Cash boost takes funding for sports facilities over £100M mark
Tuesday 17 April 2001
Communities throughout Scotland are celebrating Easter in style this week with the news that sportscotland’s latest round of Lottery funding has helped create a £100m nest egg for Scottish Sport.
"...our investment is providing more opportunities for people to become physically active."
An additional £2.3m to be invested in school and community sports facilities means that sportscotland has now committed over £100m towards the provision of quality, accessible sports facilities, generating a massive £296m of new investment to help get more people more active, more often.
Among the organisations benefiting from the latest £2.3m injection of funding are:
- Bathgate Academy, West Lothian, whose £1/2m award will help to construct a six court sports hall which will also provide regional level facilities for training and competition in sports such as basketball, hockey, table tennis, badminton and cricket.
- Highland Council which will use its £1/2m award to provide a new Leisure Centre for Kingussie on the site of the old fire damaged Kingussie Village Hall. Used by the local community as well as Kingussie High School and local primary schools, the facility will consist of a main hall catering for 5-a-side football, volleyball and badminton and a separate fitness room.
- £50,000 to help convert a temporary portacabin into a permanent facility incorporating full access for people with a disability, near Aviemore. The new facility will complete the creation by the Uphill Ski Club of ‘The Cairngorm Project’ - Britain’s first permanent ski school for people with disabilities.
- Hermitage Academy in Helensburgh, the largest secondary school in Argyll and Bute, which will use an award of over £350,000 to create a new synthetic grass playing field, changing facilities and an extended grass rugby pitch.
Chief Executive of sportscotland, Ian Robson, commented: "From providing the best training and competition facilities to help develop our elite athletes in sports including hockey, rowing, golf and swimming, to helping ensure that our young people have access to quality sports facilities at school, to simply providing a new tennis court or swimming pool for a rural community, our investment is providing more opportunities for people to become physically active.
"Our current policy of targeting the school environment as a priority will help to ensure that while our young people are introduced to sport in the best possible environment, all communities with access to a school will have access to quality facilities in which to practice their sport."
- A list of this month’s sports facilities awards is below.
sportscotland Lottery Fund
Sports Facilities Programme Awards
April 2001
13 awards totalling £2,360,159
1. School and Community Strand
The main priority of the Sports Facilities Programme is to improve links between sport at schools and sport in the wider community. This strand aims to adapt or increase the accessibility of existing sports facilities in schools or sports clubs, to be used by both school pupils and the wider community.
Argyll and Bute Council (Hermitage Academy)
Area: Helensburgh, Argyll and Bute
Award: £354,154
Description of project: The provision of a full size floodlit synthetic grass playing field, upgrading of changing facilities and extension of grass rugby pitch for use by school and community.
Highland Council (Kingussie Leisure Centre)
Area: Kingussie, Highland
Award: £500,000
Description of project: The award will help to provide a new Leisure Centre for Badenoch and Strathspey on the site of the existing fire damaged Victoria Village Hall in Kingussie, including 3 badminton court sports hall and changing accommodation.
Uddingston Bowling and Tennis Club
Area: Uddingston, Glasgow
Award: £200,000
Description of project: The extension of the bowling and tennis facilities at the Club including upgrading the existing clubhouse and changing facilities and installing four new floodlit tennis courts.
Fife Council (Dunfermline High School)
Area: Dunfermline, Fife
Award: £42,993
Description of project: The project involves the upgrading of previously derelict tennis courts to provide an outdoor floodlit synthetic grass multi court, with markings for a variety of sports, to be used by the local community and Dunfermline High School.
2. Local Facilities
This strand gives awards to projects at a local club or association level that benefit the wider community as well as club or association members
Newtonhill Community Hall Association
Area: Newtonhill, Stonehaven
Award: £107,500
Description of project: The award will help to extend the existing community hall building to provide an all purpose sports hall with changing accommodation.
Burntisland Initiative Recreational Trust
Area: Burntisland, Fife
Award: £35,000
Description of project: The award will help to provide a new outdoor multi-court adjacent to Beacon Leisure Centre in Burntisland, catering for a variety of sports including 5-a-side football, tennis and basketball.
Gracemount Youth and Community Centre
Area: Edinburgh
Award: £67,500
Description of project: The provision of a floodlit synthetic multi court with security fencing on the site of the former tennis courts in the grounds of the youth centre.
The Uphill Ski Club of Great Britain
Area: Aviemore, Highland
Award: £51,735
Description of project: The award will replace and improve the temporary facilities provided by a portacabin in a car park with purpose built facilities incorporating full disabled access. This will help to complete the creation of an integrated permanent ski school facility for disabled skiers, based within the Cairngorm Ski Centre where the funicular will provide increased access to slopes.
Muirhead and Birkhill Millennium Village Hall Committee
Area: Birkhill, Dundee
Award: £99,384
Description of project: The award will provide a new multi purpose hall to be used for sport and recreational activities by the local community, as well as changing facilities for the existing 2 football pitches and tennis courts.
Dalgety Bay Bowling Club
Area: Dalgety Bay, Dunfermline
Award: £176,250
Description of project: To provide a new bowling green and clubhouse.
Scottish County Board of the Gaelic Athletic Association (Regional facilities)
Area: Rutherglen, Glasgow
Award: £49,300
Description of project: Development of changing facilities to help cater for gaelic football, hurling, shinty/hurling, camogie and rounders.
3.Regional Facilities Strand
These awards help to provide regional standard training and competition facilities for individual sports.
West Lothian Council (Bathgate Academy)
Area: Bathgate, West Lothian
Award: £500,000
Description of project: The development of a regional facility comprising 6 court hall with toilets, showers and changing rooms, as well as team changing rooms for the existing outdoor synthetic pitch.
4. Safety at Sports Grounds Strand
This strand provides support for projects that help football clubs satisfy the requirements of the ‘Taylor Report’ or essential related safety projects.
Arbroath Football Club (Safety and Sports Grounds)
Area: Arbroath, Angus
Award: £176,343
Description of project: Upgrading of main stand at Gayfield Park, Arbroath.