Medway Park Visit By Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport.

Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport, Jeremy Hunt, visited Medway Park this afternoon as part of a nationwide '2012 tour'.

He was joined by LOCOG Chair, Sebastian Coe, at a Schools Games summit and declared this initiative would hopefully create a sporting legacy, as they seek to get more children playing sport, not just in 2012 but in the years that follow. Over 10,000 schools have so far signed up to the scheme and more are urged to apply before the January deadline.

This was the latest in a series of events hosted by Mr Hunt to help all parts of the country make the most of the tourism, cultural and business opportunities centred around the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Kent companies have already won significant contracts related to the games and they are a great opportunity for tourism to be in the spotlight, with events like the Torch relay travelling through Medway showing the world our natural landscape and heritage sites.

Medway Park is a centre of sporting excellence for the South East region. The elite-standard facilities, coupled with the on-site sports science and sports therapy centre, creates an ideal environment for training and competitions. The specialist facilities include a dedicated judo centre, the internationally-renowned Jumpers rebound centre and an IAAF-accredited eight-lane athletics track. Medway Park also boasts a 12-court multi-use sports hall capable of hosting tournaments and training camps for sports including badminton, basketball, judo and volleyball. The centre has been designed to be inclusive for disability sport. This includes the provision of dedicated wheelchair team changing rooms.