Press Release – Byrne Fights Hodge Hill Sports Funding Cuts

Byrne Fights Hodge Hill Sports Funding Cuts

Liam Byrne MP will today meet with local young sports ambassadors to discuss how best to fight government proposed sport funding cuts. The Member of Parliament for Birmingham Hodge Hill is meeting with young people from the Calthorpe School Sports Partnership which includes schools across Hodge Hill, Small Heath and Highgate. Education Secretary Michael Gove performed a humiliating climbdown in December last year, finding £47m to promote competitive sports in schools after promising to scrap the £162m Sports Partnership Programme he had previously labelled ‘a complete failure’ Liam has been campaigning to turn Hodge Hill into a Sports Village as part of his Hodge Hill 2020 (HH2020) regeneration plan. Hodge Hill has around 50% more green space per capita than the Birmingham average – and is one of the youngest constituencies in the country. But much of the space is undeveloped, and local residents’ have consistently identified the need for more things for youngsters to do at Liams regular residents meetings, street surgeries and school gate meetings. This inspired his programme of work with young people – and his work to create a sports village linking the renewal of our schools, spaces and sports facilities into a network of assets available for sports use across the community. Local young people have been key to developing this vision Ultimately he aims to create a sports village trust, owned by the community to run these important assets on our community’s behalf. Now the funding for the rest of the Hodge Hill Building Schools for the Future programme is uncertain and a valuable programme to help local young people get fit, learn teamwork and aspire to be the best is being scrapped. Liam said: ‘This is another blow for our young people and the future of Hodge Hill. This year we doubled the number of our young people going to University, now tuition fees are going up, EMA is being scrapped, our unfit schools will not be made fit for 20th century learning and valuable sports programmes are being scrapped.