St. Patrick’s RC Primary School – MUGA

Key Facts:

Client Name: St. Patrick’s RC Primary School
Location: Romford, Havering
Type of client: Education, Primary School (Voluntary Aided)
Discipline provided by M+C: Architectural Design | Planning & Building Regulations | Procurement | Project Management
Contractors: ETC Sports Services
M+C Lead: Stuart Cudmore

St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Primary School is a Voluntary Aided school forming part of the Diocese of Brentwood. Located within Romford, the school has limited outside space given the urban environment. Whilst the school does have playing fields, the prevailing loam/clay soil structure suffers notoriously impeded drainage. During winter months and wet periods, the fields can become unusable limiting the outdoor/sports activities that the school can deliver.

M+C were appointed to design and procure/project manage the provision of a Multi-Use Games Area (MUGA) to provide year-round facilities that would not suffer as a result of poor weather. MUGAs satisfy a wide range of sporting demands, and provide a cost-effective solution. Whilst not the case at St. Patrick’s, MUGAs can also offer a flexible answer for schools with limited spaces.

Due to the school being centrally located amongst housing, the Planning Permission restrictions meant that the school can only use the MUGA during school hours. Therefore no artificial lighting was provided. However the process was reasonably straight forward in achieving the necessary permission. The design of the MUGA followed guidance from Sport England and the SAPCA Guidelines for MUGAs.

A complete procurement process was managed, with ETC Sports Services from Maldon being appointed to carry out the works. The contractor ably delivered the project during term-time, enabling the MUGA to be available for part of the summer term.