Future tennis talent given helping hand by Nottinghamshire County Council

Around ten tennis clubs at grassroots level in the county have benefited this year from a slice of Nottinghamshire County Council’s £1.7m Sports Legacy Fund.

And clubs are busy on their plans to boost sports participation and improving facilities since the funds were awarded in the spring.

Nottinghamshire County Council set up the Sports Legacy Fund to benefit a range of sports in the county following London 2012.

The fund was hailed as a trailblazer by Lord Sebastian Coe, and is one of the few examples nationally of a local authority supporting grassroots sports with a specific legacy fund.

Coun John Knight, Committee Chairman for Culture at Nottinghamshire County Council said: “The idea of a Sports Legacy Fund had the unanimous backing of the county council. With Wimbledon in the spotlight, it is great to be able to see the number of tennis clubs across the county which have benefited from the council’s sports legacy fund.”

Nottinghamshire County Council set up three different funding streams to support different types of schemes:

• Kick Start Rapid worth between £500 and £2,000

• Kick Start grants of between £500 and £10,000

• Game Changer grants of between £10,000 and £50,000.

In order to be successful with their bids for the funding, sports clubs had to demonstrate how the funding will be used to support increased participation and/or improve the performance of club members.

As well as providing direct financial support, the clubs were also given advice and support to lever in additional matched funding from other sources for some of the larger schemes.