Plaid Cymru have exposed a staggering 50 percent drop in the amount of lottery cash awarded to sports groups in Wales in the four and a half years since the 2012 Olympics were awarded to London. Research carried out by the party examined the total value of grants awarded for sport in Wales by the Lottery for the five years preceding the 2012 announcement and the four and a half years since.
The research reveals that between the 1st January 2000 and the 6th July 2005, £65,106,195 had been awarded for sport in Wales by the Lottery, compared with £31,851,168 between 7th July 2005 and 1st of January 2010 – a drop of £33,255,027 or fifty-one per cent.
Plaid’s director of elections, Helen Mary Jones AM said:
“Funds used to promote grassroots sport in Wales have been lost to pay for the Olympics. I am extremely disappointed about this situation. The Welsh taxpayer has contributed a massive amount of money to London’s Olympics. It is scandalous that money is being taken away from one of Britain’s poorest nations and being given to the very richest region.
“We are calling on the UK Government to insist that further raids on Welsh lottery funds are stopped and plans are put in place now to help local sports groups. It is also becoming increasingly obvious that areas outside London are not benefiting from the 2012 Games. The organisers must look again at awarding events and contracts to areas outside the M25.”
Plaid’s research also highlights the wider impact of the 2012 Games on non-sport grant funding in Wales. A comparison over the same time period also revealed that the total value of grants awarded for all purposes in Wales had plummeted by £187,653,603. In the five years before the Olympics were awarded to London, grants worth £437,796,557 were awarded to groups in Wales, but in the four and a half years since, the figure was £250,142,954 – a forty three per cent decrease.
Plaid candidate for Islwyn Steffan Lewis added:
“Many charities also rely on grants from lottery funds, and I am appalled that charities and groups in Wales face hardship and even closure of facilities because of the London Olympics. An overall drop of forty-three per cent for all lottery funding in Wales is shocking and unjustifiable.”
