Olympic and Paralympic Pre-Games Training Camps - Suffolk

With the 2012 Games now firmly established within our calendar, work is already gathering pace across the region on a number of key strands of work. One of these is the area of preparation and training camps for visiting Olympic and Paralympic Teams from around the world.

The London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (LOCOG) is required to prepare a guide of approved facilities to all the nations that currently compete at the Olympic and Paralympic Games. This guide is issued immediately following the Games in 2008. The process for selecting appropriate facilities for inclusion in the guide initially involves a number of pieces of work at both a local and regional level. One of these is to try and identify which facilities within each of the districts in the county would be suitable for and interested in being put forward for inclusion in the guide. The purpose of this communication is to seek to identify those facilities that may be suitable and that are interested in being considered as part of the process.

The requirements in terms of facilities are extremely detailed and any facility wishing to put itself forward should familiarise themselves with these before expressing any interest in the process. The details of requirements can be found at the following website address ://www.london2012.com/en/gettinginvolved/ trainingcamps/

I have, however, set out some of the more obvious considerations below:

Facilities should either already exist or where they are planned full funding should be in place by no later than 31.1.07;
Inclusion in the facility guide is no guarantee that a visiting team will come to your facility;
Visiting teams wishing to come to your facility will negotiate directly with the provider on their exact requirements at the appropriate time;
Visiting teams will also require additional support functions and / or access to services not linked to the facility itself e.g. medical services, transport, accommodation etc.
Some initial consideration of these will need to be given but more detailed work will take place on these elements, possibly as part of a countywide package;
Visiting teams will expect exclusivity of use and this may impact on income streams from usual sources;

In order to provide a co-ordinated response from Suffolk, and maximise the profile that Suffolk facilities might achieve by being included in the guide, we are asking that those facility providers who wish to express an interest do so first by registering an intention with Terry McEntee at Suffolk County Sports Partnership by 31^st October 2006 (contact details below). This will enable an initial mapping exercise to be carried out prior to formal expressions of interest being submitted. A small Suffolk Working Group has been established to help guide and manage the process. Broadly it is hoped that interested partners would be in a position to make a formal submission by mid December 06. This timescale would enable further work to be done through the Working Group towards enhancing the facility offer on a Suffolk wide basis a joined up approach. The final deadline for submission is January 31, 2007.

If you have any query or require any further information please contact Terry McEntee on 01502 523447 or 07776 166288 or via Email terry.mcentee@waveney.gov.uk