Through Protecting Playing Fields, communities will be able to enhance local playing fields or create new sports pitches.

As part of the Places People Play mass participation legacy programme, the fund aims to use the home Olympic and Paralympic Games in London next year to inspire communities all over the country.

Sport England chairman Richard Lewis said: "Playing fields are the places where many young people have their first experience of sport, where sporting dreams come true and where communities come together.

"Protecting Playing Fields is about safeguarding and enhancing those spaces – and creating new, high-quality playing pitches where the next generation can enjoy sport.

"This is a great chance to bring the sporting legacy to life in your community."

Sport England will run five £2 million ($3 million) Protecting Playing Fields funding rounds over the next three years.

The organisation will invest between £20,000 ($33,000) and £50,000 ($82,000) in hundreds of projects that will create, improve and protect playing fields.

They will do this by bringing disused playing fields back into use, improving the condition of pitches with measures such as levelling, draining and reseeding.

They will also buy new playing field land no less than 0.2 hectares in size and purchase existing playing field land where there is a known threat such as the expiry of a lease or a development proposal.

Every playing field supported by this fund will also be protected from developers for at least 25 years, creating an enduring benefit for sport.

"As part of hosting the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games we want to offer people better facilities and more opportunities to play sport," said Robertson.

"This £10 million ($16 million) lottery investment will help achieve that.

"Not only will it further protect playing fields from developers but also create new ones and improve pitches up and down the country."

Sport England has also entered into a partnership with Fields in Trust (FIT) to support the protection of playing fields as part of the Queen Elizabeth II Fields Challenge.

Successful applicants to Protecting Playing Fields who accept a Deed of Dedication of their playing field in "perpetuity" will have their project details passed to FIT.

This will give them the opportunity to become a Queen Elizabeth II Field as part of the programme to mark the Diamond Jubilee and the London 2012 Olympics.

Alison Moore-Gwyn, chief executive of FIT, said: "Playing fields are the building blocks of sport and play and our goal through the Queen Elizabeth II Fields Challenge is to ensure that the future of these spaces is permanently protected.

"Our partnership with Sport England is a great opportunity to create a legacy from 2012 that brings real benefit to our playing fields and communities."

Protecting Playing Fields builds on the work Sport England already does to safeguard playing fields as a statutory consultee on all planning applications affecting a sports playing field.

Playing fields are some of the most important resources for sport in England.

There are over 59,200 playing pitches at 19,236 sites in England and over half of the grass pitches - 33,200 - are marked out for football.

Applications for round one of Protecting Playing Fields will be accepted via Sport England's website between May 25 and July 6.

Anyone interested in applying should click here. 

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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