Environmental health Sports ground safety certificates

The Safety of Sports Grounds Act 1975 requires an annual safety certificate for any sports ground where the capacity exceeds 10,000 (defined as designated grounds), or 5,000 in the case of Premier or Football League games.

The Fire Safety and Safety of Places of Sport Act 1987 requires any sports ground that has covered accommodation for more than 500 people to have an annual safety certificate for such a regulated stand. Special safety certificates may be needed for non-league football matches or other special events.

The following premises in Shropshire currently hold a safety certificate:

  • Shrewsbury Town Football Club – (general safety certificate)
  • Ludlow Racecourse – (regulated stand)
  • New Saints Football Club, Oswestry – (regulated stands)

Safety advisory groups are established to discuss safety matters relating to the provisions of the safety certificate. In relation to the general safety certificate at Shrewsbury Town FC this is represented by the following council officers:

  • Health Protection and Prevention Team manager – Matthew Aldridge (chairman)
  • Public Protection officer
  • Emergency Planning officer
  • Building Control officer

Representations are also made from the following bodies on the Safety Advisory Group:

  • West Mercia Police
  • Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service
  • West Midlands Ambulance Service
  • Sports Grounds Safety Authority
  • Shrewsbury Town FC

The legislation allows local authorities to recover the cost of the work reasonably, and to actually be involved in the processing of an application, amendment, replacement, transfer or cancellation of a safety certificate. The current fee for this is £59.90 per hour.

Annual inspections of sports grounds are carried out, together with additional visits on certain match days and at other times, either on request from the proprietor or in response to a service request from any of our other customers.

Online form for a sports ground and stands safety certificate

Online applications are processed via the GOV.UK website (found in the 'relation information' section). When the application is completed, it will then be submitted to us. 

You must tick all the boxes which apply to your business, answering all questions and give all the information requested. If you have any enquiries, please contact us.

Please note that it is an offence to give information which you know is false.

There is a fee for this application which is £59.90 per hour. A 1.3% transaction charge will be applied to credit card payments. No charge will apply to debit card payments.

Related information