Sport Winchester launches
Sport Winchester is the new brand for Winchester Community Sport Alliance a club-led organisation representing the voice of grass roots sports clubs across the city and surrounding areas. Its purpose is to be a dedicated resource to advocate for and to facilitate the creation of additional high-quality facilities better aligned to the needs of all users and promoting bigger contribution high quality sporting infrastructure makes to civil society and life.
“Winchester and the surrounding areas are a great place to live and have seen an influx of families into the area pre and post-pandemic, many wishing to live active lifestyles. This desire to be active, healthy and participate in sports and leisure is seen across all age groups and demographics, young to old, student, unemployed, working or retired. As a result, all Winchester’s local sports clubs and groups are experiencing high demand, but do not have access to enough facilities – or in some cases any facilities – of a required standard.
Explains Sport Winchester chair, Andy Eymond.
“Demand for sport and leisure will continue to grow, housebuilding and development continue at a pace, however high quality social infrastructure to enable safe participation in sport and leisure is lagging behind. The result is the situation we face today, where the cost of allocating land or building new sports facilities is not seen as a strategic priority, so our community sports clubs feel frustrated that the public and community interest is not being met, and opportunities for improvement are wasted”
Sport Winchester is engaging with local councillors and housing developers and landowners, specifically at the Sir John Moore Barracks ATR site on Andover Road, Bushfield Camp site on Badger Farm Road and Manor Parks at South Winchester Golf Course, to put the strong case for sport and leisure facilities.
About Sport Winchester
Sport Winchester is the Winchester Community Sport Alliance representing grassroots sports clubs and groups in Winchester when a combined or “one voice” approach is most helpful to specific projects, with a particular focus on clubs’ needs for infrastructure and facilities. We support the city’s sports clubs to bring forward their individual requirements for facilities, resulting in a joined up and more visionary approach to the sports ecosystem of the city.
Sport Winchester is voluntary organisation, structured as an unincorporated association with transparent constitution and three clear goals;
• to offer a cohesive voice for sport and physical activity in Winchester ensuring that all the needs of the local community are being addressed.
• to support local community based organisations and clubs – being a dedicated resource and advocate, primarily for facility development and improvement to enable them to thrive.
• to improve provision and access to sporting opportunities for all residents of Winchester enabling them to be active and thrive.