Developing sports strategy offers all sorts of benefits

IT HAS been a long time coming.

Back in October 2015 the States sent Culture and Leisure away to devise a sports strategy for the island.

It is one of those no-brainer ideas, the kind of thing that could have all sorts of benefits: to the community’s health and wellbeing; to the Health department’s spending; to the tourist and wider economy.

Indeed, it was so obvious that no discernible progress has been made since.

Sure, the States members still made sure they were there to shake hands and share in the reflected glory of sporting achievement, but that was pretty much where it stopped.

Now the new Education, Sport & Culture committee has launched a consultation so that it can report back to the States by 2019.

It is one of those infuriating consultations where you have little idea of where the committee is going – there is nothing concrete to back or oppose, just a series of questions to chew over.

They will no doubt argue they are being open-minded, but clearly in the background there is some developed thinking and it would be nice for them to share that to add depth to the conversation.

ESC will be wrestling with what exactly a sports strategy should be.

Should it be an everyman policy, crossing the spectrum from encouraging the unhealthy to be active, to start walking for instance, through club athletes right up to creating pathways and supporting the elite and professionals?

If it does, how do you stop it becoming so unfocused as to be unworkable and ineffective?

It is clear from the questioning and the broad themes that the strategy could cover a lot of ground.

From your experience of PE in schools, to the barriers to taking up sport, the facilities on offer, to why people participate, to making physical activity available on prescription, there is plenty to chew over.

How that then moulds direction, better targeting of spending and improved results will be interesting to see.

Will there be targets set in terms of participation rates, monitoring of the population’s activity levels, for instance?

Guernsey has plenty to be proud of.

A lot of its sporting infrastructure and coaching set-ups, as well as the work done in schools, is now first class.

That was not always the case and that has had some impact of people’s lifestyles as they grow older, turning them off sport and activity from a young age and never recovering.

Throw in a 50m swimming pool and decent gymnasium at the new school and there would be little in the way of mainstream sport that is not fully catered for.

There are also a host of mass-participation events – coastal walks, the Park Run, charity relays and the like, to give people opportunities to be active in a friendly, uncompetitive environment should they want.

Indeed, there may never have been so many events to take part in, so one thing the strategy may need to look at is whether people are just settling for ‘one and done’ instead of consistent lifestyle changes.

Are there barriers to taking things further?

Yes.

Look at the elite side.

To develop sporting talent requires better and more affordable transport links – that would facilitate both higher-class athletes coming to the island while also meaning local stars can compete and train on a wider stage overseas.

Aurigny is States-owned, so presents the government with a direct opportunity to offer support through discounted travel, including when carrying sporting equipment, through to ensuring the timetables work when there are major events planned.

Jersey hosts national and global sporting events that attract extensive coverage.

For instance, by closing off parts of St Helier for a few days it created a closed circuit course for Super League Triathlon.

You suspect that a similar request here would be met with a shrug of the shoulders and complaints about parking – just look at what happened to Powerboat Week.

Plenty of small towns will close roads or run one-way systems to offer a safer environment for races – in Guernsey, clubs are left making the most of very early Sunday mornings when traffic volumes are less.

Traffic in itself is a barrier to active lifestyles, and from an early instructive age, too. It is sad that many do not feel the roads are safe enough for their children to walk or ride to school.

Guernsey does have fantastic attributes and a strong base on which to build further.

It has coastal paths and cliff paths to walk and run, whether competitively or for enjoyment.

It has bays in which to swim, surf, kiteboard, kayak and paddleboard. Seas in which to sail and row.

It has country roads and green lanes to cycle.

There are clubs and sporting facilities for a wide variety of conventional and more modern activities.

The opportunities are there should people want to take them up.

ESC’s sports strategy needs to identify areas of weakness and target them, not simply become thousands of words on paper filed away on a shelf.

It will also need funding if it is to be meaningful – or at least create a redistribution into the right areas, whatever it identifies those as.

Who knows, it might even lead to the recognition that sport ploughs significant amounts into the economy, and through improving the sports tourism offering, as well as helping our travelling teams, could do even more.