School playing field sell-offs continue to rise
Read this story and don’t forget you can get lots of help on tackling problems like this through your Rural Community Council – it would also be interesting to list such challenged sports fields as community assets.
The government has come under increasing pressure over its investment in school sport as British athletes have shone at the Olympics.
Sir Keith Mills, chief executive of London’s bid to host the Games and now deputy chair of the organising committee, called on the government to use London 2012 as the springboard for a wholesale rethink of its sports strategy.
His remarks echo a call by Lord Moynihan, chair of the British Olympic Association, for politicians to seize the moment to make sport a higher priority.
A spokesman for the GMB union, which represents school support staff and has campaigned against the sell-off, said: “The legacy of the Olympics and the need to ‘inspire a generation’ will be short-lived if the facilities that tomorrow’s generation depend on are sold to the highest bidder or developer.”
The previous government brought in measures to prevent the indiscriminate sale of school playing fields. The rules include the requirement that sales proceeds must be used to improve sports facilities.