The number of sport centres being opened or refurbished across London has slowed over the last two years, probably due to the recession, according to the latest Drivers Jonas sport survey.
The number of sport centres being opened or refurbished across London has slowed over the last two years, probably due to the recession, according to the latest Drivers Jonas sport survey.
The UK government has set itself ambitious targets of getting an extra two million adults taking regular exercise by 2012, to coincide with the London Olympics. Drivers Jonas said London was already lagging behind the rest of the country in terms of the proportion of its population that exercise regularly.
'A lack of sports facilities being built in London could undermine these pledges to use the 2012 Olympics to promote healthier lifestyles,' the report warns. 'Our research shows there has been a rather disappointing absence of an 'Olympic effect', despite a burst of activity following the decision to award London the 2012 games.'
The headline statistics from Drivers Jonas' survey reveal the 'rather disappointing' absence of an Olympic effect boost: the total of new and extended sports buildings in the first survey was 61. The same total was reached this time, but as the latest survey covers a longer period, the broker said this represented a slowdown in sports provision.
The number of schemes in the construction pipeline has also shrunk, from 36 to 21.
'Drilling down into the data, however, the picture is a little less gloomy: within the 61 buildings, 119 separate facilities have opened across all London boroughs during 2007 and 2008, compared with 112 in the previous survey,' the report added.
