Nunnery Wood's worn hockey pitch would become a 3G football pitch, with 44% of peak hours for women's and girls' teams, if a £534k grant is approved.
The worn artificial pitch at Nunnery Wood Sports Complex would be replaced with a modern 3G football surface under a £734,000 plan going to city councillors next week.
Worcester City Council’s Communities Committee will be asked on Wednesday 4 November to approve the business case and release £100,000 of council money towards it (council report). Most of the cost depends on a Football Foundation grant. Its panel is due to consider the bid on 9 November.
Why the pitch is being changed
The current pitch is sand-dressed, a surface built for hockey. It opened with the outdoor arena in 1995 and was last resurfaced in September 2006. The report says it is “way beyond its expected lifespan and is in desperate need of refurbishment”.
Hockey has largely left the site. Worcester Hockey Club moved to the International Hockey Centre in Worcester, which opened in November 2021. The report says England Hockey has no objection to the conversion.
Football demand has gone the other way. The city had 174 teams when the South Worcestershire playing pitch strategy was published in July 2022. The FA estimates there will be 53 more teams in the city by 2030, 20 of them women’s and girls’ sides. The Local Football Facilities Plan identifies a shortfall of one full-size 3G pitch in the east of the city, with Nunnery Wood as the preferred site.
Who pays
The total cost is put at £733,559. That is £643,559 for the pitch and £90,000 to refurbish the changing rooms to the Football Foundation’s standard.
- Football Foundation: £533,559, if the grant is awarded
- Worcester City Council: £100,000
- Nunnery Wood High School: £50,000
- Worcester Sixth Form College: £50,000
The council’s share would come from an underspend on the Freedom Leisure contract this year. The council had been forecasting putting about £140,000 of it into reserves against future energy price rises.
If the grant is approved, councillors are asked to let officers award a building contract of up to £734,000 through the Football Foundation’s framework.
Who would use it
In the school day, the pitch would be shared between Nunnery Wood High School and Worcester Sixth Form College, two thirds to one third. Evenings, weekends and school holidays would be booked through Freedom Leisure, which runs the city’s leisure centres.
- Nunnery Wood FC would be the main club user. It had 35 teams in 2022, the most of any club in the city, and has plans to add more boys’ and girls’ teams.
- Worcester City Women FC would be based there two evenings a week.
- Women’s and girls’ teams would have 44% of peak hours, 5pm to 9pm on weekdays, against a grant minimum of 20%.
- Walking football would be set up in the daytime, and Freedom Leisure would ask the local RNIB college about blind football.
- Free or low-cost sessions for young people near the Horizon and Ronkswood hubs would be run with Worcester Community Trust.
The clubs already training on the old surface include West Worcester Youth, Kempsey Colts, Warndon Villages and Drakes Broughton Rangers. The school also plans to expand its grass pitches from one 9v9 and one 11v11 to two each of 7v7, 9v9 and 11v11.
Rubber crumb, despite the council’s 2024 motion
The new surface would use rubber crumb infill, the shredded-tyre granules found on most 3G pitches. In July 2024 the full council passed a motion aiming to discourage rubber crumb in future projects because of microplastic pollution.
A separate report goes to the Environment Committee on 3 November (report). It says no suitable alternative infill is on the market yet, so no environmental impact assessment has been done. The Football Foundation has been testing cork, olive stones, birch, pine, corn husks and sand at a Sheffield test centre since November 2023. The report says any legal or market change is not likely before 2029 or 2030, and recommends going ahead on the current timetable.
When it would happen
The Environment Committee report says the surface would be replaced from April 2027, over 12 to 14 weeks. The communities report says the project would be finished by summer 2027.
What it means for you
- If you play or coach: the pitch would open for community bookings through Freedom Leisure on evenings, weekends and holidays. Hire prices are not set yet. Freedom Leisure’s 2027 price list says a new Nunnery Wood 3G pitch would be charged at the same rates as Perdiswell’s.
- To follow the decision: the Communities Committee meets at 7pm on 4 November at the Guildhall, and the meeting is open to the public (agenda).
- Parking: the site has 142 standard and 5 disabled bays, and about 200 spaces in total when the school playground is used for overspill.
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