Looking good for sports deal at The Polesworth School

And councillors at Monday’s meeting of the community and environment board were told that a multi-use games area (MUGA) could provide even more opportunities for those living nearby.

A report considered by councillors explained: “The continued use of the sports hall at The Polesworth School has been successful in maintaining high levels of badminton and football bookings, as well as allowing the gymnastics delivery to stay local.

“The school is working on developments to create a multi-use games area, which may give the opportunity to offer more services to the public in future.

“The simple hire agreement relating to the borough council’s use of the sports hall has worked well - for both parties. Subject to establishing a satisfactory financial and operational arrangement with the school, therefore, it is currently considered to be appropriate to extend the arrangement for a further 12 months.”

Members of the board gave their backing to such a plan with Cllr Jodie Gosling (Lab, Arley and Whitacre) commenting that the partnership was really positive while Cllr Mark Jordan (Con, Atherstone Central) said he was also hopeful the partnership could carry on.

Cllr Jordan also praised the success of the Polesworth fitness hub, adding: “It's remarkable to see that they are at an attendance rate of pre-Covid with 2,150 - the highest month in the last five years which is remarkable and shows that maybe we are getting back to normal.”

Officers explained that while there had been no great increase in attendance figures at the borough’s leisure facilities since March, action plans had been put in place to try and give the numbers a boost.

Simon Powell, the council’s assistant director of leisure and community development, explained: “At the last meeting we were in accord with how the performance was nationally in terms of a return to facilities and at that time we received some information saying that newer, urban facilities were responding better than more rural and older facilities.

“National data is not coming out all the time so we will see if we can source some more for the next board meeting.”