A locally based charity which promotes participation of watersports on the North Wales coast and climbing down the Conwy Valley has been recognised for its outstanding achievements by the National Lottery.

The Outdoor Partnership which has links to the Surf Lifesaving Club in Colwyn Bay has been awarded a grant of nearly £3 million to replicate the success it has at driving uptake of outdoor sports in Wales to other parts of the UK.

For many years, the organisation has had much success at supporting communities across North and Mid Wales where job prospects are limited, providing opportunities to learn new skills through volunteering and improving the prospects and prosperity of many individuals who have come in contact with their work. Colwyn Bay Watersports is just one of the local organisations to benefit from their support.

As a result of this work, the National Lottery has awarded the Capel Curig based organisation a record award to take their award winning formula to other communities suffering similar challenges to those in our locality.

The charity said that over the past 12 years it had served more than 120,000 people, invested £700,000 to train 4,500 volunteers and supported more than 500 unemployed people into regular employment.