New pitch to be built at Cromer Academy

Date published: 19th March 2025

Work has begun at Cromer Academy to replace the existing pitch with a new state of the art 3G pitch built to FIFA standards.

The project to deliver a 3G pitch for Cromer has been ongoing for several years - the current sand-based pitch was first built in 1994 and resurfaced in 2012 but is now due a further upgrade, including all associated infrastructure.

The new pitch will provide quality training and match facilities for local clubs to hire, utilised by the academy during the school day and then available to the community during the evenings, weekends and school holidays, including Cromer Youth Football Club, who are the partner club for the pitch.

This will mark the first 3G pitch in the North Norfolk district and a strong programme of use has already been developed as part of the application process. It will form part of the Council’s dual-use community sports centre offer at this site which is operated by Everyone Active.  

Cllr. Liz Withington, portfolio holder for Community, Leisure & Outreach said:

“A number of stakeholders have been working extremely hard for several years to get this project to the build stage, so we are delighted to finally be here. Projects like this only go ahead if they deliver significant outcomes for the community and these have been demonstrated through the strict application process.

We are very grateful for the help and support of the Norfolk FA, the Inspiration Trust and the Football Foundation – who are the major funder for this project alongside NNDC.”

John Vincent, Principal at Cromer Academy said:

“I am extremely excited to welcome the start of this project for a new 3G pitch, enhancing our sports provision and creating even more fantastic opportunities with its use by our community.

We are delighted to have been chosen as the home of this project and cannot wait until we see the pitch in use, it will make a huge difference to the level of sporting opportunities we can offer at Cromer Academy.”

The delivery project will take 12 weeks, and is being delivered between North Norfolk District Council, the Inspiration Trust (Cromer Academy), Norfolk Football Association and the Football Foundation.