Friday 12th October 2007
West Craven Together, the Market Town Initiative regeneration partnership based at The Rainhall Centre in Barnoldswick, has received news from one of its main funders, the Northwest Regional Development Agency, that a project they supported delivered by Pendle Leisure Trust has won a market town award.
The Northwest Market Town Awards scheme launched by the NWDA to recognise the excellent work being undertaken in the region’s market towns by looking for the most sustainable and innovative projects. The award included four categories for Market Town Initiatives to put forward projects they had supported. West Craven Together put forward Pendle Leisure Trust’s Inclusive Fitness Initiative (IFI). The IFI scooped the award for the category ‘Social and Community’.
“The Pendle Leisure Trust's Inclusive Fitness Initiative created a successful inclusive scheme which has both supported jobs and given disabled people in the community improved access to sports facilities in their neighbourhood. The Northwest Market Town Awards were created to recognise the hard work being done to improve the lives of people living in the region's market towns and Pendle Leisure Trust is a worthy winner.”
When West Craven Together project appraisers received an application for funding from Pendle Leisure Trust to support their Inclusive Fitness Initiative they were extremely supportive as the project meant that jobs would be supported at the same time as providing excellent fitness and well -being opportunities for all. “Through project monitoring the NWDA was also impressed with the project so when it came to submissions for applications for the awards scheme the decision by NWDA was conclusive,” said Jennene Whitely, West Craven Together’s Support Development Officer.
The IFI project began in April 2005 at Barnoldswick’s West Craven Sports Centre and has meant that disabled users can now access the sports facilities, especially the gym, without feeling intimated. Phil Storey, Chief Executive of Pendle Leisure Trust, said: ‘The support from West Craven Together and the Northwest Regional Development Agency has meant that Pendle Leisure Trust has been able to address one of its key objectives and make a sports facility fully inclusive. What is more the scheme at West Craven has been so successful and so well received that we have gone on to install IFI accredited equipment at two other gyms at Pendle Wavelengths in Nelson and Pendle Leisure Centre in Colne meaning that disabled users are catered for throughout the Borough.’
David Hunter, Head of Rural Affairs at the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA), said:
Picture taken by Barnoldswick and Earby Times.
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