Lack of cash will harm North East athletes

Feb 16 2009 by Adrian Pearson, The Journal

SPORTS bosses have been told their North East spending record is holding back the athletes of the future after it emerged they have handed over just 18p for every person in the region so far this year.

The most recently available Government figures show that in the first six months of the current financial year Sport England spent 18p per head on North East sport infrastructure – or less than £453,000. And while that figure will rise before April, in the previous year Sport England spent just 76p per person.

The quango spends millions more of National Lottery money in the region but this has also been reduced as a result of cash raids to help pay for the Olympics.

The North East alone will lose around £102m in Lottery funding because the London 2012 Olympics budget have run “scandalously out of control”, according to senior Lib Dem MPs.

This added to the £4m in funding taken directly from Sport England North East, as The Journal revealed last year.

Funding bosses were warned last night they may have left it too late to produce real benefits in time for the London 2012 Olympic Games.