Shortly after the Chancellor of the Exchequer concluded his Parliamentary statement on the Public Spending Review, a letter was received from Jonathan Hughes, Head of Sport, Department for Culture, Media and Sport as follows:
“2010 SPENDING REVIEW
“I write [...] to confirm that the Department’s grant to the English Chess Federation will cease from 31st March 2011.
“I appreciate that this is difficult news for you and the organisation but, unfortunately, the Department has had to make a number of difficult choices in order to meet our contribution to the Government’s plan for fiscal consolidation over the next four years. One of these choices has been drastically to reduce DCMS’ central programme budget, out of which your current annual £45,000 grant is paid.
“We have taken this decision in order to maximise funding for our Non-Departmental Public Bodies and limit the impact on their programmes, whether this funding for Olympic and Paralympic sports in the run-up to London 2012, or funding for grassroots sport, for example.â€
Its disappointment at the loss of the grant notwithstanding, the ECF should like record its appreciation for the Department’s support for English chess over many years and for the considerate way in which the DCMS has handled the withdrawal of its funding. This has helped the Board to manage the transition so as to minimise the adverse effect upon English chess.
- Andrew Farthing, Chief Executive
Loss of Government Funding
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Loss of Government Funding
As expected, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport has confirmed that its grant to the ECF will cease after the current financial year. I posted the following statement on the ECF website:
Re: Loss of Government Funding
On the whole I think the Federation has done remarkably well to retain the Grant for as long as it has.
Those words appeared in a memorandum to me from Bryan Fewell, at the time the Chairman of the Finance Committee, dated 16 September 1994.Events have moved on since we started work in this area. In particular there seems little doubt now that the Grant is on the way out though it is anyone's guess whether it would go totally in one year or perhaps more likely be phased out over, say, a 3 year period
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Re: Loss of Government Funding
Obviously, this is very bad news, however predictable. But no topic is safe from satire.
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Re: Loss of Government Funding
It's all well and good selling inactive Grandmasters, but only if someone the other end wants to buy them.Phil Makepeace wrote:Obviously, this is very bad news, however predictable. But no topic is safe from satire.
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Re: Loss of Government Funding
Liechtenstein has the highest GDP per capita in the world and 10 FIDE rated players. There's your answer.
- Christopher Kreuzer
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Re: Loss of Government Funding
This subject is also covered in Malcolm Pein's editorial in the November 2010 issue of CHESS.
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Re: Loss of Government Funding
Reviving this old thread, the same has now applied in Scotland.
http://www.chessscotland.com/news/?p=1986
http://www.chessscotland.com/news/?p=1986
- Peter D Williams
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Re: Loss of Government Funding
Afternoon All its a lovely day.
Members on here should write to the local M>P over the loss of funding for chess and should the ECF attempt anther lobby of parliament to get chess recognized as a sport?
Well i am off to plant some rock rose seeds.
Members on here should write to the local M>P over the loss of funding for chess and should the ECF attempt anther lobby of parliament to get chess recognized as a sport?
Well i am off to plant some rock rose seeds.
when you are successful many losers bark at you.