South Gloucestershire Council

Published: 26/10/2015

A new sporting initiative for South Gloucestershire called the SportsPound has been given the go-ahead thanks to £171,324 funding from Sport England.

The SportsPound project is planned to launch in communities across South Gloucestershire from early 2016, with bases in Cadbury Heath, Filton, Kingswood, Patchway, Staple Hill and Yate. Funded by Sport England, the project will last for three years and will be run by South Gloucestershire Council alongside partners such as leisure centres and sports clubs to create innovative ways to help people to become more active.

The SportsPound will come in the form of free vouchers that can be exchanged for a variety of sports sessions from aquarobics to zumba. SportsPound ‘activators’ will be based in each of the six priority neighbourhood areas of South Gloucestershire, and will create new and exciting sports opportunities based on the wants and needs of the local community. These activators will also give out the SportsPound vouchers to those who are either new to sport, or are coming back to sport after a break, who will be able to use them to gain free entry to these sessions.

A successful pilot held in Filton recently saw the start-up of a regular new netball session as a result of SportsPound, with many local residents trying aquarobics, ladies fitness and bowls for the first time.

Chair of South Gloucestershire Council Cllr Erica Williams said: “The SportsPound enables us to extend sports programmes right into the heart of our communities and will also continue our good work with local partners in reducing barriers to sports participation. This project will help raise the profile of local sport and ensure residents are involved in developing activities which work for them. The project will last for three years, and over that time we hope to inspire more than 5,000 South Gloucestershire residents to give sport a go.”

The South Gloucestershire SportsPound is one of over 40 projects to secure a share in £8.2 million of National Lottery funding from Sport England. Encouraging people to give sport a go, the fund empowers local communities to reach out to people who for one reason or another don’t exercise.

Announcing the funding, Sport England Director of Community Sport, Mike Diaper, said, “It’s great to be working with innovative projects like SportsPound which offer more people the chance to get active in a way that suits them best. Given the overwhelming benefits of being active, it’s important that age, gender, or income never prevent anyone from taking part.”

You can find out more details of the South Gloucestershire SportsPound programme on our website www.southglos.gov.uk/sportspound alternatively telephone 01454 865821 or email sportspound@southglos.gov.uk

Pupils from schools in South Gloucestershire, Chair of South Gloucestershire Council Cllr Erica Williams, Vice-Lord Lieutenant of Gloucestershire Robert Bernays OBE, officers from the council’s healthy lifestyles department and representatives from Sport England gathered at the SGS WISE campus on Saturday 17 October to celebrate the SportsPound project getting under way.