Council’s sports development team wins top award

Archived press release

Date Published: 02/12/09

Aylesbury Vale District Council has received another accolade for its commitment to sport in the district.

The council’s sports development team have been given a prestigious Bucks Sport Award for the second year running.

This year’s awards, which recognise the valuable contribution of all those who deliver sport at a local level across Buckinghamshire, attracted over 70 entries in its eight categories.

Two projects were jointly awarded the Sports Project of the Year award, with AVDC responsible for leading the Community Tennis initiative as well as supporting the Blues and Twos street sport project.

For young people living in an area where sports clubs don’t exist or their parents have limited
funds, learning to play a game like tennis is rarely an option. Tennis sessions were already taking place in the Southcourt area of Aylesbury but Abbi McMullen, Community Activity Development Officer, decided to develop the sessions further. She brought in partners including the Buckinghamshire Lawn Tennis Association, Aylesbury Tennis Club, the Healthy Living Centre and Mandeville Sports College to help deliver a more coordinated programme.

Tennis coaches first visited the children and their parents at local primary schools where they encouraged them to come along to a new weekend coaching session at the Sports College. More than 70 children attended these sessions and to their delight they’ve also seen their families taking part or helping at the fun days and festivals that followed.

A talent identification scheme, giving the chance for children to have extra coaching, has already resulted in one child winning the Mini Red Tennis Club Championships. After attracting further funding, the project has now been extended to the Quarrendon area of Aylesbury and has been made sustainable by Aylesbury Tennis Club taking over the leadership of the project in the future.

Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs), Clare Harrison and Christina Pringle, were convinced that sport is the answer to helping to reduce antisocial behaviour by young people in areas of Aylesbury. Tag rugby, with its emphasis on fitness and social discipline, and the ease at which it could be played in local parks at very little cost, was identified as the ideal sport.

After canvassing local young people, Clare and Christina called on the help of Aylesbury Vale District Council, the Bucks Rugby Football Union and Aylesbury RFC to provide coaches and to train them on the best way to deliver this new activity.

Two years on there are now hundreds of young people regularly taking part in community sessions and tournaments. The project has been extended to six other areas and continues to grow along with the ranks of Aylesbury RFC who are welcoming many of the young players as members.

Councillor David Thompson, Cabinet Member for Leisure at AVDC, said: “I would like to congratulate everyone who has helped the council achieve this recognition from Bucks Sport and we are very proud to have received this award, having also won an award last year for the introduction of street sports within certain areas of the Vale.

“We have a very committed and enthusiastic team dedicated to introducing both children and adults to new types of sporting activities and also encouraging people throughout the Vale to return to participating in a sport they were previously active in.”

For more information about these projects, visit www.aylesburyvaledc.gov.uk/leisure-culture or call 01296 431580. For the full list of the award winners, visit: www.buckssport.org/awards