PRESS RELEASE
Issued on behalf of Dartford Clay Shooting Club, 12 May 2009

OLYMPIC ATHLETES SUFFER £16m CUTBACKS WHILE LOCOG WASTE £20m ON A FENCE

The so-called “No-Hoper” sports (Fencing, Weightlifting, Wrestling, Water Polo, Handball, Table Tennis, Volleyball, and Shooting itself) have had their funding pot more than halved from £25m for Beijing in 2008 to a mere £11m for London 2012. A reduction of £14m. In addition, Athletics and Badminton both had reductions in funding amounting to £1.5m.

But Dartford Clay Shooting Club says one simple decision to move the Shooting venue from Woolwich to Dartford could see a similar amount of money saved and potentially find its way back to the athletes who need it most.

Richard Bailey, spokesman for Dartford CSC said:

“To make the current shooting venue at Woolwich safe, a massive fence and screen must be erected at extraordinary cost. We simply cannot stand back and allow money to be wasted on a fence while the prospects of sportsmen and women suffer through lack of funding.”

“Governing bodies have a right to be angry when they realise that they are losing out to wasteful resource allocation and are justifiably questioning Olympic funding priorities.”

In January this year, UKSport slashed the funding of eight Olympic squads because of a £50m shortfall, prompting fears that the UK may not fulfil the pledge to field a team in every sport. The shortfall has been blamed on the inability to raise private funds. Four Paralympic sports – fencing, goalball, volleyball and wheelchair basketball (women) – will also be getting less than anticipated.

Current ODA figures suggest that the Woolwich venue construction costs are estimated at around £42m, an increase of around £20m on the original budget.

London businessman and owner of DCSC, Peter Duffield, has offered the DCSC club site as a venue for the 2012 Shooting competition, and has confirmed that it can be delivered within the original 2005 venue budget (£22m).

Supporting Dartford’s bid to become the shooting venue, Phil Boakes, Chairman of British Shooting, said:

“It is totally unacceptable to see UKSport and athletes starved of funding. If there is money being spent from the overall pot, it should be spent in the pursuit of sport and medals not the construction of temporary facilities that leave no legacy.

“This is a wasted opportunity. Like virtually every other sport, Shooting is desperate for a legacy from the 2012 Olympics. A shift of venue from Woolwich to Dartford is a win-win decision. Shooting would move to a permanent venue and receive the legacy it so badly needs and LOCOG get the perfect shooting venue for the games. That the money saved might trickle back to restore funding to the other Olympic sports is probably a hope too far.

“Every athlete understands that the recession means sacrifices need to be made and they will compete to the best of their ability whatever happens. But athletes in all sports deserve to be given every opportunity for success. And if they have to rein back on expenditure, LOCOG and the ODA should do so too.”

Dartford Clay Shooting Club spokesman, Richard Bailey continued:

“The simple fact of the matter is that by moving the shooting venue to Dartford, the Olympics get more for less.

“Moving the shooting venue to Dartford will save the taxpayer £25m at the stroke of a pen. And beyond 2012, while other facilities lie redundant, a tangible ‘Bricks and Mortar’ legacy for the sport and the local community is secured.

“International Shooting competitions will come to Britain for the first time in 30 years and the dual purpose sports facilities will be open to the local community all year round.

“Dartford has everything LOCOG want: space, accessibility, safety, proximity to the Olympic village, and sporting and community legacy. It even comes with a stunning backdrop of the QE2 Bridge.”

Notes to Editors:

For further information, contact Richard Bailey on 020 7397 8459 or 07714 756215 or Richard@mediahouse.co.uk

Interviews and filming / photo opportunities with Spokesman Richard Bailey or Martin Murphy, Project Manager, available on request.

DCSC is situated on 180 acres of the Dartford Marshes along Joyce Green Lane. Formerly the locality was used for munitions and fireworks manufacture and testing.

DCSC was founded on the site in 1974 by local enthusiasts and has grown to one of the biggest member clubs in England. The Club already offers the best Olympic clay shooting training facilities in the UK.

DCSC shares the Dartford Marshes with a multitude of other passive public amenities, such as bird watching, cycling, walking and livestock grazing without interference or safety issues. Improvements to the Club have been undertaken with full respect for the local bio-diversity. Community access and amenity value could and would be radically improved.

DCSC is under 30 mins from the Olympic Village at Stratford (and a mere 10 mins further away than the original Woolwich venue); 5 mins from the QE2 Bridge and the M25; less than 15 mins from Ebbsfleet rail link; 20 mins by an extended river taxi route from London Bridge.