A council has decided to drop the ball and will no longer organise school sporting competitions. 

Rutland County Council said in a statement that it 'cannot continue to subsidise the current schools' programme' and is asking one of the county's schools to pick up the baton. 

The Rutland School Games, which is funded by Sport England and involves competitive Boccia, tennis, hockey and athletics, could be affected and the current School Sports Partnership, which is taken part in by 11 Rutland schools, will be changed. 

Currently the authority, which is predicting an overspend of £1.6m this financial year, contributes about £35,000 towards running the competitive sports programmes.  

Headteachers are angry the authority has only informed schools of the change, after the academic year had started, with Catmose College principal Stuart Williams, calling the situation 'unacceptable.' At the school's forum meeting last week it was not clear the authority was pulling out of the scheme, but it confirmed what had been suspected, yesterday. 

In its statement the council says: "Currently, school sport in Rutland is coordinated through a schools games organiser (SGO) which is part-funded by a Sport England grant and delivered by Rutland County Council. Some schools also subscribe to a schools sports partnership (SSP), which includes several schools outside Rutland. The council cannot continue to subsidise the current schools' sports programme but is eager to collaborate with schools to develop a sustainable and inclusive model for school sports in Rutland.  

"A time-limited working group of school representatives, council officers, and Active Together Leicestershire will be convened to ensure that the new model builds on best practices and meets the needs of all children and young people in the county. 

"The council has written to schools inviting them to submit expressions of interest to Sport England to take on the role of host for the coordination of both the SGO and SSP." 

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There may be a gap in sports competitions between Rutland schools while the new model is developed, and if no school decides to take on the organisation there is the possibility that the competitions could stop altogether.