Nottingham City Council is launching a brand new Physical Activity and Sport Strategy to increase the levels of physical activity and sport undertaken by the people of Nottingham over the next four years.

The strategy, which has been developed with a range of key partners across the city, seeks to harness the Sport, Leisure and Parks Service vision of inspiring more people, to be more active, more often. The strategy will use themes such as the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics, national and regional sports events and the benefits of physical activity and sports to inspire residents to become more active.

Some of the key outcomes from delivery of this strategy in 2012 will be:-

• Achieving our Local Area Agreement target of increasing participation by 1%, which means 9,496 more Nottingham city residents are undertaking the recommended 3 x 30 minutes per week of physical activity and sport

• To halt the rise of adult and childhood obesity in the city

• An increase of 25,000 activated City / Leisure Cards being used by city residents to access physical activity and sport

• A physical activity and sport events strategy resourced to attract better international, national, regional and local events to the city, with links to the 2012 Olympic cultural programme

• An increase from the 5.1% currently volunteering actively across the city, supporting the delivery of physical activity and sport

• All schools delivering five hours of physical activity and sport by 2010.

In the quest to encourage more people to choose a healthy lifestyle the strategy will focus in particular on children, young people, older people and the active workforce, whilst developing the ways in which the role of physical activity and sport can play a strong role in social inclusion and creating a sense of local pride in city residents.

The ‘more active’ element of the strategy’s vision identifies how a wider range of residents can be encouraged to become more active, focusing on better delivery to a greater number of residents across the city whilst tackling some of the identified barriers which can stop people from taking up exercise. One of the priority aims is to halt the rise of adult and childhood obesity in the city.

To enable people to participate in activity more often, the strategy outlines the need for quality parks and open spaces, pitches and leisure centres, and focuses on the ability to respond to customer trends. As the facilities develop the focus will be on ensuring there is minimum impact on the environment whilst working towards a carbon neutral service by 2016.

Councillor Dave Trimble, Portfolio Holder for Leisure, Culture and Communities said: "This strategy raises our game to what people expect in Sports, Leisure and Parks, as they realise more and more how important it is to be physically active. For us to meet what Nottingham sees as its ‘well-being’ challenge, a change in approach is needed. Also the city, with its partners, wants to be ambitious and become renowned for excellence, innovation and success. This strategy marks our start in rising to meet these challenges."

Hugh White, Director of Sport, Leisure and Parks said: "We’re ambitious to truly make a difference to the lives of the people of Nottingham and this strategy will give us the direction to do this over the next four years. The strategy will be used not only by the City Council but a number of key partners across the city making it a very important document for the future of sport and physical activity in Nottingham."

If you would like to take a look at the Physical Activity and Sport Strategy it can be viewed online at www.nottinghamcity.gov.uk/enjoy