Houghton Tennis Club in Houghton-on-the-Hill, Leicestershire, has secured Olympic legacy funding from Sport England’s Inspired Facilities Fund.
The Inspired Facilities Fund is part of the £135 million ‘Places People Play’ legacy programme that is bringing the magic of a home Olympic and Paralympic Games into communities across the country. Every sports facility that receives funding will carry the London 2012 Inspire mark - celebrating the link to the Games.
Houghton Tennis Club, formed in 1976, will receive £50,000 of National Lottery funding towards the construction of a court-side clubhouse on Houghton Field. Although the Club has three well-maintained floodlit courts, members have suffered during inclement weather without any form of shelter for the last 36 years and the new building, designed along traditional lines, will therefore greatly enhance the facilities at the Club and encourage more players to become involved in the sport of tennis.
Sport England’s Chair, Richard Lewis, said: “This National Lottery investment will create a lasting sporting legacy for the Houghton-on-the-Hill area. This fund has really hit the mark with sports clubs in Leicestershire. It shows we’re offering the legacy that people want for their local community and, for hundreds of clubs and tens of thousands of people, 2012 will be the year their local sports facilities started to improve.”
Houghton Tennis Club Chairman, Pat Summers, said: “We are delighted to have secured this investment, which will enable us finally to offer a full range of tennis-related facilities at Houghton Tennis Club. We would like to place on record our thanks to committee-members Geoff Thomas and Simon Thodey for spending very many hours in the preparation of the Club’s application for funding and we congratulate them on this successful outcome. Our committee and Club members have been working hard recently to raise money towards this project and we are all very grateful to Sport England for accepting our application for funding under the Inspired Facilities Fund. The Club’s committee and coaching staff firmly believe that this new development will be invaluable in increasing membership. Tennis is an ideal way for people of both sexes and all ages to enjoy active participation in sport, by having fun and improving their fitness, and we look forward to welcoming new members.”
Houghton Tennis Club is one of hundreds of projects across England benefitting from lottery investment through the second round of the Inspired Facilities Fund. A further £10 million funding round has now been launched by Sport England to help local community sports groups to upgrade their facilities and more information on this can be found at www.sportengland.org/inspiredfacilities. Bids will be accepted from 23 July 2012.
‘Places People Play’ is being delivered by Sport England, working in partnership with the British Olympic Association (BOA) and the British Paralympic Association (BPA), with the backing of The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) and the London 2012 Inspire mark.
LOCOG Chair, Seb Coe, said: “This is a fantastic funding project that will deliver a real legacy from the London 2012 Games. It will provide a whole range of sporting opportunities for young people through improved facilities and will, I hope, inspire them to take up sport.”