TWO sports projects in the North-East will get a share of hundreds of thousands of pounds of National Lottery funding.

The money comes as Sport England relaxed the rules for its Community Sport Activation Fund to enable less well-off communities to apply for cash.

The Seaham Harbour Activity Centre has received £149,532 for a new programme to give residents of east Durham the incentive to take up more sports, including canoeing, wet/dry rowing, angling, sailing, cycling, running, triathlon and orienteering.

As part of the programme, the Seaham Harbour Activity Centre will run festivals, taster days and short-programmes.

Re-activate Redcar and Cleveland run by Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council has been awarded £164,253 to help get unfit residents back on the road to fitness. Concentrating on the six most disadvantaged wards in Redcar and Cleveland, it will focus on creating a behavioural change towards becoming more active, by making sport more accessible and fun.

Sport England’s director of community sport, Mike Diaper, said: “There are many reasons why a person may remain inactive, such as lack of confidence or worries about cost.

“Each one of these projects will offer targeted help to people who live challenging lives, so that they can get active and become involved in their community.

The Community Sport Activation Fund (CSAF) is a £47.5m National Lottery funding programme supporting grassroots activity at a very local level – with over 70 per cent of all projects being new start-ups.

Since 2013, 17 projects in the North-East have already received funding, helping to get over 22,000 local people active.