British cycling's funding nearly doubles

Sport England has awarded British Cycling £24.3 million in funding for 2009 to 2013 to deliver grassroots sport as part of a plan to get one million more people playing sports The funding represents a 96% increase compared to the 2005-2009 funding period, the second highest increase of the 46 sports eligible for funding.

"This is a fantastic result for British Cycling. It will ensure that we can continue to get more people participating in cycling for sport and regular recreation," said British Cycling chief executive Ian Drake. "It will also enable us to continue to develop our playground-to-podium talent system through the successful Go-Ride programme."

"No other sport has demonstrated the same level of growth in general participation, club sport and medal success during the current funding cycle. We welcome Sport England's support in the development of our plans and the approach of funding governing bodies on their record of delivery to date and potential to deliver in the run up to 2012."

On Tuesday, Sport England announced a total investment of £480 million to deliver grassroots sporting opportunities to all 2012 Olympic and Paralympic sports on the basis of their ability to increase the number of people playing and enjoying sport and to create development pathways for those with talent.

British Cycling developed a four-year proposal that includes a new network of permanent traffic-free cycle sport facilities to create a safe environment for existing and new participants in cycle sport plus a Sporting Events on the Highways Unit to work towards securing the long-term future and availability of sporting events on the public highway. It also will deploy 10 full-time regional competition development officers to co-ordinate and support the volunteer delivery of the cycling competition programme for each region and will also aim to increase quantity and quality of existing coaching to support the development of talent and lifelong participation.

To promote the involvement of children and young people, 25 full-time Go-Ride coaches and nine part-time cycling specific community sports coaches will operate around traffic-free facility hubs. And for recreational cyclists, British Cycling will expand its Everyday Cycling programme, including the deployment of 10 full-time Everyday Cycling activators operating around traffic-free facility hubs.

British Cycling will work with Sport England to refine and finalise its plan in line with the new funding, which will come on stream in April 2009. Sport England will monitor and evaluate results on a quarterly basis and will hold governing bodies of sport accountable for their plans. Its second Active People Survey, which was released last week, has provided a baseline for participation in each sport against which specific growth targets will be measured.