Sport England today revealed the sports projects that
will benefit from a £10 million National Lottery fund to get more
people playing sport in rural communities.
The successful bids were selected from over 500 applications to
the Rural Communities fund, which was launched after Sport England
research revealed that two thirds of the local authorities with the
lowest sports participation rates are in rural areas.
The Rural Communities fund is the first of Sport England's
themed rounds aimed at addressing some of the biggest challenges to
grassroots participation. It will help achieve our Olympic legacy
goal of getting a million people playing more sport and our focus
on building a world-leading community sport system.
Sport England’s Chair, Richard Lewis, said:
“Everyone should have the chance to find the sport they really
enjoy. The projects we’re investing in today will help us tackle
the barriers to participation in rural communities, by delivering
sustainable sporting opportunities to thousands of people.”
Chosen through a competitive process, the investment decisions
announced today include:
- £598,952 for Devon Active Villages, a programme to get 13,000
people of all ages from 156 villages across Devon playing a variety
of sports including rugby union, table tennis, hockey, cricket,
football and cycling.
- £601,952 for Derbyshire Village Games, a project that will see
60 villages and 12,000 participants taking part in sporting events
over the next three years. 600 new volunteers will help to deliver
village sports, with an average of one event being staged every
day.
- £1.675 million for The SportsHub@Treviglas in Newquay, a new
sports centre which will provide high quality sporting facilities
to over 15,000 people living in a rural area marked by high levels
of deprivation.
- £372,000 for Cycle Suffolk, a project that will see 2,100
school children joining British Cycling’s GO ride cycle scheme over
three years as well as 2,000 people joining village cycling schemes
and 220 people taking part in disabled cycling programmes.
- £175,000 for the South West Lakes Trust’s Outdoor n Active
project to improve the sporting opportunities offered on and around
inland lakes in Cornwall, Devon and Somerset.
- £577,701 for Norfolk Village Games which will see over 100
village teams, involving over 9,000 people, competing in village
games over three years. Sports on offer will include softball,
tennis, netball, football, badminton, tug of war and archery. The
project will generate 1,000 new sports club members and 140 new
coaches.
- £24,728 for Old Village Hall in rural Northamptonshire for a
versatile village hall, large enough for social badminton and yoga,
and new changing rooms with access to the existing sports and
cricket field.
- £174,285 for two programmes in central and north Bedfordshire –
Re-activ8 Gold Rural and Get Back Into – designed to provide
coaching to the over-fifties and create more opportunities for
people to get back into sport.
- £314,866 for Bridport Leisure Centre to upgrade dry changing
facilities and build new outdoor sports changing facilities,
increasing the sports club’s capacity and appeal to women, girls
and the over-55s from local rural areas.
- £234,144 for Huntingdonshire District Council for Dash, a
project which will tackle transport barriers and help up to 8,000
residents and workers in the district’s 17 villages play more
sport.
Today’s announcement was welcomed by the Secretary of State for
Culture, Media and Sport, Ben Bradshaw MP:
Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport Ben Bradshaw
said:
“Investing in these exciting and innovative schemes creates
another way people in rural communities across England can benefit
from the Government's drive to boost the nation's health and
fitness in the run up to the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic
Games.
“Those who live in rural areas deserve to have access to
high-quality schemes and facilities, and the chance to try out new
and more unusual sports, just as much as people in towns and
cities.”
Dr Stuart Burgess, Chairman of the Commission for Rural
Communities and the Government’s Rural Advocate, said:
“I am delighted there has been such a high level of interest in
Sport England’s fund dedicated to creating sporting opportunities
for people in rural areas. I hope that the investment decisions
being announced today will inspire many more people from a wide
variety of backgrounds and with different levels of ability to take
part in sporting activities in rural areas. I hope more good
projects from rural communities will benefit from funding in the
future.”
ENDS
Notes to Editors
Sport England defined rural communities on the basis of the
Government’s Rural and Urban Areas Classification.
Sport England invests National Lottery and Exchequer funding in
organisations and projects that will grow and sustain participation
in grassroots sport and create opportunities for people to excel at
their chosen sport.
Sport England is committed to creating a world-leading community
sport system, and has set specific and measurable targets to
achieve by 2012/13.
- One million people doing more sport
- A 25% reduction in the number of 16- to 18-year-olds who drop
out of at least five key sports
- Improved talent development systems in at least 25 sports
- A measurable increase in people’s satisfaction with their
experience of sport
- A major contribution to the delivery of the five hour sports
offer for children and young people.
.