£30m Olympic legacy fund for ‘local’ sports

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Sports clubs and schools will be awarded the grants by City Hall if they can prove projects will boost London's below-average participation levels.

Only one in five adults regularly participates in sport and the majority of Olympic boroughs in east London suffer from "couch potato syndrome".

Boris Johnson has made the cash available from the London Development Agency to deliver a sports legacy, which was a pledge of the 2012 bid but which successive Olympic cities before London have failed to deliver.

Target groups will include young women, disabled and minority ethnic groups with low levels of activity.

The Mayor will provide up to £15.5 million over three years provided this is matched by private-sector or other public funds, notably from the Government's community quango, Sport England.

Labour MP Kate Hoey is the Mayor's commissioner for sport and expects to announce beneficiaries shortly after the scheme is launched next month. The former sports minister has been in talks with potential private-sector partners including Nike and Thames Water.

The scheme may also co-fund projects run by NHS London, which is contributing to the Department of Health's target of getting one million more Britons adopting active lifestyles by 2012.

Other planned initiatives include:

● Free off-peak use of private health clubs such as David Lloyd Fitness.

● Extending a government-backed scheme for mobile swimming pools in boroughs lacking facilities.

● Improving tennis facilities and providing coaches in parks with funding from the Lawn Tennis Association.

The Mayor has no statutory duty to fund sport, but the Olympic scheme aims to use City Hall to spread successful projects across all 33 boroughs.

Ms Hoey said: "Our ambition embraces the small estate-based initiatives to the multi-million-pound leisure operators.

"London has the people to deliver community sport but there is not a system in place that allows them to thrive, and we aim to create that."

A multi-sports project at Larkhall Park, Stockwell, has provided inspiration to Mr Johnson's scheme. Locals participate in football, basketball and dance with much of the funding provided by America's professional basketball league, the NBA.