I always welcome the opportunity to talk more about sports facilities and investment into grassroots sports, particularly as I know the impact new funding has on our local clubs and facilities here in Mansfield.
Last week, along with colleagues in Parliament, I met with stakeholders who’ve worked across organisations like the FA, Football Foundation, RFU, England Golf and the ECB to discuss the different ways of funding new sports and leisure facilities, and the impact that it could have on places like our town.
Those who follow me regularly will know I’m a massive sports nut and I’m constantly banging on Ministers doors to bring new funding our way and improve people’s access to sports facilities – we’ve made good progress but there’s still loads more we can do in this space.
Only last year I successfully campaigned for more of this funding, highlighting to the Sports Minister the fact that 50 per cent of the country’s sports facilities are locked up at evenings and weekends, especially those that are within school grounds.
It led to Government announcing over £57 million of investment to try and solve this problem, with the funding intended to support things like operating costs and staff wages, so local communities have more opportunity to access good quality sports facilities.
We’ve made some progress in Mansfield at the Manor Sports Centre, where I’ve been pushing the Academy Trust and the Council to find a solution to the closure to Manor Sports Centre. Finally we’ve managed to find a solution to get the hockey pitch back available for community use, and I hope therefore that North Notts Hockey Club will soon be back on their home ground. Watch this space.
We’ve also seen progress with Government’s long-term investment into grassroots sports, which since 2021 has helped deliver new facilities or improvements at almost 2,400 sites across the UK, getting more than 120,000 people active.
In Mansfield so far this funding has contributed over £34,600 to our town’s pitches and clubs.
Across the UK it’s helped to fund facilities such as changing rooms, pavilions, state of the art 3G football turf, goalposts, and floodlights, improving access to sport and physical activity for local communities.
As well as all this, only a couple of weeks ago it was announced that Berry Hill United and Woodhouse Colts JFC would receive £1,000 through Government’s 'Get Active Strategy', to provide them with new goalposts - although this is only a small investment, it will make a big difference to grassroots clubs.
There’s some Government investment out there that is currently benefiting our communities, but we can still do a lot more! I’m also looking at innovative routes to private funding too to expand our sport and leisure facilities further. If I’m lucky enough to be elected as the first East Midlands regional Mayor this May, I will work with investors to deliver an expansion in sports facilities across our area.
I’ll continue to work with stakeholders to bring in new investment, create new schemes for grassroots sports clubs, and attract new private investment to offer communities more access to sport and leisure across the country and in Mansfield.
