Fields in Trust
Local Tennis Leagues supports the work of Fields in Trust. See below for information from their Cheif Executive about news on the organisations important campaign for 2012...
Dear League Player,
Fields in Trust (the operating name of the National Playing Fields Association), is a a charity which aims to protect and improve outdoor sport, play and recreation spaces in communities all across the country. I am now inviting you to be a part of our 2012 Diamond Jubilee legacy programme, the first to receive official endorsement by Her Majesty The Queen.
The weekend of 2-5 June 2012 marks The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and we want to ensure that it is celebrated in fitting style. The Queen Elizabeth II Fields Challenge is a brilliant campaign to protect outdoor sport, play and recreation spaces as a permanent living legacy of this momentous event.
Whether you live in a dense city or the middle of the countryside, outdoor spaces are at the heart of any community and sadly continue to be threatened by development every single week – there is evidence that 6,000 playing fields alone have been lost to development since 1992 and that’s not counting the general recreation spaces that have also been lost never to return. The Queen Elizabeth II Fields Challenge will ensure that more outdoor spaces are guaranteed for future generations.
Below is an example of why protecting these spaces is so important. On the left is a King George V Memorial Field in 1946 (protected in 1938) – on the right is the same field pictured last year. Without our protection this community facility would probably not exist today:
We are asking Local Authorities to nominate public spaces to become protected as Queen Elizabeth II Fields and encouraging them to hold celebratory ‘Have a Field Day’ events on the newly designated Queen Elizabeth II Fields across the Diamond Jubilee weekend to provide a focus for community celebrations of 2012 and the importance of access to outdoor spaces.
Securing access to grassroots sporting facilities is particularly relevant given the other milestone event taking place next year – the London Olympic and Paralympic Games.
YOU are invited to get involved in the Challenge by:
- Encouraging your Local Authority to protect outdoor recreational spaces as Queen Elizabeth II Fields – download this Call to Action form and send to your Local Authority
- Sign up to the Challenge and receive regular updates on our progress
- Vote for sites to become Queen Elizabeth II Fields in our public vote in September 2011
I hope you will join us in our quest to create this network of protected Queen Elizabeth II Fields. Please feel free to forward this to your family and friends, and anyone else who may be interested in getting involved.
Many thanks,
Alison Moore-Gwyn
Chief Executive
Our Leagues...
