Councillor Jason Hughes and Councillor Mark Spencer were scheduled to attend the Delegated Decisions - Cabinet Member for Communities and Sport meeting on 3 October 2025, where they were expected to discuss a proposal for Newport City Council to enter into a formal partnership for sport development in the Gwent region. The council was also expected to consider acting as the host authority for the new Gwent Sports Partnership.

Active Gwent Sports Partnership

The main item for discussion was the Active Gwent Sports Partnership, a proposed collaboration between Newport City Council, Sport Wales, and the other four local authorities in the Gwent region.

The aim of the partnership is to provide strategic focus and oversight to sports development in the region, aligning with the national Vision for Sport in Wales, which aims to transform Wales into an Active Nation. The partnership would also administer all pooled Sport Wales funding currently directed to individual local authorities and partners.

The report pack noted that Sport Wales requires the new strategic entity to include representation from a wide array of stakeholders alongside the local authority members, to ensure alignment with other national priorities and ensure the strategic board has the required skillsets, diversity and competencies to deliver a coherent and equitable strategy for the region.

The optimum format of the Gwent Sport Partnership has been a focus for discussion across Local Authorities, Leisure Trusts and other partners; the preferred approach is to develop a hosted model to progress the development of a Sport Partnership in the Gwent region. The host authority will be required to staff the partnership, provide secretariat functions and accounting services in relation to financial resources held for distribution, along with other key tasks.

Newport City Council was considered a suitable host authority due to its central location, status as the only city authority in Gwent, experience in administrating host arrangements, and the active role of Newport Live across the Gwent region.

The report pack outlined three principal agreements that would set out the legal framework required by the emerging partnership:

• A Collaboration Agreement setting out how the Active Gwent Board will be developed and operate.
• An Active Gwent Strategy articulating the vision, strategy and business case for the Active Gwent Partnership, and its key aims and objectives for the initial five year period.
• A Funding and Investment Plan establishing key responsibilities in the funding requirements between Sport Wales and the host authority.

The report pack also detailed the financial implications of the partnership, noting that Sport Wales would provide an administrative fee of £220,000 per year to cover the full costs to the host authority. It was also noted that an estimated £2,269,565 would be dispersed by Newport City Council through 2025/26.

A Fairness and Equality Impact Assessment¹ was undertaken on the proposal, considering the council's responsibilities under the Equality Act 2010², the Wellbeing of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015³, and the Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011⁴.