A document detailing how Birmingham City Council plans to maximise the ‘Proud Host City’ status for the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games has been published.
Delivering a ‘Bold Legacy’ for Birmingham is the council’s legacy plan for the event, with the stated aim of being ‘a legacy shaped by our people’.
It details how the games can help respond to the main challenges the city already faces, which in itself was a key driver for the council spearheading the successful bid for the right to host the event in 2017.
The plan is built around the games accelerating the council response to the challenges facing the city and the aspirations of residents, outlined as follows:
1. The games can enable a THRIVING city, creating opportunities accessible to all.
2. The games can open up opportunities to which the younger population can ASPIRE to achieve.
3. Games initiatives and facilities will support the development of a HEALTHY society, both physically and mentally.
4. Hosting the games creates a platform for a more WELCOMING, diverse place to live and invest.
5. The games can and will accelerate the authority’s GREEN GROWTH plans to grow Birmingham in a sustainable and resilient way.
The response to each challenge is supported and underpinned by a range of short-term programmes, covering the period up to, and including, the Commonwealth Games.
Medium-term goals include up to one year after the games, with long-term aspirations being two plus years after the tournament.
Each challenge also has a flagship project as follows:
- A thriving city: Strengthen the capability of the city to attract world-class major sporting and other events to Birmingham (underpinned by new infrastructure, competitive operational plans and the recently launched Major Sporting Events Strategy 2022-2032).
- An aspirational city: Deliver an ongoing schools learning programme to enhance knowledge of the heritage and history of the Commonwealth.
- A healthy city: Launch a new Sport Strategy linking health and wellbeing approaches to a broader sporting agenda, developing sporting pathways and making best use of assets.
- A welcoming city: Working with key partners, develop a viable and sustainable annual cultural event in 2023 called the Birmingham International Festival, bringing local people and visitors to the city to celebrate the best there is from the local area.
- A green growth city: Secure the long-term regeneration of Perry Barr, delivering new homes, jobs and infrastructure as part of this key sustainable growth area, through the Perry Barr 2040 Masterplan (supported by technology and data).
Leader of Birmingham City Council, Councillor Ian Ward, presented copies of the Delivering a Bold Legacy for Birmingham document to members of the Commonwealth Games Federation’s Coordination Commission earlier this week.
The commission were inspecting progress on preparations for next summer and included a site visit to the redeveloped Alexander Stadium, which will be the main venue for the games.
Commenting, Councillor Ward said:
“When securing the Commonwealth Games for Birmingham, we were seizing an opportunity to secure unprecedented levels of investment into the city and the chance to project the city’s bold ambitions on an international stage.
“We have a golden decade of opportunity in front of us. Underpinning all of this was a need to ensure the benefits of hosting 11 days of world-class sport and a six-month cultural programme extended well beyond that duration, with a positive impact for everyone in Birmingham, not just the venues and areas hosting events.
“This legacy plan outlines how we intend to boost investment into Birmingham through green growth, engage people of all ages and backgrounds with the games, develop programmes to improve health and wellbeing, as well as bringing our communities together.
“We will show what it means to be a Proud Host City and through this plan show how we will be Bold for Birmingham and its people.”
A wide range of metrics will be used to monitor progress on tackling the challenges in the months and years to come and these are outlined in detail within the legacy plan, which itself complements a cross-partner plan published earlier this year.
Chief Executive of Birmingham City Council, Deborah Cadman added:
“Delivering a Bold Legacy for Birmingham is more than just the title of a document. It is exactly what is driving everything we have been doing in preparation for the Commonwealth Games.
“As the plan says, we need to ensure the benefits of hosting Birmingham 2022 are felt in every ward, neighbourhood and street of the city. Levelling up is one of the phrases of the moment, but we are showing how Birmingham City Council is delivering this in a practical and meaningful way.
“And in the future, we will be a stronger organisation because our preparation for the games is influencing the way in which we are managing major projects and transforming our business, essential if we are to continuing playing our part in making the city a great place to live, visit and do business in.”
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