Sports clubs risk death from a thousand cuts, says CCPR

CCPR will reflect on a year spent battling a tide of unwanted regulation in its Impact Report 2007/08, which has meant that a great proportion of the organisation’s resources could have been spent better elsewhere.

Brigid Simmonds commented:

“From managed migration to music rights, sports organisations and clubs are getting caught up in a host of issues which shouldn’t affect them. The idea that a fun runner coming over from America to take part in the London marathon needs a special visa or sponsorship from a NGB is daft. But then again, so is the notion that a sports club with a radio should pay an exorbitant fee simply for a licence to turn it on. Yet these are the kind of issues CCPR has had to deal with this year.”

And she also sounded a warning to ministers:

“The danger is that departments and their officials get so wrapped up in the detail of what they are doing that they lose sight of the bigger picture. I don’t think there is a minister in government who would say that sports clubs don’t make an invaluable contribution to our communities. Yet when it comes to administering the finer points of policies, that good work is often swept to one side whilst another layer of bureaucracy is plastered on.

“The argument we face is that this regulation or that regulation is necessary; that it is just one small change to the way things have been done in the past. But ministers have to take a step back and understand that they risk causing death by a thousand cuts and that they need to take collective responsibility for their actions. Year by year and department by department, the Government is making the lives of sport and recreation clubs more and more difficult when what they need is greater encouragement and support.”