Issue - meetings

Report of the Director of Business, Investment and Culture

The Cabinet considered a report of the Director of Business, Investment and Culture that sought retrospective approval for acceptance of a grant of up to £624,624.00 from Sport England as part of the Commonwealth Active Communities Fund Programme.

Coventry City Council had successfully bid to Sport England for a grant of up to £624,624.00 as part of the Commonwealth Active Communities Fund programme. The Commonwealth Active Communities Fund was awarded to four West Midlands areas in total – Coventry, Solihull, Birmingham, and the Black Country – to support the creation of a wide range of opportunities to help people get active in their local spaces as part of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games legacy.

The focus of the funding for Coventry would geographically be on the whole of the city. However, the project would focus primarily on the individuals and groups that were suffering from social isolation – a particularly acute issue in the city heightened by the COVID-19 pandemic and successive lockdowns. Through the development of the successful Active Communities funding application, the aim of the project had been focused to reach those who were most inactive and those least engaged, to create opportunities and fundamental behaviour changes that would increase activity, reduce isolation and address social and health inequalities.

‘Coventry Moves’ was the name of the funded project. A project oversight group had been established, on behalf of Coventry City Council in partnership with Coventry Sport & Physical Activity Strategic Board, to support delivery of the project.

The funding secured would focus on three key themed areas and would further support delivery of the International Children’s Games to be hosted in Coventry in August 2022. The three areas focused on: young people’s participation taking place around local parks; closing a number of streets in local communities to engage with people around sport and physical activity; and an adult social care project that would develop pilot work around ‘Commonwealth care homes’ that aimed to increase physical activity amongst older residents.

RESOLVED that the Cabinet retrospectively approves the acceptance of the Commonwealth Active Communities funding in the sum of £624,624.00 awarded to Coventry by Sport England.