Sailing Academy in the balance

Decline in lottery ticket sales causes funding waiver over Weymouth and Portland Sailing Academy

A severe downturn in income from the UK's National Lottery is forcing the Sport England council to reappraise their backing for proposed new sports facilities around the country. Under threat is the new building and facilities planned for Weymouth & Portland Sailing Academy.

"From a sports point of view, Weymouth is integral to the sustained performance of our elite athletes but also providing a fantastic facility for a huge number of our clubs and classes in all areas of the sport - windsurfing, match racing, team racing, disabled, youth," RYA Racing Manager John Derbyshire told The Daily Sail.

The Sailing Academy was established three years ago using a former Minstry of Defense building on the shore of Portland Harbour and a slipway originally built for hovercraft. The proposed development will include the construction of a small regatta marina and a new building to incorporate all the necessary facilities such as changing and showing facilities, briefing room, gym, jury room, race office, social area, classroom, measuring areas. All will be accessible to the disabled.

Olympic trials for Sydney were held there, as the trials for Athens will be next year and there is rumour of an Olympic classes regatta being staged there if the proposal goes ahead. The new facility will also be the sailing venue for the 2012 Olympics should the London bid prove successful. But the Academy is being pitched to all levels from beginners to Olympians on all manner of watercraft and is already being used by sailors from all over the country.

It is a particular favourite with the high performance classes because thanks to its local geography it offers flat water in strong winds. The 18ft skiffs are racing there this weekend and the Academy's calendar for this year is packed, the biggest events being the National Schools Sailing Association Regatta bringing around 290 boats and 500 competitors and the Optimist Nationals with around 280 boats.

In total it is projected that this year 5,000 people will pass through the sailing school, 4,000 the windsurfing school and 17,000 through the activities school. John Tweed, Project Manager for the new Academy, forecasts that usage will increase by 60% following the development.

So far around £500,000 has already been invested in the project. The Stage One application was agreed with Sport England 18 months ago.

"Right now they are completing all the consents," says John Derbyshire. "The planning consents on land have been granted and the majority of the consents for the water works are being completed alongside all the environmental studies. We have now gone through all the various tendering stages, to appoint a prefered contracter. So the Academy is now very close to being able to submit a stage two application to Sport England."

Construction was planned to start in June/July this year with the build taking 12 months to complete.

The National Lottery are by no means footing the whole bill for the development. Expected costs of the project are £6.4 million of which £3 million, it is hoped, will come via Sport England from the National Lottery matching £3 million from the South West Regional Development Agency. The additional £400,000 has been raised from other sources. "If Sport England pulled out their £3 million, then the Regional Development Agency would be likely to reconsider their funding as well because they don’t wish to be the major funder," says Derbyshire.

"The economic and social benefits of the project are also considerable with the Local Authority estimating that we currently put over £2.5 million a year into the local economy - a figure estimated to rise to £6 million a year when the development is completed," he adds.

From Sport England's perspective, they are in severe trouble. Due to the nature of their business they have made commitments to projects a long way into the future at a time when lottery income is plummeting. Money channelled from the National Lottery to Sport England was roughly £275 million in 1998/9 and had dropped to £170 million in 2002. As a result Sport England have found themselves well and truly overcommitted.

In October the government appointed Patrick Carter to take over from Trevor Brooking as the head of Sport England, with the main responsibilities of trying to troubleshoot Wembley and host the Commonwealth Games. At the same time he ran a stock take all of their financial commitments.

Sport England itself has been subject to mass redundancies. A second restructure in December saw further staff cuts with numbers dropping from 570 to 250.

"It was too top heavy in London, so the whole focus is to shift it to the regions because the regions know what’s going on in their patch and they’re much closer to the work so the emphasis will be there," a spokeswomen for Sport England told The Daily Sail. Sport England's territory is divided up into nine regions each with its own budget, while major projects of more than £1 million are decided upon centrally. "Everyone has taken a hit so there will only be 100 left in London instead of 330."

These redundancies and an office move are set to save Sport England around £12 million per year.

Alongside this the decision has been made to reassess all their on-going projects. "Everything that has come to us as an application for Lottery funding has been put back into the melting pot and is being scrutinised again because we just don’t have the money we used to have to give out," said the Sport England spokeswoman.

The Weymouth and Portland Sailing Academy is one of Sport England's 200 community capital projects and 50 Sport Active Community Development Fund projects to undergo reappraisal. The council is to meet on 8 May to finalise how to proceed.

"What we are doing is going back and having a look at all the criteria," continued the spokeswoman. "What will the usage be? What’s the community use? What facilities are nearby? What dictates the need for the facility in this area? Is it the best place for it? What is the competition like in the area? What will the extended usage be in 20 years? What investment is there from the rest of the region? How much is Sport England being asked for? How does it meet our target groups of women and girls, disabled and ethnic minority groups - equal access. There’s lots of criteria there."

Aside from projects getting the thumbs up or down, it is likely that funding for some will be delayed or made in stage payments. The aim is to make savings of around £50 million.

John Derbyshire sums up: "Sailing is still the number one Olympic sport in this country and we don’t have a single event and training facility. Yes, we have Hayling and Largs in Scotland and Pwhelli in Wales, but in England we don’t have a dedicated facility. It is the only facility in the country that is capable of running a multi class Olympic regatta. Hayling is too tidal."

Meanwhile John Tweed says he is still optimistic. "This project has got so many things going for it. It has got so many economic benefits. The local community suffered heavily from the loss of the defence industry here. All those things should be counting for something."

If readers wish to lend their weight to the cause and put pressure on Sport England to give the green light to funding of the new Academy they should write to:

Roger Draper, Chief Executive, Sport England, 16 Upper Woburn Place, LONDON
WC1H 0QP

and

Richard Caborn MP, Minister for Sport, Department for Culture Media and Sport, 2 - 4 Cockspur Street, LONDON SW1Y 5DH