WARRINGTON Primary Care Trust Chairman and former council leader John Gartside has been appointed to a “top notch” team of trustees endowed with £40 million of Big Lottery funding to build on the 2012 Olympic legacy.
As part of a new ‘Spirit of 2012 Trust’ there will also be an immediate additional £5 million for projects that pave the way for the work of the Trust itself.
BIG Lottery Fund Chair Peter Ainsworth said: “I am delighted to announce the establishment of the ‘Spirit of 2012 Trust’ which the Big Lottery Fund will endow with up to £40 million of good cause cash.
We hope to attract at least as much from other sources.”
“It is great news that we can also announce the first five excellent, highly respected individuals who have agreed to work as early-stage Trustees, helping get the Spirit of 2012 Trust off to a flying start by establishing the long term strategy for the Trust and building a team who will achieve great things in the future.”
Mr Gartside, OBE (pictured) is an ex Board member of the Big Lottery Fund, Founder Trustee of the Tim Parry Jonathan Ball Foundation for Peace (Peace Centre) and a Trustee of the Warrington Wolves Charitable Foundation.
He brings his considerable experience of work in education, health, charities and grant-making to the trust.
The Spirit of 2012 announcement builds on the September decision by the Big Lottery Fund (BIG) to invest £40 million in building a legacy from the 2012 Games.
The other early-stage trustees are:
• Baroness Sue Campbell – Chair of UK Sport and the Youth Sport Trust, the person in the vanguard of making the changes that made British sport more successful at the 2012 Games than ever before.
• Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson – 11 time gold medal winner, Parliamentarian and television presenter, Baroness Grey Thompson will bring her considerable Paralympic and political experience to the trust.
• Sir Nicholas Kenyon – Managing Director of the Barbican Centre and, as a member of the Cultural Olympiad Board, a person who helped make 2012 memorable for artistic excellence as well as sporting prowess.
• Dugald Mackie – currently Chair of the Legacy Trust UK, the body that funded over 100 arts, sports and education projects across the UK as part of the celebrations for London 2012 and which is helping projects to develop their legacy from the Games.
Mr Ainsworth added: “The final group of Trustees will include representation from all parts of the UK. We will ensure that effective links are made between work associated with London 2012 and the brilliant efforts already underway to build and sustain community related activities in the run up to the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow 2014.”
In the meantime, the Big Lottery Fund can announce that, in addition to cash it will release to endow the new Trust, it is willing, in principle, to make available immediately at least a further £5 million to support nationally significant community-related activities that embody the spirit of 2012. These investments will sustain essential momentum and build on existing successes while the Trust itself gets established.
BIG is in discussion with a number of organisations about how this momentum might be sustained.
