Campaign to get Britain active again
- The NQ today officially launched its new campaign aiming to get British people more active
- The campaign, led by NQ reporter Lawrence Cant, looks to build on the boost in sporting activity that London 2012 brought
The boom of the London 2012 Olympic Games brought a huge wave of interest and excitement into the sporting world that had not been seen in some while.
The Olympians involved became household names and were inspiring new generations through their hard work, dedication and perseverance in adversity. Merely winning the bid back in 2005 had started this wave of momentum.
The Olympics wanted to create a legacy and its pledge was to ‘inspire a generation’. The way things are headed in 2016 this simply hasn’t been the case.
Numbers for participation in Sport are dropping and obesity figures are rising putting a massive strain on NHS resources. This is happening all over the country (5 of the 9 regions have seen large drops in participation) and nothing seems to be being done to halt the slide.
The largest drops in participation within social groups appears to be in ethnic minorities and the poorest social groups, showing that more than ever before money is becoming the biggest issue towards getting people active.
Another worrying trend is that councils investments into sports have dropped by a figure of £389m. Figures published in 2013/14 showed that local authorities invested just over £1bn in sports projects, which saw a huge fall of 27% compared to 2009/10.
It’s become time to campaign towards getting people in Britain active once again and for the government to tackle the councils continually lower funding towards this, petitioning for change is the way forward and something everyone in Britain can get behind.
Use the hashtag #getBritainactive to join the debate on Twitter and find any updates.
Follow the campaign here.