Does the loss of stadium that forged a champion threaten Olympic legacy?

Meg Munn

Labour MP for Sheffield Heeley.

IN the summer, I had two amazing weeks in London, and being a proper Yorkshire person, that is not something I say lightly.

The first amazing week was at the beginning of August, when I was privileged to be there on ‘Super Saturday’ to see athletes win three gold medals, including Sheffield’s very own Jessica Ennis.

A month later, I had tickets to the Paralympics, and I was there on ‘Thriller Thursday’ to see another great Yorkshirewoman, Hannah Cockroft, and two other brilliant athletes win golds.

We know that the wonderful stadium in which I spent much of my amazing time in London is struggling to continue and cannot continue only as an athletics stadium.

The facts of life mean that athletics stadiums are very difficult to support, and yet Don Valley has kept going through the will of the people of Sheffield for more than 20 years, but that involves a subsidy of £700,000 a year, which is no longer sustainable.

Don Valley opened in 1991. I did not live in Sheffield at the time; I had a brief period working out that Yorkshire really is the best place to live and hurried back only a couple of years later. I took time off from my job in social services and, rather than go on holiday, I went to Sheffield to spend time at the world student games. It was a phenomenal event.

Over the years, I have visited Don Valley regularly, turning up to many of the great events held there. I have seen world records; I was there for the last appearance of Dame Kelly Holmes; and I have even been on the track, having completed a race for life there.

Although the stadium is in Sheffield, it is a national asset. The previous Government and the current Government were both clear and determined that the legacy of 2012 should not just be a legacy for London.

If we want to be one nation – dare I say it? – money should be available and spent in the North.

I have done a lot of work looking at tennis facilities, in my role in the all-party tennis group. For a long time, we have looked at developing tennis facilities at the Graves leisure area in my constituency.

One reason for that is that talented young people in any sport do better if they can train near home. We are talking about youngsters; young people who need to go to school and need their family’s support. Without local facilities, we will not get a range of people with a range of ability from around the country. Of course, we cannot have facilities of that calibre everywhere, but what a tragedy if we were to lose this facility, which is in the North, has delivered a world champion and, we feel, can go on supporting many young people in the future if only the finance is there.

I want to talk about school sport partnerships, because legacy is not only about facilities, but about our investment in young people.

Prior to the cuts, Sheffield had four thriving partnerships, each working closely with their schools, providing training, development, resources, curriculum support, coaching, competition and participation events for them.

A key feature of the work was the network that supported it: the profile of PE and sport in school was raised and time was given to release a member of primary staff to assist the process, to enable valuable development work to take place. We now understand, more than ever, that getting children active from primary is key to keeping them active through life.

Since the removal of funding, partnerships have been forced to set up as private enterprises, which means that they are no longer directly funding. Schools have had to make tough decisions, when their budgets are under pressure, on whether they can afford to buy in the service for their children.

Not only did the funding end in 2011, but so did the PE and sports strategy for young people, which supported the partnerships’ work.

During the school sports partnerships era, schools that were previously unengaged became more engaged, as they had dedicated funding to do so. As soon as the funding went, along with the network, the engaged schools continued to be involved at some level, but less-interested schools started to become unengaged once more. That impacts most greatly on families in which PE and sports are not common parts of their daily life and on families that are financially constrained.

There was a big issue at the Olympics about the proportion of our elite athletes who come from a private or public schooling background rather than from ordinary schools in ordinary communities.

Jessica Ennis came from an ordinary school in an ordinary community, and yet she achieved the highest possible level she could. We all felt wonderful about that, but how many others will not get that chance if we do not cast the net wide?

We need national facilities and a national strategic plan. Sport England is doing a good job. There is a lot going on, but surely the investment should not just be about new facilities all the time; surely we must look to support facilities that have delivered for us in the past?

The Government promised a legacy. They must redouble their efforts to make it happen.

Brandon Lewis MP

Junior Minister at the Department of Communities and Local Government.

THE Olympic Games last summer were truly magnificent and a great boost to the whole country, both psychologically and in a sporting sense, showcasing the very best of what we as a country have to offer.

We must recognise the great talent of Jessica Ennis. I was fortunate enough to be in the stadium on her first day of competition. If we are to repeat the success in 2016, we must ensure that our athletes have the best possible conditions in which to train.

In December, UK Sport and Sport England, the public bodies responsible for the delivery of elite and grass-roots sport, announced the funding they will be providing over the next four years. UK Sport will invest £347m in elite sport and Sport England will provide £493m to the national governing bodies of sport for community sport.

In addition, more than £100m of lottery and public funding is being invested in school games over the next three years; and £500,000 is being invested in youth sport over the next five years through the youth sport strategy, with £150m being invested through the Places People Play programme to upgrade 1,000 local sports venues.

Some 15.5 million people aged 16 and over are now playing sport at least once a week, which is 750,000 more than a year ago and 1.57 million more than when London won the Olympic and Paralympic bid in 2005. In the current economic climate, that is a significant investment in sport. Both UK Sport and Sport England have record levels of funding thanks to this Government’s decision to restore the lottery shares to the original good causes, including sport.

UK Sport is investing almost £500,000* to ensure that our athletes can build on the success of last year and do even better in Rio in 2016. Over the next four years, Sport England is investing more than £1bn in youth and community sport.

The Government is fully committed to providing high-quality sport in schools as well as in communities. Our new schools games programme introduces competitive sport in schools, between schools and at county, regional and national level.

We have invested more than £100m in the programme, and well over half of all schools are taking part. Indeed, the national finals are being held in Sheffield this year.

However, we must not be complacent. I can confidently say that an innovative and exciting announcement on school sport will be made shortly.

Naturally nobody wants to see a sports facility close, but local authorities need to make tough decisions.

Local government accounts for around a quarter of public expenditure, so it has its part to play in this process. That is why councils must make decisions about what they are doing and how best they provide facilities for local people. Lord Coe himself has said, in support of the decisions that Sheffield City Council has to make, that he understands why a local authority must look at these situations and make decisions.

As has been said, Don Valley stadium is 23 years old and costs about £700,000 a year to operate. It also has an estimated repair bill of more than £1.5m and there is another stadium, less than a mile away, which costs £70,000 a year to operate.

Therefore, it is for Sheffield city council to make the decision about which of these facilities they can afford, without central Government dictating whether it is a right or wrong decision.

I am informed that the council has given clear assurances that local people will still have access to first-class outdoor athletics facilities; indeed, Sheffield is extremely well served in that respect. Sport England has 
agreed to work with the council to ensure that Woodbourn becomes a first-class, sustainable venue.

I welcome the imaginative proposal unveiled by Richard Caborn, the former Sport Minister, and I can confirm that my colleagues will be pleased to meet those involved in developing that proposal.

None of this activity means that either central or local government can or should be complacent; we simply cannot afford to be. We all want to build on the success that we saw in 2012.

The combination of all the policies that I mentioned earlier is exactly what made the Olympic Games last year such a success, and it is that combination – not one thing alone, but a combination of things – that will provide a legacy to 2012, a legacy that I hope Sheffield continues to help to deliver.

* A UK Sport spokesman adds: UK Sport is actually investing approximately £125 million per annum over the four year Olympic and Paralympic cycle.