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Lottery funding brings dream closer to reality

Friday 30 June 2000

A twenty year long dream by residents of Edinburgh’s Southside and Old Town to build a local sports centre is one step closer to realisation today with the announcement of a half million pound cash injection from sportscotland Lottery Fund.

A brand new sports centre, costing over £1.2m, will be built with the help of the maximum award possible under sportscotland Lottery Fund’s new Sports Facilities Programme.

The Centre will be situated next to an existing five-a-side pitch which is due to be resurfaced and re-fenced and will provide the communities of Southside and the Old Town, including nearby Dumbiedykes and Prestonfield, with quality facilities comprising a large, four-court sports hall and a fitness room.

Youngsters in the area will be major beneficiaries as the planned centre will be extensively used by the three local primary and two secondary schools, which all lack sports halls.  Rates of unemployment in the area are higher than the City average and special pricing structures will exist to help those not working or on low incomes.

Keith Smith, Chair of the Southside & Old Town Sports Centre Association which is behind the project, comments: "This announcement of Lottery support provides a real step forward for the communities of the Southside and Old Town who have campaigned for many years for a much-needed sports centre for the area."

Alastair Dempster, Chairman of sportscotland, added:  “sportscotland has a commitment to help bring the benefits of sport into the lives of every person in Scotland and we are delighted to respond to the vision of the local community which has worked so hard to put this project together.

“Sport has a key role to play in communities, particularly among young people, helping them to build social skills and providing positive alternatives in life.  Facilities such as these help to create incentives for more people to get active and, in the longer term, play a major part in creating a healthier Scotland.”

  • Southfield and Prestonfield are areas in Edinburgh’s Strategic Programme Social Inclusion Partnership (SIP) - a regeneration initiative aimed at tackling social exclusion among disadvantaged groups.  The Southside Leisure Centre will be the first project within a SIP area to receive Lottery Funding through the sportscotland Lottery Fund’s new Sports Facilities Programme.
  • This award brings the total awarded to projects in the Edinburgh area to over £9m. These include: £950,000 to construct the Scottish National Indoor Climbing Centre at Ratho; £291,375 for a new synthetic pitch at Currie High School for use by the school and the local community; and £428,000 to construct a new leisure centre with swimming pool at Dumbrae, Corstorphine.
  • The total amount of Lottery money invested in Scottish sport to date now totals over £100m.  Over £86m has been directed towards providing better sports facilities across all parts of Scotland, generating over £250m of new investment through partnership funding.