Northern Athletics Survey

In early 2014, Northern Athletics (NA) faced a situation whereby financial reserves would run out within 2 to 3 years and asked athletes, coaches and volunteers to complete a survey, to establish the level of support and the key priorities for NA (from those responding to the survey) to be identified.

Thanks to the responses we received (1642 in total) there was an overwhelming majority (97.7%) wanting NA to continue to provide competition beyond 2015 and 89.6% saying they would be willing to contribute £3 each year to secure the future of NA.

Thanks for the support shown in the 2014 survey, due to that we have been able to secure some grant funding from England Athletics (EA) from 2014 through to 2016, During those years NA also focused on reducing costs where possible, with the result that in 2016/17 we are looking to break even although we are still reliant on the EA grant and the Start Fitness sponsorship.

We now need to ask for your support again. Why? There is a likelihood of a reduction in the grant provided by Sport England to EA next year and as a result EA are indicating to us that they can only commit at present to a six month grant for 2017/18 to the areas.

During the years since the first survey, we have done our best to persuade EA that a fixed proportion of the athlete registration fee should be ring-fenced and used to fund the grassroots competition & development of our sport. We used the 2014 survey figure of £3, in our discussions, but our representations have been unsuccessful.

We now need to get further information from you to enable us to argue on behalf of the grassroots of the sport – the clubs, athletes, coaches, volunteers and officials – to make our sport successful and sustainable long term. This survey will be duplicated this time by the Midlands Counties AA and the South of England AA.
Remember we are not seeking Sport England or Treasury funding, we simply believe that some of the money that is generated by the athletes in the sport, should go to the grass roots of the sport.

Please help us by completing the survey; adding any comments you wish to those questions where the facility exists.