitches and/or facilities direct from the NGBs or Sport England. Whilst in the early stages, opportunities are currently being explored with Tuffley Rovers for changing rooms at The Lannett. i) Gloucester City FC has submitted funding bid to the FA’s Football Stadium Improvement Fund (FSIF) to assist towards the implementation of the new stadium.

To maintain the momentum that has been built up, and to ensure improvements to pitches continue in a sustainable way, the Council are also looking into a new ‘pitch improvement programme’. While in the early stages, the aim will be for the City Council and wider PPS Delivery Group to support sports clubs in undertaking improvements to pitches and facilities they use. One option being considered is based around community grants.

To date the Gloucester Playing Pitch Strategy is gaining momentum and has been looked upon favourably by Sport England, The Institute of Groundsman (IOG) and the Gloucestershire FA.

Matt Boucher, of the Gloucestershire FA, spoke well of the work being done to date.

“The Gloucester City Council PPS Delivery Group has been a pleasure to be involved with from developing the strategy through to now actively delivering. As the strategy was being developed it was clear that the quality of the pitches within Gloucester were poor and improving the pitch quality was going to be a key part of the action plan.

“Gloucestershire FA and the IOG have worked closely with Adam, Dave and the rest of the delivery group to review a number of local authority owned pitches and provide an increased level of maintenance. A year on and it is great to see some of the improvements at certain sites, feedback from clubs has been really positive,” explained Matt.

Say Goodbye To Standing Water With Apex Soil Solutions

February 5, 2018/in Turf Spotlight/by Turf Matters

Say goodbye to standing water with Apex Soil Solutions: There is always a conflict of interest when it comes to golf. Course Managers like to get as much air under their greens as possible, but golfers detest the disruption it causes to the surface. Apex Soil Solutions have been working in the industry to demonstrate the revolutionary Vogt GeoInjector. Here’s how they are changing the future of soil management.

How can you ensure greens are well aerated without the Course Manager and his team facing the wrath of the club golfer?
The Vogt GeoInjector system offers minimal disruption to the playing surface. In most cases the green is brought straight back into play, keeping everyone happy. An “average” size green of approximately 300 m2 takes us as little as five hours to complete. Decompaction without disruption. Aeration without aggravation!

What is the process and how do you stop standing water?
The process is completed in one motion with just a single probe. We penetrate the soil beyond the root size to a depth of one metre. We inject 100psi of high pressured, compressed air into the ground. While the probe is inserted into the ground, a natural underground void is created and then back filled with Terramol to the surface, creating a permanent drainage soakaway.

What depths can you reach and how fine are your tines?
The diameter of our injection probe is 25mm and can go to a depth of one metre.

Recovery times will vary depending upon time of year, weather conditions, and make-up of the soil profile but how long are the recovery times – thinking about those club golfers?
Once the process has been completed the green is ready to be played on immediately.

The equipment is equally adept at handling tree roots as it is aerating golf greens. Can you explain how your piece of kit works to achieve success in both areas?
The process is very similar. We fill the cavities with organic fertilisers, such as enriched Biochar to improve tree performance and stimulate root growth.

In an ideal world when is the best time of year to carry out a programme of aeration?
The GeoInjector can be used at anytime of the year but works best when there is moisture in the ground. We would not advise injecting in frosty conditions. The process can easily be incorporated into a Course Manager’s maintenance schedule between autumn and spring.

Do you have any advice for Course Managers in dealing with the membership prior, during and post an aeration programme?
The GeoInjector offers a service that is quicker than many others and offers minimal disruption to the green and play. The technique is innovative and from our experience most members that have been briefed on the process, welcome the programme, as it does not require a re treatment. The long-term benefits far out weigh the small period of time the green is out of play.

Apex is a new name to the industry. Can you tell us a little about yourselves?
Apex Soil Solutions is the sister company to Apex Tree Surgeons, a well-respected company which has been operating since 2002. With a varied client list including tree consultancies, golf courses, and councils we noticed an increasing demand to source alternative methods to improve trees in decline. We partnered with German company Vogt, who manufacture the GeoInjector to offer the solution to the rest of the UK.

There are some well established names within the aeration sector and in golf particularly, customers do have brand loyalty, what techniques do you employ to ensure that potential customers are aware of what you offer?
Although there are a multitude of companies that offer soil management solutions, we don’t just scratch the surface, the solutions are found deeper than that. Our product injects deeper into the problem area, breaking through grounds that have previously not been reached. This access allows us to combat problem areas more successfully, which have seen exceptional results.

What is it about Apex and the equipment that you manufacturer that means a potential customer should include you in their list of options?
The versatility of the product provides a solution to many issues where part solutions have been made previously, or where processes were lengthy, caused disruption, and were not completely reliable. We are extremely passionate about the product and the positive impacts it will have on professionals within the industry.

What are your aspirations for the company over the next five years?
We are keen to market our products throughout the Country and work within all industries that will benefit from this application. Apex Soil Solutions aims to leave all of our clients with 100% satisfaction of our products and services. We believe we can successfully support Course Managers.

Where can people see the equipment if they are interested?
We will be exhibiting at BTME in Harrogate at the end of this month. Our full range of injection equipment will be on display and our expert staff will be able to answer your questions.

We will be holding a demonstration day in the upcoming months to showcase the equipment and allow people the opportunity to see the equipment in action. If you are interest please do not hesitate to email us or visit us at the BIGGA event.

Half Sized Blog Element (Single Author Style)

Half Sized Blog Element (Multi Author Style)

Vision of the future

Say Goodbye To Standing Water With Apex Soil Solutions

Vision of the future

Say Goodbye To Standing Water With Apex Soil Solutions

Full Sized Blog Element (Big Preview Pic)

Vision of the future

Say Goodbye To Standing Water With Apex Soil Solutions

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