Boost for grassroots sport with £10m for playing fields

Sport England is spearheading a campaign to try to ensure grassroots participation is encouraged by the London 2012 Games. It will run five “Protecting Playing Fields” funding rounds over the next three years, each with £2m up for grabs.

Between £20,000 and £50,000 will be spent on hundreds of projects to create, improve and protect playing fields. Every playing field which gets money is also promised protection from developers for at least 25 years.

Reviving and reusing abandoned playing fields or levelling, draining and re-seeding sites could be part of the scheme. Organisers will also be looking to buy new land for playing fields not smaller than 0.2 hectares in area and say they hope to save existing playing fields threatened by developers or leases which are due to run out.

The fund is part of the National Lottery’s £135m Places People Play programme. The scheme is being implemented by Sport England, the British Olympic Association and the British Paralympic Association, and has the backing of London 2012.

Launching the programme from a hot air balloon in London’s Regents Park, Olympics Minister Hugh Robertson said: “As part of hosting the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games we want to offer people better facilities and more opportunities to play sport. This £10m lottery investment will help achieve that.”

Playing fields are one of the most important resources for sport in England, with around 59,200 playing pitches on 19,236 sites. Over half of the grass pitches (33,200) are marked out for football.

Sport England has also joined forces with Fields In Trust to help safeguard playing fields through the Queen Elizabeth II Fields Challenge. Successful applicants to Protecting Playing Fields who accept a deed of dedication of their playing field “in perpetuity” will have their project details passed to Fields In Trust. This will give them the chance to become a Queen Elizabeth II Field as part of the programme to mark the Diamond Jubilee and the Olympics.

Applications for round one of Protecting Playing Fields can be made at www.sportengland.org between May 25 and July 6.