Sport Wales welcomes £4.5m funding boost to improve sport and leisure facilities
- Published
Brian Davies was Wales' chef de mission at the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games
Sport Wales is to use £4.5m of Welsh government funding to improve sport and leisure facilities across the country.
The additional investment has been announced by Welsh government.
Sport Wales says it will use the investment to support and develop projects including multisport venues, cycling tracks, indoor venues, running tracks, swimming pools and 3G pitches.
Sport Wales' acting chief executive Brian Davies said he was "delighted" with the extra funding.
"Without available facilities, there is no way that we can achieve our aim of giving every person in Wales the opportunity to be physically active," he said.
"All of the investment has been earmarked following an expression-of-interest process that took place at the end of last year, which demonstrated a need for the additional money and has allowed us to identify priority projects.
"We've worked with the sector to ensure a geographical spread and that a range of sports and activities are to be supported.
"All of the projects that will be supported need to progress towards completion by the end of this financial year, so it won't be long before the Welsh public start seeing the benefits of the allocation."
Sport Wales says £1.2m will be allocated to collaborative artificial pitch projects involving hockey, football and rugby, which will create "several new 3G and Astroturf pitches across Wales".
A total of £1.5m will go to individual projects from multiple sports, with another £1.3m allocated to the Football Association of Wales for upgrades to grassroots football and multisport facilities.
A BMX project in Cardiff will receive £500,000.
"This package reflects the value we continue to place on our sports facilities as environments that create inclusive opportunities for people to enjoy the physical and mental benefits of sport, and to unleash their sporting potential," said Dawn Bowden, Wales' deputy minister for arts and sport.
"Investing in sporting facilities is a key commitment in our programme for government and is integral to our nation's health and wellbeing as we recover from the pandemic."