The London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics inspired our community. We saw the power of sport – to bring people together, keep them healthy and active, reaching for their goals. 

Winchester is one of the most active areas of the UK. But our public sports facilities are really limited. We need facilities that offer everyone a chance to take part in sport, whether for fun, fitness, training or competition.

So we set ourselves 2012 hours to make a difference, to secure the future of sport in Winchester – and build our Olympic legacy! Between midnight on 27th July 2014 – the two-year anniversary of the London 2012 opening ceremony – and 8pm on 19th October 2014, we aimed to raise awareness of the issues as well as a significant community contribution to the funds needed to build Winchester's new sports facilities. 

The goal was to ensure the right facilities are built in the right place, and in the right way – involving our community.

Our research indicates that these indoor facilities would meet the needs of our area, now and in the future:

• A 50m community pool that can be divided into different sections and varied in depth – swimming is by far the most popular activity here!
• A gymnastics and trampolining facility – hundreds of local children enjoy these sports but there are no facilities in Winchester
• A large sportshall – we're desperately short of indoor courts for netball, basketball and other sports
• An indoor athletics training area and spectator seating for our athletics track

Volunteers from our community have ideas about how these facilities might work and where. They're concepts, not blueprints – but they show what's possible if we work together.

If we don't manage to secure these facilities, or if our funds aren't needed to build them, we'll invest the money we raise in other community sport and recreational projects – and we'll ask you to help us prioritise them.

The 2012 hours website itself has now been archived, but if you'd like to take a look you can find it at http://2012hours.weebly.com.