Hunts awarded £234,000 of Lottery funding - News - LIVING SPORT

Hunts awarded £234,000 of Lottery funding

Thousands of people in Huntingdonshire can look forward to new opportunities to play sport on their doorstep after an innovative project was awarded £234,114 of National Lottery funding by Sport England.

DASH (Delivering Activity and Sport in Huntingdonshire) secured the investment from the £10 million Rural Communities fund, which was launched after Sport England research revealed that two thirds of the local authorities with the lowest sports participation rates are in rural areas.

DASH, which was selected from over 500 applications through a competitive national process, will see: • Transport barriers overcome by sports sessions being taken direct to some of the district’s 17 villages with between 2,000-8,000 residents • Sports on offer including basketball, squash, archery, kayaking, sailing, indoor climbing, scuba diving, golf, dodgeball and ultimate frisbee • New local sporting opportunities for young people who travel to school by bus and are therefore unable to stay for after school clubs • A programme to encourage people working for local businesses to take timeout during their lunch break and get into sport • Twilight activities for older teenagers and adults (13-25 years old) • Village sports festivals to encourage the whole family to get active followed by an annual sports festival in the park event.

The project will be delivered by the Sport and Active Lifestyles Team at Huntingdonshire District Council.

Cllr Ken Churchill, Executive Councillor for Housing and Public Health, said, ‘We are delighted to have received this award which will provide many opportunities for a range of people to participate in sport across the district over the next three years. We would like to thank Sport England for giving us this opportunity to make what we hope will be a big difference to our local community.’

The Rural Communities fund is the first of Sport England's themed rounds aimed at addressing some of the biggest challenges to grassroots participation. It will help achieve our Olympic legacy goal of getting a million people playing more sport and our focus on building a world-leading community sport system.

Sport England’s Chair, Richard Lewis, said: ‘Everyone should have the opportunity to find the sport they really enjoy. The projects we’re investing in today, such as DASH, will help us tackle the barriers to participation in rural communities, by delivering sustainable sporting opportunities to thousands of people.’

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