Marathon Trust reveals quartet of winners to share £100,000 funding

The London Marathon Charitable Trust has announced the four winning sites which will receive grants of £25,000 as part of its first national funding initiative, Active Spaces.

The quartet includes a winner in each home nation – Halewood Park (England), Ballymena People's Park (Northern Ireland), West Pilton Park (Scotland) and Gelligaled Park (Wales).

Winning sites were chosen based on the ability to deliver the most significant impact in line with the Active Spaces programme vision – to safeguard green spaces and engage more inactive people in physical activity.

This year's winning programmes included projects to create walking trails, outdoor gyms, and bike tracks.

Delivered in partnership with the Fields in Trust charity, Active Spaces is an ongoing programme to secure 50 new Fields in Trust protected sites across the UK and deliver improved park facilities and infrastructure.

The Trust has allocated a total of £684,550 to the overall Active Spaces programme, which was announced in 2017 and will be delivered over several years.

Sarah Ridley, chief grants officer for The London Marathon Charitable Trust, said: “Each of the four winners has demonstrated remarkable potential to transform physical activity opportunities for its local community and visitors.

"We look forward to seeing these projects deliver more such opportunities well into the future.”