AN Okehampton man is urging residents in West Devon to support a campaign which would improve funding for sports at grassroots level, in the wake of the fantastic success of Team GB at London 2012.

Dave Rickwood, of Okehampton Otters Swimming Club, has started an on-line petition to the Government, calling on it to change tax rules so that sports clubs can claim gift aid.

Currently, it is not possible to gift aid subscriptions made to grassroots sport; conversely a subscription to a charity such as the Scout Association can be.

Dave said: 'Sports clubs cannot typically register as a charity with the Inland Revenue, but can as a Community Amateur Sports Club (CASC). However, once registered as a CASC, membership subscriptions are expressly excluded from gift aid. Regrettably, the contrived tax rules make it very difficult for most grassroots sports clubs to claim any gift aid at all.

'This e-petiton makes the simple suggestion that subscriptions to grassroots sports clubs registered as CASC with the Inland Revenue should be eligible for gift aid.

'Delivery of this egalitarian measure in the year of the London Olympics would be a great way to celebrate grassroots sport and to create a truly lasting legacy for all.

'It seems to me with the momentum built up by the Olympics, now is the time to really have a go at this — potentially it could mean a huge amount for sports clubs.'

Stuart Lord, of OCRA, said: 'The pressures on sports clubs are increasing all the time, with the level of qualifications needed and high standards required to work with young people, so financial problems are always there.

'We all want to see as many people as possible participating in sport and anything that can help clubs financially has to be good.

'Ultimately, all sports clubs can be quite fragile, they can often be very dependent on just a few people running them and driving them forward, and funding is getting harder and harder to secure in the current financial climate.

'We want to increase participation but not increase fees — with the Olympic momentum and the buzz around sport at the moment, I hope the petition will get the number of signatories it needs so at least the idea can be debated.'

Central Devon MP Mel Stride said: 'Dave Rickwood has raised some very important issues here and I would like to meet up with him to discuss these further. 

'Certainly we need to capitalise on the tremendous performance of Team GB in the Olympics and to make sure that we use this to drive forward greater participation in sport particularly amongst our young people.'

The petition will need at least 100,000 signatures to stand a chance of being debated in the Commons. It can be found at http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/36239">http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/36239