§ 23. Mr. John Carlisleasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what is his policy on the encouragement of the wider use of sporting facilities.
§ Mr. TraceyMy policy is to give every encouragement—with the Sports Council and other bodies like the Football Trust—to schemes designed to expand the community use of existing sport and recreation facilities. Such schemes represent obvious value-for-money to meet the continually growing demand for opportunities for sport. I believe that wider community use can be obtained of sporting facilities (for example in football) and of those in schools and colleges. I have active discussions of these possibilities with my colleagues in the Department of Education and Science, with the Sports Council, with the local authority associations and also as part of my continuing dialogue with the football authorities.