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Sports minister full of praise for leisure trusts
Sports Minister Gerry Sutcliffe has said that sports trusts have a vital role to play in improving the health of the nation.
Speaking to 94 delegates at the Sports and Recreation Trusts Association (sporta) AGM in Leeds earlier this month, he said: “I believe sports and leisure trusts have a significant role to play in helping the government, and particularly DCMS, to achieve many of its objectives in the cultural and sporting sectors.”
He went on to say that sporta members’ opinions are very important as they are the deliverers of sport at ground level and that he was keen to work with them and use the power of sport to change people’s lives.
He further outlined how trusts can best work alongside the government to deliver five hours of activity a week to local children and offer world-class facilities at a local level.
The AGM also saw the launch of sporta’s study ‘A shared vision – the trust way’.
The independent research, carried out by Leisure-Net Solutions, looks at the impact of sporta members across the UK and aims to explain the work of trusts and social enterprises within culture and leisure.
The brochure, which is designed to raise awareness of members’ work on a national level, will be distributed to all MPs and is part of a profile-building exercise for the organization which has also seen sporta executives meeting with a series of ministers, MPs and key government officials.
Sporta has also undergone a rebranding, with a new logo and strapline – social enterprises within culture and leisure. The rebranding is designed to reflect ‘sporta members’ increasing and varying role in the regeneration and building of sustainable communities’.
Photograph: Sports Minister Gerry Sutcliffe and the new sporta logo