SINCE the winding up of the St Albans Sports Trust, work has continued behind the scenes regarding the creation of a new sports funding organisation.

Significant progress has been made and, judging by the gamut of sports represented at a recent St Albans District Council-initiated meeting, original fears that major sports will be favoured by the new body are unfounded.

Alongside football, athletics and rugby, members of swimming, bowling, snorkelling and even croquet clubs were among the 30 odd clubs represented at the Civic Hall.

Julie Simpson, Head of Leisure Services at St Albans District Council, said: "The new organisation will be encouraged not to marginalise minority sports. Every club in the district will get the opportunity to benefit equally."

Perhaps of equal significance was the conclusion that the emphasis of the new organisation, which will be named at a second meeting in July, should be split equally between funding and development.

Heightened co-operation is also on the agenda: "One way clubs could be more cost-effective is by not duplicating courses, such as first-aid courses, which can be quite expensive," Simpson said.

Also at the meeting was Harpenden Town FC chairman Steve Whiting.

"I'm very positive," he said. "Having a collection of people involved who know something about sport at a grass roots level has got to be a way forward."

Apart from possible financial advantages, he foresaw other benefits: "It (the new organisation) might serve as a good think-tank, a collective pooling of ideas.

"The problems we have, like manpower and marketing, are not significantly different to those of the swimming club and rowing club, for example. In that sense, we're in a much better position than we were three years ago and we might be able to use our experience to help them."

The ball is now in the clubs' court, so to speak, with those interested in forming part of the management committee invited to contact the Council.

In the interim, applications for sports grants should be sent to the Council's Leisure Services Division.

June 20, 2002 16:30