In the Lake District National Park

Press Release

Wednesday 20th, September 2006

Cumbria Snubbed (once again!)

Cumbrian’s are growing accustomed to watching money going to the South & Inner Cities. Even in times of major disasters such as FMD and the 2005 Floods government support is at best slow, minimal and grudging. With no major votes at stake and being 300 miles from Westminster it is too easy for government to ignore Cumbria.

Cumbria on an ongoing basis has to deal with hospital closures, lack of transport infrastructure, a declining economy and reductions in Public Services from government and its many quangos and agencies. The latest act against rural Cumbrian communities is the decision by Sport England’s National Lottery fund to refuse Keswick Rugby Club any help with funding towards the replacement of its Club House which was rendered unusable by the January 2005 floods.

The project to rebuild the Club House will cost £750,000. The Club through fund raising, insurance settlements and the sale of land will raise £450,000. This leaves a funding gap of £300,000. With the direct support of Tony Cunningham MP, the Club held; a funders meetings with a number of grant giving bodies and funding agencies. Sport England; indicated at that meeting they would be willing to support the project probably in an amount of £200,000.

Work began on the application, this required that land issues and planning permissions were resolved before the application would be considered. The National Park did a marvelous job in helping the Club gain the necessary planning permissions in a very short space of time. Cumbria County Council agreed to the Club buying the land it currently leases. The Club was ready to submit its grant application.

As requested by Sport England the Club submitted a draft application which they were told would then be worked on with the help of Sport England into a final application. It was with great surprise therefore when the Club received a letter saying their application had been rejected in its draft form. Further the Club were also told by Sport England that they would not even consider any other or further application from the Club.

What were the reasons given for these decisions by Sport England :-

• Not able to prove it would increase participation
• Not able to prove their was a financial need for grant funding
• Sport England Policy is to place low priority on single sport facilities
• Sport England North West’s budget had been severely restricted as funding is being moved to support the 2012 Olympics.

The Club would like to make public their views on the above reasons for it being refused

1. Participation

• in the last 6 years we have grown from running 1 senior team and a small mini rugby section to the Club today which runs 2 senior teams and 14 youth teams from age 8 to 18 - and is still growing.
• 5 years ago we started family summer touch rugby has an average weeklyattendance of 70 players of which over 40% are girls - and is still growing
• Six years ago the Club became the first Club at the Junior level in England to employ a Youth Development Officer (YDO) solely funded by the Club’s Community Development Program
• The YDO program last year provided :-
• 25 hours a week of coaching to Keswick School
• 64 sports session to Keswick primary schools
• The Club has run the annual Keswick Half Marathon for over 25 years with numbers rising over the last 5 years with the introduction of new fun & family runs (initially part funded by Sport For All)
• Over 40% of all 7-11 aged boys in our postal catchment area, CA12 are registered and playing rugby.

Every year for the last 6 years of the Clubs YDO Community Development program we have introduced over 100 new youngsters to rugby via the schools sessions.

Given Sport England's own target is to increase participation in Sport by just 2% the club fails to see how it can be argued we fail the participation requirement. Of course Sport England is not measured if participation reduces because the Club can not carry on! Perhaps what they want the Club to do is shut down and then reopen a year later so they can say they have increased participation and meet their targets and tick their boxes!

2. Financial Need

We may be rugby players but even our grasp of basic arithmetic says its clear we have a funding gap !  Apparently though Sport England took the view that as the sale of< land was not complete at the time of the application it maybe that we would get more than we thought for the land and therefore not need a grant. Is it that Sport England think that Cumbria is full of stupid people who would be willing to pay 3 times the valuation of the land or are they are basing the value on land prices around their own offices in central Manchester!

3. Single Sport

Yes the Rugby Club is a single sports Club. However we are not single use. The facilities are used for a wide range of activities. We are a much in demand facility for the whole community - the Club House is used for meetings, wedding, parties and wakes. Many key local events use the facilities such as the Towns Fireworks Display, Beer Festival, Half Marathon, Keswick Convention. We have also been used as a base for International & County Rugby Union & Rugby League Matches, charity walks, youth camps and even hang gliding events.  At the present time the football club is using the rugby club for changing after their facilities were demolished to allow for the expansion of a caravan park.

Yes in the ideal world the football, cricket, hockey, rugby club's and schools in Keswick would like a multi purpose fully equipped facility with all the necessary pitches, changing facilities and social areas in one place. But this is the National Park - unlike other areas whilst we have large green areas
 a) they are not flat (there is the odd hill or two!) and
 b) the National Park would not allow the building of such a new facility outside of the current town boundaries.

4. The Olympics

Yes the Olympics coming to London in 2012 is prestigious. Yes it should help increase participation in sport. But what is the point of creating the demand if the Olympics have sucked in so much money that the grass roots of sport no longer exist because they are not being funded ! Taking money away from Sports in the regions to fund the Olympics is not the way forward. Is the governments real objective to make the Olympics a media spectacle that is watched by people sitting on settees rather than getting people to become or stay active ?

At a time when the government is making endless statements and announcing initiative after initiative to get people active, stop obesity, stop the anti social behavior of young people how does the potential closure of Keswick Rugby Club due to lack of government support achieve this.

Shortly after the floods Elliott Morley the Environment Minister visited the Club and offered to help whatever way he could. Richard Cabon the Sports Minister said in a statement to the House of Commons that "The club has probably one of the most beautiful rugby union grounds in the country, looking out across the Lake district. I have also been reading about its fantastic history.... Everyone is trying to put their weight behind the Keswick rugby club, and I hope that we can find a solution to what is undoubtedly a difficult problem." (Hansard 21st Feb, 2005). Following the rejection of our application Tony Cunningham also arranged for the Minister Richard Cabon to speak directly to the Club when he again promised to ask for a review of the application and come back to us.

We are of course still waiting for all the promised support and reviews from the above Ministers- it appears talk is very cheap in government circles!

Where will the Club go from here. We are very disappointed with the lack of support but we are determined to raise the money - it will take us longer - it will be harder work - but we will keep our 127 years of history going.

What we will never again do however is put our faith in the promises of a government and a Sports Body that can justify giving a £50,000 grant to Manchester United earlier this year to “improve fitness in the work place” and yet leave 2,000 young Cumbrian rugby players a year having to eat their after match food in a car park!