Priti Patel MP with from left: Azeem Akhtar, Chair of Active Essex, Cllr Angela Kilmartin, Chair of Braintree DC, Mark Sansom of Community Iron (lead provider) and Cllr Louise McKinlay, Essex CC Cabinet Member for Children & Families, during her tour of the Summer Activity Club at Witham Leisure Centre Sports Ground
Witham MP drops in on Summer Activity Club
Priti Patel, the Witham MP, has today (28th August 2020) dropped in on the Summer holiday activity Club being held at Witham Sports Ground on Spinks Lane, Witham. Priti was given a tour of the facilities by Cllr Louise McKinlay, Essex County Council Cabinet Member for Children and Families and met some of the young people attending the Club as well as the coaching staff from Active Essex, Braintree Community Iron and volunteers from Eastlight Community Homes.
The Summer Holiday Activity Clubs programme is one of the first of its kind in the country and is the result of a partnership between Essex County Council and Active Essex working with sport and physical activity providers to offer some 22,850 holiday activity sessions throughout the school summer holidays. The clubs were available for working parents for up to two weeks per child and provided safe spaces for indoor and outdoor play with social activity, while respecting the Government guidelines relating to Covid-19.
Priti Patel, commenting after her visit said: “It was very heartening to see children engaged in play activity and thoroughly enjoying themselves. This is so important after such a long lockdown period. The Summer Activity Clubs programme is an excellent initiative and it is very pleasing to see Essex County Council and key physical activity related organisations coming together to deliver this kind of much needed support for children and their parents, at what has been a very difficult time for many families. These clubs will also help children to be ready for returning to school in September.”
Cllr Louise McKinlay said: “I was very pleased to show Priti our Summer Activity Club in her Witham constituency and we greatly appreciate her support. The programme has been very successful in encouraging children to be active and try new things but also in signposting them towards a range of activities and places to go to across Essex. To assist with this, we launched a Facebook page and worked closely with Visit Essex and Visit England to highlight the many hidden gems that we have in our County. Being able to provide this kind of support for hard working families struggling to manage working from home and home-schooling their children, since the start of lockdown, has been particular pleasing.”
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