Around the country, sports organisations are complaining about the Spending Review. The government has announced plans to axe the 450 Schools Sports Partnerships and abolish the £162 million PE and Sports Strategy and its associated target of 5 hours of sport a week for all 5 to 16 year olds; the extra funding for specialist sports schools and colleges will also be withdrawn. Michael Gove has also announced that he has “no plans to commission further work from the Youth Sport Trust in these areas beyond March 2011.”

Baroness Sue Campbell, chair of the Youth Sport Trust, said that this was “devastating news”. It has been condemned by Olympic and Paralympic athletes and School Sports Partnerships all round the country – we have picked up reports from Allerdale, Birmingham, Devizes, Halesowen, Norfolk, North Oxfordshire, South Devon, Stafford, Teesside, Thanet and West Yorkshire.

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