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'Cuts to sports will harm kids'
SCHOOL sports bosses have warned that cuts to their funding will be a "huge backwards step" for children in the borough.
South Tyneside School Sport Partnership (SSP), which allows the borough's 18,000 pupils to get involved in sport, has been hit by the Government spending review – leading to fears childhood obesity will rise.
Lee Crosby, development manager in South Tyneside, said funding in the borough would stop in August, but a lot of activities could end by early next year.
He said: "We are also due a payment in February, and there is no certainty we'll get that.
"If we don't, the partnership would have to stop doing a lot of the things we do by Easter.
"We've already got an obesity problem in our schools. Without people like the SSP to raise the profile, it can only get worse.
"It's also hard to convince schools to support the Olympics when the funding enabling them to do that is no longer there.
"We know we're in a tight fix in terms of money and something had to give, but it seems short-sighted in terms of our children's futures."
South Tyneside's SSP was set up 10 years ago and includes every school in the borough, including the two dedicated sports colleges, Mortimer and Boldon.
Its mission is to improve the quality and quantity of school sport within and outside of the curriculum.
Over the last decade, the number of pupils taking part in inter-school competitions has rocketed from about 2,500 to more than 11,000. But the Coalition Government announced last month they would be scrapped.
Coun Jim Foreman, South Tyneside Council's lead member for children and young people, added: "I'm extremely disappointed we're in a situation where every young person in the borough is going to suffer because of Government cuts.
"They haven't looked at the progress that has been made here, the level of depravation in the borough and the level of child obesity.
"What will happen is that children in the borough will be affected in their later years by the opportunities the Government are denying them. I'm supporting Lee 100 per cent in this."
Supporters of SSPs have set up a Facebook group called Save School Sport Partnerships, and petitions have been set up in every school.
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Weather for Jarrow
Thursday 17 May 2012
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