The Victoria Park Experience (VPX) has received theinnovation award at the Cheshire and Warrington Sports Partnership Awards.
The free event, which took place in Victoria Park in Latchford, throughout the summer holiday, was run primarily by PCSO Tom Reid and PCSO Tony Spruce, of Warrington South NPU , in partnership with a number of other agencies including Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service, Warrington Borough Council and the Neighbourhood Action Team.
VPX was designed to engage young people in Warrington in sport and physical activity, increase their involvement with the local community and reduce anti-social behaviour.
The project started off as an existing event for BMX, skateboarding and in line skating. Realising that the event could involve a lot more young people, police and partners came together to plan a bigger and more wide ranging event in 2010. Around 1,300 children and young people took part in the four events.
Partnering traditional sports alongside alternative sports seemed to stimulate a great response from the young people that took part. Inspector Gary McIntyre, of Warrington South NPU , said:
I am extremely proud of all the effort that Tom and Tony have put into this event. This is a great example of community engagement and Tony and Tom have put a lot of hard work into VPX to ensure that it continues to be a great success and to ensure that as many people as possible within the local community benefit from it.
– Inspector Gary McIntyre, Warrington South Neighbourhood Policing Unit
