ABSTRACT
The opening sentence in Dick Jeeps’ Foreword summarizes the position Britain found itself in as the seventies gave way to the eighties. It could, therefore, be construed that all was well and that matters were proceeding smoothly on course but regrettably this was certainly not the position. Despite the very considerable progress in the provision of local facilities the inner cities and the rural areas gave cause for concern whilst some sections of society had as yet barely felt the impact of the Sport for All campaign. The spectre of unemployment on a level not seen since the early thirties marred the scene and continued to do so to an increasing extent with the arrival of the mid-eighties. Tragic and disturbing as this was the fact that school-leavers in increasing numbers found themselves unable to gain employment posed an even greater question mark over the future. With early predictions that unemployment might well rise nearer four million, proved to be painfully too accurate, the part sport, physical recreation and leisure opportunity generally could play in assisting to some degree in helping to alleviate the sheer numbing effect of unemployment became a major topic and issue. For those in work, and of course this was the majority, expenditure on sport and recreation continued unabated, but the financial restrictions imposed by government on local authorities presented their own unique problems in the opening up and running of public facilities. Whereas in the late sixties and seventies the emphasis had been on the capital costs of building now the emphasis was on the recurrent costs of managing and promoting such facilities. It would be wrong to over-emphasize these issues, real as they were, as the policies of earlier years were still pursued by local government as far as they were able and expenditure on sport and recreation continued to grow. Between 1978/79 and 1980/81 the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy
(CIPFA) reported that net expenditure on leisure and recreation, both capital and current, by local authorities in England and Wales had increased from £452.5m to £633.71m which represented an increase of 40 per cent overall at prevailing current prices.1 ‘In the case of expenditure on swimming pools a 30 per cent increase was reported whilst indoor leisure and sports centre expenditure had increased by 44 per cent. In outdoor sports the increase was not so marked at 26 per cent but overall the increase was considerable and was reflected equally for more passive activities such as visiting art galleries, museums and theatres.2
