Big Lottery boost for sport in schools

School sports got a massive cash boost thanks to National Lottery players today.

The latest round of grants showed London secured £14million from the Big Lottery Fund for 48 projects. A total of £60million went to 202 sports projects across England.

Projects include new sports halls, rugby pitches and tennis courts, and refurbishment of dilapidated or unsafe facilities.

The figures will revive the row over whether the Government is too reliant on the Lottery to fund vital schemes.

All children are supposed to do at least two hours of PE a week under government rules, but many schools lack the facilities to ensure this.

Among the grants, Haringey gets £1.3million to upgrade playgrounds at 10 primary schools and to build a games area at a unit for expelled pupils. Woodford County High School in Redbridge gets just over £2 million to build a new sports hall and aerobics studio.

The fund said many of the projects would be open to others to use outside school hours.

Olympic champions Ed Coode, Steve Williams and Shirley Robertson were at Chelsea's Cremorne Riverside Centre to mark a £406,000 grant to help children learn to canoe, row and sail on the Thames.