Following the publication of Sport England’s Active Lives Survey today, Badminton England will continue to push for community sport and physical activity to be protected.
We know that before the coronavirus pandemic, there was consistent demand to play our sport. The data from November 2019 to January 2020 shows that participation was beginning to grow, but the Covid-19 pandemic started to affect participation levels even before venues were ordered to shut by the Government
With more people turning to home-based fitness, such as our #BEatHome campaign, the ways in which people accessed sport and physical activity changed dramatically in the weeks over lockdown.
People’s lives were disrupted, and sport and other leisure activities were forced to stop. As with other sports, people could not play badminton as there was no access to venues.
With leisure facilities having started to reopen again gradually, the numbers returning to play began to grow, however with more recent local lockdowns, there is disparity over where people can access courts across the country.
Therefore, we welcome the government’s announcement today of £100 million of funding to protect local authority leisure centres. But this doesn’t go far enough.
Since the beginning of this pandemic, we have worked with government and the sport and physical activity sector to ensure that funding is ringfenced for the recovery of our sport.
We know there is a huge risk of fuelling physical inactivity and related illnesses for a generation and with hundreds of thousands unable to exercise, the threat to the nation’s physical and mental health is significant if action is not taken now.
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) announced that local authorities will be able to bid for money from the £100m fund, with funding allocated to leisure centres most in need.
This is a vital step forward in our quest to keep community sport open and accessible to all but there is still more that can be done.
