Sports clubs being helped enjoy post-pandemic activities
Swansea Council is to give further help to local sports clubs that play on council-owned pitches.
The council helped them in Covid's immediate aftermath with assistance worth around £140,000 - much of it by waiving hire fees for grass pitches.
Now, with most pandemic restrictions gone across Wales, the council aims to give more help by extending its free-use offer for the remainder of 2022, and offering a significantly discounted rate at the start of the new year.
The offer will extend to all the council's main pitches, those self-managed and grass pitches at sites managed by partner not-for-profit trust Freedom Leisure.
This will mean no hire fees until January 2023, half-fees until the end of March 2023 then a return to full fees that help maintain the council's 65 sports pitches that host football, rugby and cricket across the city.
Further assistance will be reintroduced to sport clubs that lease council-owned grounds.
Council cabinet member Robert Francis-Davies said: "Swansea is a city of sport and our local clubs are important to our communities. We want to help them flourish as we move away from the two very difficult years of pandemic."
Giovanni Cambule, secretary of the DW Harris Swansea Senior League, said: "The gradual re-introduction of fees for 2022-23 will provide additional relief as we all face up to the challenges ahead."
Karen Trussler, chairperson of the Swansea Junior Football League, said: "The decision on pitch fees will allow clubs the opportunity to recover financially after a difficult few years."
Nic Beggs, area manager for Freedom Leisure, said: "It's great to see the council recognising the need to support clubs and sport across the city."
Swansea's sports pitch assistance has been offered through the council's Covid economic recovery fund.