Leisure in MK Gets a £230,000 Boost

8.39.50pm BST (GMT +0100) Mon 28th Mar 2005

Milton Keynes Council Leisure Services has secured over £230,000 from the Active England programme and the Football Foundation to deliver two projects aimed at promoting healthier and more active lifestyles.

£104,000 has been secured from Active England, jointly funded by Sport England and The Big Lottery Fund. This will be used to employ a Community Facilities Development Officer to facilitate and co-ordinate community access to school leisure facilities and to increase the use of community centres for sporting, leisure and health-related purposes.

The project represents an innovative and creative solution to Milton Keynes' need for more sports hall and indoor community leisure space. The person appointed will work across a number of multi-activity sites, including areas of greatest deprivation, targeting activities and usage to Passport to Leisure holders and sectors of the community not currently accessing the facilities.

Sean Holt, Regional Director of Sport England South East commented: "This lottery boost goes a considerable way towards our vision of making the nation more active. What's exciting about the Active England programme is that it recognises innovative and inspired ways of achieving this. The projects that are receiving funding were specifically chosen because they will help increase fitness and health opportunities throughout all areas of society."

Alison Rowe, Big Lottery Fund Regional Manager for the South East Region, said: "There is overwhelming evidence that people who lead an active lifestyle live longer and are less likely to experience serious illness."

A unique partnership between Milton Keynes Council Leisure Services, Milton Keynes Dons, Football in the Community, and Active Communities Bletchley has also seen £132,000 awarded by the Football Foundation to establish a new football programme called Football First, which will develop new opportunities for disabled players and footballers from the City's black and minority ethnic groups.

The disability football programme will target young people in Milton Keynes with physical and learning disabilities who, for a variety of reasons, may not have had the opportunities of their able-bodied colleagues.

The second string of the programme will be to stimulate the growth of football among local ethnic community groups in and around Milton Keynes, increasing the number of players and helping to break down the barriers that exist between different communities in Milton Keynes.

Peter Lee, Chief Executive of the Football Foundation, welcomed the funding: "This unique scheme is helping to bring diverse groups into the game as a way of increasing tolerance and understanding as well as promoting healthier lifestyles among two groups who have often been under-represented within community sport. The Milton Keynes project is an innovative use of the power of football to bring more people from within our communities into our national game."

Councillor Euan Henderson, Liberal Democrat Cabinet member with responsibility for leisure and sport, said: "This is tremendous news. We can all benefit from being more active and these two initiatives will bring people into the loop who might otherwise not have had the chance."