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Surrey Sports Park wins prestigious award for community links

18 May 2011

ricsaward2011

The University’s Surrey Sports Park has won a prestigious award for its contribution to the local community.

The state-of-the-art sports complex has won the Community Benefit Award at the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) regional award finals.

The development, which caters for students, members of the community and elite athletes, won in the category for “a defining feature which demonstrates that the project benefits the local community”.

Terry Adsett, one of the FRICS judges, commended the Surrey Sports Park (SSP), which was also named overall runner-up across all categories, for its benefit to the local community.

He said: “The Park has clearly become a community facility with which numerous community initiatives are linked. It is utilised by the University and the public for a wide range of sports and social needs.”

In the community, over 80 local primary and secondary schools have taken part in activities at the park, which has seen over 20,000 young people use the centre since opening. Over 300 juniors take part in learn to swim courses on a weekly basis alongside a plethora of adult and junior classes, courses and drop-in taster or coaching sports sessions.

Open to non-members and 3000 members strong, it has developed into a thriving, sporting hub for many people, providing opportunities for people to lead more active, healthy and enjoyable lifestyles.

Paul Blanchard, CEO of the Surrey Sports Park, said: “We are extremely pleased and proud to have received this award that reflects both Surrey Sports Park's state of the art facilities and its benefits to the local community. Since opening in April last year, local clubs, teams, schools, colleges, youth groups, businesses, events, individuals and of course students and staff of the University of Surrey have all benefited from the array of facilities here at Surrey Sports Park, making the centre a true hub of sport for the community of Guildford and Surrey”

With the countdown now underway to the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics, the impressive facilities at Surrey Sports Park, in partnership with Surrey 2012, have attracted interest from around the world, with Antigua and Barbuda, Nigeria and more recently Singapore having all agreed to bring their athletes to Surrey Sports Park for pre-games training camps.