Agenda item

The Committee received a presentation from Carly Dixon, Secretary and Children’s Coach, and Luke Preston, Head Coach, of Camberley Judo Club.

Camberley Judo Club was a registered charity, based on the Old Dean and was a unique club which had programmes aimed at children through to seniors and elite athletes competing at international level. Since the summer of 2021 Camberley Judo Club had doubled its participation numbers for children’s Judo; providing 11 classes per week for those aged 3-18 years old. Furthermore approximately 100 students benefited from Judo classes as part of a programme that the Judo Club delivered to primary schools across the borough. In contrast Camberley Judo Club also had a full time high performance elite judo training centre on-site which had produced Commonwealth Games champions, olympic medalists; and 14 Team Great Britain and Northern Ireland olympians since the club was founded.

In the past the Judo Club had received funding from the Council in order to build the on-site conditioning gym which the club match funded, via the Councils Community Fund Grant Scheme. During lockdown funds were received from Sport England and Surrey County Council Members’ Community Allocation.

Recently the Judo Club had participated in the running of the Holiday, Activity and Food (HAF), school holiday camps through Active Surrey. The Club had also provided Judo lessons as part of the Community Sports Referral Pathway for Young Offenders programme and had previously provided free judo lessons to local children on the Old Dean during half term holidays.

Looking to the future, the club was aspiring to improve its current facilities, with a view to one day finding funding for a new facility. The Club was also looking to grow its membership and the first training centre to receive judo accreditation ahead of the upcoming Commonwealth games to be held in Birmingham.

Resulting from Members’ questions and comments the following points were noted:

·         Members felt that it couldn’t be underestimated as to the confidence and the boost to wellbeing that the club’s judo programme gave to the participating children.

·         Due to the Judo club’s outreach activities and work to promote an active lifestyle amongst kids, it would most probably be successful in a grant application to the recently established Community Foundation for Surrey grant scheme. Furthermore it was felt there was a natural synergy between the Council and the club due to the recent establishment of the Council’s Obesity Strategy.

·         There were a lot of schools within Surrey Heath which were already clients of Judo businesses; and as a result Camberley Judo Club had to also branch out to outside of the borough to conduct classes in schools.

It was echoed throughout the Committee that if the club had a specific project forthcoming, it would welcome a Community Fund Grant application from the Judo Club. The Committee thanked Carly and Luke for their excellent presentation and for attending.