Annex 4
Letter, 12 February 2001, from the Chief
Executive of Sport England to the Pro-Vice Chancellor at University
of Hertfordshire
UNIVERSITY OF HERTFORDSHIRE SPORTS COMPLEX
Thank you for your letter of 5 January 2001.
I apologise that it has taken some time to respond, but I wanted
to confirm the view of the Amateur Swimming Association before
writing to you. I hope you understand that the slight delay has
allowed us to provide you with a more definitive response.
Subject to all the issues in our letter of 5
December 2000 (copy attached) being resolved, our view of the
swimming element of the project can be summarised as:
— Sport England and the ASA are attracted
by the concept of increasing the proposed 25 metre pool to 50
metres, primarily in order to benefit the World Class Programme
for swimming. For funding to be secured you would need to work
with the ASA on developing an appropriate level of use by their
World Class programme; and
— in terms of community demand, Chris
Cutforth's letter of 5 December outlines our concerns over the
demand for the pool. You would need to work carefully with the
local authority and local clubs to ensure the provision of a 50
metre (or for that matter a 25 metre) pool was demonstrably complementary
to existing provision in the area.
Clearly the project provides Sport England with
an opportunity to deliver one of our aims, namely more 50 metre
pools in the London area. However, it does not sit comfortably
with the unmet demand for community provision. On this basis,
we would consider a grant request for extending the pool, but
it is unlikely that funding in excess of £1 million would
be forthcoming from the Lottery fund.
In relation to Sport England funding towards
a 12 court rather than an eight court sports hall, can I confirm
that it would be unlikely that we could support such a proposal
with lottery funding, due to the issues of local demand identified
in our letter of 5 December 2000.
Thank you for coming in to meet and discuss
your project. If you decide that the funding levels mentioned
in this letter enable you to consider inclusion of a 50 metre
pool, please contact Chris Cutforth to move discussions towards
an application for lottery funding.
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