Two long established Northumberland based leisure charities, Blyth Valley Arts and Leisure (BVAL) and North Country Leisure (NCL), have been working in partnership for several years to improve services and are now developing their partnership more formally. 

A new joint charity, Active Northumberland is being set up between both organisations to manage and develop leisure services in North, West and South East Northumberland on behalf of Northumberland County Council.

 The new charity will run large and well-known leisure sites such as Concordia and the Sporting Club in Cramlington, Willowburn in Alnwick, Waterworld at Prudhoe, Blyth Sports Centre, and Wentworth Leisure Centre in Hexham, as well as some more specialist sites such as the Beach Huts at Blyth, the Tyne Riverside Country Park building in Prudhoe, Rothbury Pool and Gym and the Pegasus Riding Centre near Morpeth, all currently run by either NCL or BVAL. Leisure facilities at several school sites in Blyth, Cramlington and Prudhoe are also managed for community use as well as Sports Development services across the county, encouraging communities to develop activities and providing sports coaching in areas where access to services is more difficult.

 The new charitable company will be owned 50:50 by the two existing charities who will continue to deliver the services on the ground.   NCL and BVAL's Chief Executives, John Maude and Bruce Ledger, will continue in their respective roles with centres and services operating with the same staff, values and approach.  The joint venture will allow for savings through shared services and customers will benefit from combined memberships across all sites, facility improvements and new activity programmes.  From 1st April 2013 the name and branding for the new organisation will be phased in across printed materials, along with the introduction of a new look website and 'Active Northumberland Leisure Card', which can be used across all centres managed by Active Northumberland.

 A strong ethos shared by both BVAL and NCL is for local services to be managed by local people and this will continue with the new charity as an independent board of local representatives will manage Active Northumberland.  The board will be led by the newly appointed Chair, Roger Tames best known as sports presenter, commentator and former Head of Sport at Tyne Tees Television, with more than 35 years involvement with sport in the North East.

 "I'm delighted to be involved at the start of such an ambitious venture," said Roger who was a member of the former North East Sports Board and still works as a freelance broadcaster with his own production company Box to Box Media. 

"I've been fortunate enough to spend my working life covering elite sport but at a personal level I've always been very much a grass roots sportsman. I know many of Northumberland's leisure facilities from personal experience."

 With total annual attendances of over 2.2 million, the new charity will play a major role in providing quality leisure services in Northumberland and the North East, continuing to work very hard to make sure services are accessible to the whole community.

Photograph: Left to right: John Maude, Chief Executive NCL, Roger Tames, Active Northumberland Board Chair, Bruce Ledger, Chief Executive BVAL