Local MPs will gather in Westminster today 1 April 2014 to celebrate the launch of North Yorkshire Sport.
Andrew Jones MP Member of Parliament for Harrogate & Knaresborough and Parliamentary Sports Champion for North Yorkshire will host the an event which marks the start of North Yorkshire Sport Ltd, following its transformation into a company limited by guarantee with charitable status. Andrew will be joined by fellow North Yorkshire MPs William Hague, Robert Goodwill, Nigel Adams, Julian Smith, Anne Macintosh, Hugh Bayley and Julian Sturdy.
The main aim of the Charity is to contribute to the health and well being of the people of York and North Yorkshire, thereby reducing inequality and generating economic benefit.
- North Yorkshire Sport is a company limited by guarantee with charitable status and located in Harrogate.
- The organisation supports partners from across North Yorkshire including frontline deliverers of sport such as coaches, voluntary clubs and schools as well as National Governing Bodies of sport, local authorities and public health departments.
- The body belong to a National Network of County Sports Partnership forming part of the CSP Network – tasked by Government departments and representative bodies e.g. Sport England to get the nation active.
Since 2006 over £4 million has been invested by Sport England through North Yorkshire Sport to support sport in North Yorkshire. Leading to a rise participation rates across North Yorkshire from 23.5% in 2005 to 28.7% in 2013 as measured through the Active People Survey.
Other key successes to date include supporting over three thousand coaches through education and training, the establishment of 18 new satellite clubs in secondary schools and a huge uplift in opportunities for school sport competition.
David Watson the Chief Executive of North Yorkshire Sport said: This is a very exciting time for North Yorkshire Sport. We have been tasked by national partners such as Sport England, to engage and inspire people to participate more in sport and to lead healthier and active lives. We believe that the transformation to a charitable body will help us considerably in achieving this goal and make us more responsive to the local community.
The charitable status will make it easier for local businesses to work with and support us and we have already had two companies stepping forward to invest and support the work that we do.
Andrew Jones MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough said: North Yorkshire Sport plays a critical role in driving and co-ordinating local partners to achieve great things within our community across sport, health and education. The success of national sport, education and health programmes can only be achieved by shaping the offer to the local community and over the past 10 years North Yorkshire Sport has achieved considerable success in driving local community participation.
Supporting the launch will be British sprinter and 100m record holder Montel Douglas, who will be joined by representatives of the Dame Kelly Holmes Trust to announce the first of their ‘Get on Track’ programmes in to be held North Yorkshire, which North Yorkshire Sport will be leading on in Scarborough in June 2014.
As Chair of the North Yorkshire Sport Board, John Crowther will be encouraging the local MPs to follow his lead and that of the rest of the Board and staff by signing up to the Workplace Challenge dashboard, which will also be announced on the day. MPs will be asked to join to set a good example by logging their own personal levels of activity.
