06/05/04 - Excellence in Cumbrian sports recognised

Sport England’s Regional Director will commend the excellence in sports provision in Cumbria next Tuesday (11 May) at a Cumbria Sport Seminar being held in Kendal. Stewart Kellett, the North West’s Sport England Regional Director will present Carlisle City Council and Cumbria County Council’s, Cumbria Sport Unit with their UK quality ‘Quest’ award.

Quest, the UK quality scheme for Sports and Leisure was launched in 1996 and extended to include sports development in 1999. To date Carlisle City Council’s award joins only 26 sport development registrations have been awarded nation-wide and the first local authority award in Cumbria, with Cumbria Sport’s distinction the first one of the 5 county sports partnerships in the North West region.

Mark Beveridge, Head of Carlisle City Council’s Culture, Leisure & Sports Services said:

“The award further enhances Carlisle City Council’s status and recognises our excellence in sports development. The Council is striving to promote healthy living and our wide range of activities and training courses is available to all our residents. This is great news for the Council and the City as a whole. Establishing partnerships with local organisations helps increase the value of everyone’s efforts and the Council staff and partners can be very proud of their work.”

The registration is the industry’s recognised standard and is the only national standard framework of its kind. Government backed it is also supported by Sport England, one of the UK’s leading sporting bodies and aims to ‘help managers improve and enhance the quality of the service they provide’. 

Eddie Edge, Cumbria Sport & Partnership Manager for Cumbria County Council said:

"I am delighted for my colleagues in the Cumbria Sport Unit who work extremely hard to develop sporting activities available to young people in partnership with many organisations across the County including the District Councils, Education and Schools and Governing Bodies of Sport, whilst continuing to achieve high standards. This benchmark gives us a platform to continually improve our performance and recognises the commitment and the efforts of staff. The recognition from Sport England gives everyone the special credence that we can all be proud of.”

Carlisle City Council was awarded their Quest award in February 2004, Cumbria Sport was awarded their Quest award in March 2004.