£16M Lottery boost for Scotland's sports facilities

Thursday 4 October 2001

sportscotland today announced significant changes to its Lottery funded Sports Facilities Programme, to help facility providers and operators address the growing funding challenge around provision, refurbishment and replacement of Scotland's sports facilities.

Following a review of lottery fund financial resources, £16M has been identified that will be reallocated to increase the overall sports facilities programme between now and March 2003. Furthermore the maximum award and maximum percentage that can be offered to individual projects has been increased across five of the programme's seven strands. These changes will enable sportscotland to support suitable projects to a greater degree than previously possible.

By 2003 local communities are set to benefit from the injection of £12M for facilities for sports clubs and voluntary groups and much needed funding to kick start the upgrading of Scotland's deteriorating stock of swimming pools.  

In addition the Scottish Football Academy strand will benefit from an additional £2M, and spending on national and regional level facilities will each increase by  £4M all over the next three years.

Commenting on the announcement, sportscotland Chairman Alastair Dempster said: "The present and future stock of sports facilities is crucial to maintaining and developing sport in Scotland. Yet our experience demonstrates that the current award maxima are too restrictive for a significant number of applications for worthwhile and viable projects. Consequently sportscotland has adjusted its policies for the sports facilities programme to make them more effective at a time when local authorities have decreasing budgets for their own sports facilities."

Although this reallocated money provides a much needed bolster to the total programme budget, it does not take it as high as the initial Capital Programme budget during the first three years of operation of the Lottery Sports Fund.