Cheshire East Council has moved to secure a lasting legacy from last year’s Olympic and Paralympics games in London by signing a memorandum of understanding with Sport Cheshire.
The pledge sets out how the two organisations will work together to get more people active, more often. This will boost grass-roots sport across the Borough, as well as providing health and social benefits to participants.
Since 2005, when the bid for London 2012 was won, the number of adults participating in sport across the UK has increased by 1.57 million.
However, there are still large numbers of people who are inactive and the partnership between Cheshire East Council and Sport Cheshire is determined to target these groups to improve their health.
Recent studies have shown that lack of exercise, and the obesity it can lead to, causes more deaths than smoking. More active people can experience life expectancy gains of as much as 4.5 years.
Councillor Janet Clowes, Cabinet member in charge of health and adult social care, said: “The whole of the country came together last summer for the games in London and it showed what a force for good sport can be.
“Hopefully this partnership will encourage and enable more people to take up sport and activity here in Cheshire – ensuring that the much-talked-about ‘legacy’ is secured.”
Anne Ibrahim, chief executive of Sport Cheshire, said: “To achieve our aims we need to learn more about the needs, drivers and barriers of non-participants. We can then use this information to work with Cheshire East Council and other partners to make local services more relevant to residents and encourage more people to get active, more often.
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