Datchet Water Sailing Club secures £50,000 from sporting legacy fund

Datchet Water Sailing Club secures £50,000 Olympic legacy funding from Sport England’s Inspired Facilities Fund © Janet Pepper

Datchet Water Sailing Club on the Queen Mother Reservoir in Datchet has secured Olympic legacy funding from Sport England's Inspired Facilities Fund.

The Inspired Facilities fund is part of the £135 million Places People Play legacy programme that is bringing the magic of a home Olympic and Paralympic Games into communities across the country. Every sports facility that receives funding will carry the London 2012 Inspired mark – celebrating the link to the Games.

Datchet Water Sailing Club will receive £50,000 of National Lottery funding to upgrade the changing rooms, showers and toilet facilities The improvements include the provision of family changing rooms and redecorating throughout.

Sports England's Chair, Richard Lewis said: "This National Lottery investment will create a lasting sporting legacy for The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead.

"This fund has really hit the mark with sports clubs in The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead. It shows we're offering the legacy that people want for their local community. For hundreds of clubs and tens of thousands of people, 2012 will be the year their local sports facilities got better"

Club Commodore, Barry Peters, said: "This investment by Sports England into Datchet Water Sailing Club is fantastic news. This money is an investment in young people for today and for the future; we'll attract top class events to the club with top class sailors using these top class facilities.

This year club members will be watching the progress of the Olympic Sailors at Weymouth with added interest, as a member of the GB team, Andrew Simpson, completed some of his early training at Datchet. More recently triple gold medallist Ben Ainslie ran a master class for some of our youth team from the 20 knot Squad.

Datchet Water Sailing Club is one of hundreds of projects across England benefiting from lottery investment through the second round of Inspired Facilities fund. And Sport England today launched a further £10 million funding round to help local community sports groups to upgrade their facilities. You can find out more at www.sportengland.org/inspiredfacilities. Bids will be accepted from 23 July 2012.

Places People Play is being delivered by Sport England, working in partnership with the British Olympic Association (BOA) and the British Paralympic Association (BPA) with the backing of The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) and the London 2012 Inspire mark.

LOCOG Chair, Seb Coe, said: "This is a fantastic funding project that will deliver a whole range of sporting opportunities for young people through improved facilities and I hope will inspire them to take up sport".