As the football and rugby seasons will be starting soon, we have been seeking advice for parish and town councils on how to ensure the safety of pitches in the current drought.
Andrew Parsons from the Oxfordshire Playing Fields Association has kindly shared some guidance for town and parish councils:
Generally, anyone hiring out sports facilities should be regularly inspecting them to monitor their suitability for play and the fact that a pitch is very hard, through a lack of rain, and now has very little grass, is not necessarily a reason that it should not be used. Holes and tripping hazards are however things that should be dealt with, before the pitch can be made available.
Managing green species in drought conditions
As England has just experienced its driest July on record, the effects are now clearly visible across our parks, sports fields and other green spaces. Weeks without significant rainfall and back-to-back heatwaves (this is No 5 of the summer) have turned them all into dry, brittle and yellow deserts.
And to make matters worse, it seems unlikely that any significant much-needed rainfall will arrive in the UK before October. BBC Weather has even reported that, in order to alleviate this summer’s drought, there would need to be prolonged rain over a number of days and weeks, and it has even been reported that drought conditions could worsen before they improve.
These are therefore worrying times for managers of green spaces, such as Parish Councils, so in
These times of drought should shift their thinking from a position of “appearance” towards “survival, efficient water use, and the reduction of any risk.”
Many of the solutions for managing drought involve major changes in approach and an investment in infrastructure, such as water storage and redesign and are therefore to be all considered ‘long-term’ issues.
Here though, we will deal only with some shorter-term actions that green space managers might consider, very much in the ‘here and now’.
Where to Start
A good starting point is to accept that during drought, not all green space can receive the same treatment and that any alteration to established maintenance regimes should be based on two things: primarily the intensity of use, and therefore the risk to health of users and, secondly, the ecological value of your assets,
So, here are a few suggestions:
- Check playgrounds more thoroughly for things like cracks in the surface, that might add to tripping hazards.
- Consider the heat absorbed by metal items of equipment, making them too hot to grip and the effect of heat on rubber safety surfaces and the presence or otherwise of shade. Close off any items of equipment that you feel present a risk of scolding, even if only for a day or so.
- Likewise, MUGAS and hard tennis courts can all suffer from extreme heat, as macadam softens through heat. If you find signs of softening then consider a short term closure, as repairs can be expensive.
- And where the closure of a green space isn’t feasible, any irrigation of turf areas that supports sport and recreation, such as cricket squares, grass tennis courts or bowls greens should be reduced.
A further headache is that any end of season renovation of winter sports pitches, is unlikely to have been successful, so moving pitches slightly, onto less damaged goal mouths, may be necessary before the new winter seasons begin.
And ahead of all other maintenance concerns, the care of any young trees and newly planted vegetation (first 1–3 years) should be considered too, and supported through targeted irrigation, protective mulching, and hazard management. Such planting will have been a significant budgetary commitment and you don’t want it lost.
If you have found this information helpful and would like to find out more about joining the Oxfordshire Playing Fields Association (OPFA), please visit their website or email Andrew Parsons at oxfordshirepfa@gmail.com
Further guidance is also available for clubs and landowners (links to external sites):