£5m Investment In Community Sport Across North West

Sport England announces an investment of £5,103,690 into community sports clubs and coaches in the North West. A total of £38.3 million is being invested throughout England to get more people involved in sport.

The funding will create enhanced and improved sports clubs and new sports coaches across Lancashire, Merseyside, Cheshire, Greater Manchester and Cumbria between now and March 2010. This will increase opportunities for many thousands of people across the region to get more involved in sport.

Andy Worthington, Chair of the North West Regional Sports Board, said:

“Clubs and coaches are at the heart of community sport. This investment will help us achieve our ambition of getting over 250,000 more people in the North West participating in sport by 2012. Over £5m is a major boost for community sport at individual clubs and projects across our region. It makes the job of people on the ground, who make sport happen, much easier.”

Each of Sport England’s nine Regional Sports Boards decided in March how the investment should be spent in their region to increase participation in sport. Participation levels in sport and active recreation vary widely across the North West, which includes some of England’s most – and least – active local authority areas. Sport England’s national ambition is to get 2 million people participating more in sport by 2012.

The new money will be invested into sports clubs and coaches via national governing bodies of sport (NGBs) in each region. The funding will help sports clubs create sporting pathways so that everyone has the ability to reach their potential.

Minister for Sport Richard Caborn said:

“We are investing £160 million of public money into community sports clubs and coaching in the four years to 2008. We have put 3,000 community coach posts in place and have built or refurbished over 1,000 sports clubs. This additional £38 million will help to strengthen community sport further and underlines the commitment Sport England and the Government has in increasing sport participation up and down the country.”

Derek Mapp, Chairman of Sport England, said:

“This is much needed good news for community sport. What we at Sport England are now focussing on is how we can energise the nation and get more people doing more sport”.