A MAJOR cycling event and specialist facilities for cycling could be coming to East Lancashire in preparation for the 2012 London Olympics.

Lancashire Sport Partnership launched its Sport and Physical Activity Strategy to ready the county for the event at Ewood Park in Blackburn yesterday.

It wants to increase participation in sport by creating new, high profile, world class sports facilities.

Plans also include the development of a second cricket ground in Lancashire, which would have the standard and capacity to host county-level matches.

A new 50m swimming pool and potentially a new dive centre could also be created to serve the needs of Lancashire and Cumbria.

The campaign is backed by Olympic cycling medallist Steven Burke, from Colne, Paralympian athlete Shelly Woods, from Blackpool, and Olympic swimming hopeful Daniel Sliwinski, from Penwortham.

Adrian Leather, chief executive of Lancashire Sports Partnership, said: “With less than 1,000 days to go until the 2012 Olympic Games this is an exciting time to officially launch our vision for improving services and establishing major new facilities in Lancashire.

"It’s all about helping people, and Lancashire as a whole, reach their full potential through sport and physical activity.

“I’m confident our strategy will go a long way towards creating a lasting legacy for sport in Lancashire.”

The partnership's aims include matching or exceeding the national average of adults, and people from ethnic minorities, participating in at least 30 minutes of sport or active recreation, three times a week and the national average of people with a disability participating in sport and physical activity and decreasing the number of people doing no sport or physical activity.

It hopes to reduce the number of 14 to 19-year-olds who withdraw from sport, help 500 more clubs to achieve national accreditation, with at least 1,000 coaches achieving or working towards minimum standards for coaching, and to increase the number of adults volunteering in sport across Lancashire.