Justin Tomlinson MP with Roger Black MBE
Justin Tomlinson MP today urged Swindon’s sports teams to take advantage of the funding available from Sport England to improve facilities and train sports leaders.
Sport England has a number of funds available to sports clubs to assist them with a variety of different projects.
Club Leaders
Sport England’s latest initiative Club Leaders is a two year programme to train and support 10,000 leaders in sports clubs in the business of running a club to help them become more successful and sustainable, particularly in the current economic climate.
PwC will deliver a national project to train and support leaders of sports clubs in the business of running a club, including a structured and supported mentoring of clubs. This will mean clubs will be better placed to:
• Understand the different legal forms a club can adopt and what the implications for each of these are
• Manage the process when dealing with capital projects, avoiding pitfalls and getting value for money
• Be able to manage facilities more efficiently and understand the legal and regulatory issues clubs needs to comply with
The training will be delivered through seminars, e-learning, a learning bus that is following the Olympic Torch route and mentoring. More information can be found here. http://www.sportenglandclubleaders.com/
Protecting Playing Fields
Communities across the country can now start bidding for a share of £2 million to protect and improve their local sports playing fields. The National Lottery investment is on offer in the latest round of Sport England’s Protecting Playing Fields fund to enhance local playing fields or create new sports pitches. The fund closes on 9 July.
Through the Protecting Playing Fields fund, Sport England is making investments of between £10,000 and £50,000 to create, improve and protect playing fields by:
• Bringing disused playing fields back into use
• Improving the condition of pitches (e.g. levelling, drainage, reseeding)
• Buying new playing field land (not less than 0.2 hectares)
• Buying existing playing field land where there is a known threat, such as the expiry of a lease or a development proposal.
http://www.sportengland.org/funding/protecting_playing_fields.aspx
People, Places, Play
Iconic Facilities - investing in multi-sport state of the art facilities.
• Projects are regionally significant for at least two sports and demonstrate long-term viability
• Facilities are often located alongside health and educational services, putting sport at the heart of the community
• Large capital grants are normally between £500,000 and £1,500,000
• Round 3 will open in October 2012.
Inspired Facilities - modernising and extending clubs, and opening up local facilities for community sport.
• Our easy to access funding programme is helping to re-roof clubhouses, renovate changing facilities and resurface tennis courts
• Grants are typically between £20,000 and £50,000 for community and voluntary organisations, including town and parish councils, and £20,000 to £150,000 for other organisations such as local authorities, statutory bodies and education establishments like schools
• Application to Round 2 closes on 2 April 2012 and re-open 23 July until 17 September 2012.
Justin Tomlinson MP said “Sport England has some fantastic grants available and I urge Swindon’s sports clubs and teams to consider applying. Quite often, relatively small sums of money can make a huge difference to our community sports teams and facilities.”