I’M starting with a comment I heard within the last month from Ali Oliver MBE, Chief Executive of Youth Sport Trust. It reads…
“Our children are moving less, feeling unhappier, and losing access to the transformative power of PE, contributing to stagnant physical activity levels. The fall in PE hours is sadly an exacerbation of a longer-term trend and should be a wake-up call to society, from policymakers to schools and parents.
“We know being active improves children’s health, happiness and readiness to learn, as well as playing a vital role in supporting brain development. Unless we take action to reverse these damaging trends and increase activity levels to improve wellbeing, we risk failing a generation.”
Our view and experience very much echo the sentiment above, and it is not just the responsibility of the government. The policymakers are around us from County, District and local town and Parish Councils who can make a real positive difference.
In my experience, the smaller parish councils get it, we are working with a number who intimately know and care about their local sport/keep fit people and very much look to help them survive and prosper. This very much needs to move up to the bigger councillors/civil service who very much look at sport as part of the expenses column on a spreadsheet.
The tragedy is, all we want is the door positively opened to proven ideas that allow ‘development of sport and recreation’. It’s not actually about funding (although it is always nice to have it), it is about an open mind to a positive future.
An amazing opportunity to demonstrate the point
Anyone who has followed the development of Hailsham Boxing Club will know the amazing work Sam and his team have achieved, with over 300 people using the gym, boxing club and classroom, Sam’s team also help students with maths and English as part of the school help scheme.
Those who have witnessed the work are left dumbfounded at the positive effect it is having on our children, and indeed many adults.
Even the Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner is full of praise, and yet, five years on, no financial help to Sam and his team from our ‘local policymakers’.
A lot have said they would try, and then said, come back with ‘sorry, it is harder than I thought’, or, not come back to Sam at all.
Sam is typical of many sports clubs across the area, especially those who have just started out. The odds are stacked against them.
Facilities
Hailsham in particular is lacking both a recreation ground and indoor sporting space. This often means a new start-up has to pay commercial rates for a property, as in Sam’s case, or pay big fees to use school facilities (now with outsourced management companies running them). Most other clubs on recreation grounds are already full to capacity.
It all looks quite grim, and maybe the planners in this respect have let us down?
Part of the madness stems from my initial assessment of small parishes’ understanding need, and larger councils being at arm’s length and missing opportunities because they have chosen, often deliberately, to be ‘remote’ and unapproachable.
Pointing this out makes us, particularly Hailsham Active, very spiky to the people in power, and yet all we are trying to do is create a fair playing field, usually at the same time saving them money and also benefiting society as a whole.
Innovation overcomes adversity
Having spent a lot of time with a whole range of sports clubs, there is a feature that stands out – teamwork and collaboration to make something happen.
Whether it is new or extra training to achieve a goal in sport, or determination to improve facilities, a whole range of people will come together, usually at their own cost of time and equipment to improve things for our community.
Sam and his team are no different and as good luck would have it, a meeting a few years ago with the ex-business manager of Hailsham, Mickey Caira, a very good and helpful man, he mentioned the barn at Grovelands. It had been handed to Hailsham Town Council as a community asset in part of a will from Grovelands Farm (if anyone knows who it was, please let me know).
We talked about it for sport, and it was just too small for badminton/basketball etc, so it has remained unused. Part of it is used by the Bonfire Society, a great community team, and there is also an allotment area for Environmental Hailsham, which produces and maintains the amazing hanging baskets in the town. So, two parts of the area already tick the community box. The main barn is currently a storage area, not quite the intended ‘community use’.
We recently arranged a meeting with Sam and Bernie from the boxing club at the Barn – the Town council, clearly concerned at losing the ‘storage facility’, fired a lot of problems towards Sam and Bernie, not least the massive cost of transforming the barn into a site fit for the boxing club. It was certainly something that would cost the Town Council at least £100k to achieve and probably much more.
Sam and Bernie are clearly problem solvers, and within 10 minutes, they had come up with a range of solutions, at their own cost (if necessary), that would transform the area. Much more than just upgrading the barn.
Plans are already being drawn up to solve the problems, at minimal cost and maximum reward to the town and indeed, we believe it will be a massive benefit to the Town Council and also fulfil the covenant of the land and buildings.
This is a real opportunity for Wealden District Council and Hailsham Town Council to support the amazing friends and associates of Hailsham Boxing Club in this exciting new venture.
The initial vibes are actually very promising, and meetings have been set up very quickly with Wealden and Hailsham Town Council.
We hope, for so many reasons, that this shows what can be achieved with a positive will and collaboration between officials and the sporting community.
The local WDC and Town Councillor, Paul Holbrook, is fully supportive, as is the Town Councillor for the area, Barry Carpenter.
If you can help or support this project or need help with your own club, or vision of a club, please let us know. This is the Hailsham Active DNA, and we make no apology for it.
I remember one of my first rugby training sessions and the explanation for getting caught in a maul, ‘Steve, get your elbows working’.
