Becoming London’s first Borough of Sport

Sport can unlock vast amounts when decision makers recognise its power. As there are no statutory obligations to invest in local sport, nationally we have seen the spark of London 2012 diminish, and with it the numbers of people involved with grassroots sports have fallen, clubs and pitches have been lost, and many sporting facilities have fallen into disrepair. 

Merton, like many boroughs, faces issues relating to the health of our residents. Currently, one in three children in Year 6 in Merton are classified as obese and one in five residents are physically inactive. The impact of income inequality is stark: people in the affluent west of Merton live on average ten years longer than those in more deprived east of the borough. 

As the home of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships, AFC Wimbledon, the oldest cricket club in the world, and a rugby club that was one of the founding members of the RFU, our borough has a great sporting heritage and infrastructure on which to build. Today, we have an array of parks, tennis courts, sports pitches, leisure centres and a wealth of grassroots clubs and sporting organisations. 

Merton is uniquely positioned to harness the power of sport and to unleash the potential of the people that live in this vibrant and diverse borough. Using sport to unite the borough and bridge the inequality gap between Wimbledon in the west and Mitcham in the east and attract new people and opportunities to the borough too. 

Through partnership it’s about providing under 16s, the over 65s and the less affluent the opportunity to take part in free or low-cost physical activity at least once a week to gain the health, social and economic benefits which come from being physically active.

 It’s sport in its widest sense and so includes walking, cycling, dance – anything that gets people moving. The call to action is to do one, or one more, physical activity session each week, to unlock benefits for individuals and the borough.

Though driven by our Sport and Leisure team, this work is cross council, and effort are galvanized around three work streams and missions: 

1. Everyone in Merton, no matter their background, has the opportunity to be active and access sport and physical activity. To do this, we will: 

2. Merton will be the natural home of sport in London, and will protect, preserve, and grow our sporting heritage. To do this, we will: 

3. Merton will have a thriving sports and leisure economy that benefits the local community. To do this, we will:

The desired impact of the Borough of Sport programme is long term, and after one year it is only possible to look at direction of travel and encouraging feedback. Much has been done to establish he programme, build strategic partnerships and dramatically improve the offer for residents of Merton. However, our residents survey (Aug-Sept 2024) shows that 38% of our residents are aware of our Borough of Sport ambitions, which is a real achievement after only 12 months of activity and shows the power of the effective brand building and communications that have accompanied the programme.

Activity offer for residents: 

• Our digital Activity Finder for residents’ hosts hundreds of listings and has been accessed over 20,000 times since launch in autumn 2023. Training has been given to health and social care staff to encourage use, including GPs. 
• We’ve hosted two annual borough-wide Big Sports Day’s, with 2024 seeing us partner with over 70 local clubs and reach 6750 people, This was a 25 per cent attendance increase from our inaugural 2023 event where 74 per cent of those surveyed said they were likely to take up a new activity as a result of attending. 
• 20,000 or 10 per cent of Merton residents took part in the Beat the Street gamified active travel game, commissioned by the council – that included 38 per cent of people who described themselves as inactive before taking part in the game.
   
• We’ve enhanced the range of weekly free activities for residents: 
  • We’ve partnered with Our Parks; to deliver free outdoor exercise classes weekly across the borough, the programme also includes volunteer coach training programmes to help the classes run indefinitely 
  • Worked with Better Leisure and Nuffield Health to provide over a dozen free exercise classes each week in Merton Libraries o We’ve commissioned ParkPlay to set up six free inter-generational play and games sessions in our parks, with a focus on the east of the borough. These are run by teams of resident volunteers. 
  • We funded the setup of volunteer led Morden parkrun, reaching hundreds of residents and visitors each week. This joins three other parkruns and junior parkruns in the borough. 
  • We’ve made swimming free for under-16s and over 65’s permanently, across the council’s three leisure centres o Established a Walking Netball club for women, running weekly at a leisure centre.

Infrastructure and upgrades: 

• A £1million refurbishment of Merton’s 47 park tennis courts in partnership with the Lawn Tennis Association is complete, and free access in the parks where it existed has continued, and residents can soon benefit from an enhanced borough-wide coaching offer that the council has commissioned.
• Council support has seen 23 schools awarded Opening School Sports Facilities funding, which will bring in almost £300,000 to help improve activity levels and participation among pupils and communities. 
• We have distributed the first 100k of a 300k Borough of Sport Grant fund. The first cohort of 23 grantees cover projects as diverse as: martial arts provision for visually impaired young people, coaching training for PE teachers and pilot of dementia friendly swimming provision. 
• We have piloted a new approach to surveying mainstream state schools to accurately ascertain activity levels amongst their students. We now have record levels of completion of the Sport England CYP Active Lives survey, which we will now use as a benchmark and to target projects towards the greatest need.

Programmes and Strategic partnerships 

• We established the Merton Borough of Sport Advisory Group to help guide and shape the Borough of Sport plans, the group is made up of representatives from sporting, community and commercial organisations who help inform and feedback on our progress. 
• We hosted a stakeholder event at the All-England Lawn Tennis Club for over 100 leaders from the fields of sport, leisure, business and policy to share insights, knowledge and build networks within and beyond the borough.
• Supported Rugby Super league team the London Broncos to make their home in the borough, and worked with them on a delivery sport engagement programme in schools and the community 
• Partnered with the Tim Henman Foundation to bring inclusive tennis schemes to SEND schools in Merton
• Rolled out 1000 Feel Good Folders in partnership with Alzheimer’s society. 
• Merton is the first borough in the UK to host Equip Boxes in 26 parks and courts across the borough. These boxes allow free or low-cost rental of high-quality sports equipment, since launch in August 24 they have been used over 1600 times, by over 800 users. 
• We have had representation from every Merton secondary school at the London youth games – and won most improved borough in 2023. 
• We responded to a women’s safety issue by establishing a training programme for women only run leaders, in partnership with England Athletics and The London Violence Reduction Unit.
• We secured over 150k of sponsorship for flagship activities, including large scale public artwork and activities across the borough to mark the Wimbledon Championships.

Borough of Sport is a movement, and a degree of the programme rests of galvanizing existing long-term efforts from community partners. The advisory forum, though initially linked to this council priority, can continue longer term to bring together key figures from Merton’s sport and leisure community. 

In years two and three, there will be an increased focus on growing volunteering capacity and unlocking underused spaces and facilities both within existing activities and across the borough. 

Financially, securing a sustainable mix funding and corporate sponsorship where possible is central to meeting the scale of our ambitions for Merton. To date, we have secured over 150k of sponsorship towards flagship activities, and are developing longer term funding partnerships, particularly with existing partners in sectors like housing, transport and infrastructure.

1. The power of collaboration
The sports sector is wide and varied and predates our Borough of Sport ambitions being clarified. Working respectfully and consistently with partners across a range of forums has been invaluable to understand both the scale of provision existing, and the gaps within this. 

2. Listening to the community, and adapting accordingly
When establishing such a vast programme, it is inevitable that there will be a variation in the success of initiatives. By keeping our ear to the ground, leveraging our trusted relationships with delivery partners, we have consistently pivoted delivery to ensure maximum reach and impact: whether that is moving locations, times, or completely overhauling programmes. 

3. Data and knowledge are everywhere in the council
As the council we have many avenues and angles from which to take in our borough, and one task now that the core programme is running is it revisit how we use the many data sources available to us. From public health through to planning – each department can and should be helping us tailor provision to areas of the most need, and to leverage spaces and assets at our disposal.

Borough of Sport film 

Borough of Sport Imagery, from Big Sports Day 24 

Borough of Sport Webpage