£49.5M Awarded for sports Facilities Network

Thursday 29 July 2004

The vision of a network of world class training and competition facilities across Scotland looks set to become a reality and will include Scotland’s first ever full size indoor football training pitches (5), a 5,000 seater national indoor sports arena and two 6,000 seater municipal stadia for multi-sport use and a range of other facilities. Provision has also been made to achieve the long-standing need for a national curling academy, an indoor velodrome and an upgrade to Edinburgh’s Royal Commonwealth Pool.

Andy Kerr, Minister for Finance and Public Services announced today that £49.5m of public money has been allocated from the National and Regional Sports Facilities Strategy fund among six local authorities, towards the development of multi-sport facilities across 10 sites: Aberdeen City Council (£5,000,000); City of Edinburgh Council - three sites (£17,000,000); Falkirk Council (£3,000,000); Glasgow City Council - three sites (£17,000,000); North Lanarkshire Council (£5,000,000) and Stirling Council (£2,500,000) -see below for full breakdown.

In September last year sportscotland and the Scottish Executive invited bids for the development of a network of facilities for key sports, which included indoor multi-sport training facilities; a national indoor sports arena with a 200m athletics track and facilities for other sports; and two versatile municipal stadia. The upgrading/provision of new national facilities for sports such as swimming, curling and cycling was also considered. The network will be based on the six regions of Scotland covered by the Area Institutes of Sport: Central; East of Scotland; Grampian; Highland; Tayside & Fife; and West of Scotland.

The aim is to address major facility needs for key sports by providing a network of state-of-the-art facilities for training and competition, designed to support the needs of Scotland’s elite athletes. The facilities will also be open for community use and, in particular, will provide increased opportunities for young people to take part in sport and physical activity.

A funding package was established comprising £28.8m from the Scottish Executive (which includes £16m previously set aside for the Euro 2008 bid) and a further £21.2m from sportscotland Lottery funding. Notional allocations of these monies were made across the facility requirements listed with around 30% of the total cost to be met from central resources.

Today’s announcement marks the completion of the stage one application process. A total of 12 applications were received for facilities covering 16 sites. Following a rigorous assessment process that evaluated each project against five criteria (sporting and strategic need; financial and economics; legal and planning; design and technical; management and operational) 10 projects have been selected to progress to stage two and, when completed, will make a significant contribution to delivering this much needed network of national and regional facilities.

The allocation of funds at stage one is an indication of the level of award that the successful applicants can expect at stage two provided their project is developed in line with the approved proposals and conditions. The timescale for stage two applications will depend on the scale and nature of each project and how far the proposals have been developed at stage one. sportscotland will work closely with the successful applicants to develop their proposals and resolve any outstanding issues.

Alastair Dempster, Chairman of sportscotland said: “Significant investment is required in Scotland’s national and regional sports facilities if we are to develop future successful sporting generations, supporting the pathways from participation to excellence. To deliver the key objectives of our national strategy for sport, Sport 21, investment into facility development is required and through the National and Regional Sports Facilities Strategy we are now ready to deliver an exciting and ambitious programme that can begin to provide Scotland’s future sporting infrastructure, which will best meet national, regional and local requirements.

"It is very pleasing to see the plans in place for the development of indoor facilities. This is particularly important in our climate and will allow athletes from the wide range of events in our sport to train all year round."

“ In addition to those schemes approved for funding today, we are committed to working with governing bodies of sport and partners in Highland, Tayside and Fife, Ayrshire, Dumfries and Galloway and the Borders to explore the options for the development of regional facilities in the future and ensure that our aspirations for a complete regional network are fully met.”

The future location of sportscotland’s headquarters is also being considered by the Scottish Executive and an announcement is expected shortly.

• In addition to the National and Regional Sports Facilities Strategy (N&RSFS) funding package of £50m, sportscotland has allocated £1m from its Lottery funded Building for Sport Programme (BFSP) to complementary sports facilities included in two of the bids giving total funds available of £51m.
• The total allocations recommended amounts to £48.5m from the N&RSFS, (including £0.97m development costs) plus £1m from the sportscotland Lottery funded Building for Sport Programme i.e. £49.5m.
• A breakdown of the allocations to the successful applications is as follows:
  

Central

East of Scotland

Grampian

West of Scotland

NATIONAL & REGIONAL SPORTS FACILITIES STRATEGY ANNOUNCEMENT - SUPPORTING QUOTES

SCOTTISH INSTITUTE OF SPORT
Alistair Gray, Chairman of the Scottish Institute of Sport said: “Today’s announcement will greatly benefit the work of the Scottish Institute of Sport and further our efforts in supporting high performance sport. This major investment in facilities will guarantee our athletes can train and develop in world class environments under the excellent guidance of our coaching and support staff.”

ATHLETICS
Liz McColgan, Chair of scottishathletics said: "Facilities are the cornerstone for the development of athletics in Scotland. Today's news, which reveals both the construction of new and the improvement of existing sites opens up massive opportunities for Scottish athletes of all levels.

"In order to attract new people into our sport, we need safe and welcoming environments. Equally, if our top athletes are to succeed on the international stage, they need to be able to do high quality training sessions. These facilities will allow them to do that.

"It is very pleasing to see the plans in place for the development of indoor facilities. This is particularly important in our climate and will allow athletes from the wide range of events in our sport to train all year round."

CURLING
Curling Olympic gold medallist Rhona Martin said: “This is fantastic news for our sport. The development of a national curling academy will help to keep Scotland at the top of the world curling scene and will further enhance the excellent high performance support that the sport receives from the Scottish Institute of Sport. The fact that it will be in a central location, accessible to all, is an important factor if we are to encourage future generations into the sport and help them progress to the highest competitive level.”

CYCLING
Welcoming the plans for a new indoor velodrome in Edinburgh, cycling kilometre world champion Chris Hoy said: “Britain has made huge progress in international cycling since the velodrome in Manchester opened and we are now ranked 4th in the world with some realistic medal chances ahead of us at the Olympic Games in Athens next month. Quality facilities are essential for the future growth and success of the sport. From the top flight riders down to getting kids hooked on cycling, having a base in Scotland will make a massive difference. An indoor complex free from the impact of the weather will enable uninterrupted training and competition for 12 months of the year and will hopefully encourage more people to take up and continue in the sport.”

FOOTBALL
David Taylor, Chief Executive of the Scottish Football Association, today welcomed the Minister’s announcement that government funding has been committed for Scotland’s first full size indoor multi-sport centres in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Ravenscraig and Falkirk.

He said: “The Scottish FA is delighted that the Scottish Executive has supported our vision of a network of full size indoor centres across Scotland. This is an exciting start to a programme that will make a crucial contribution to the development of Scottish sporting talent.

“For many years now we have expected our sportsmen and women to compete at a world level whilst tolerating poor quality training facilities. From football’s perspective, the modernisation of facilities in Scotland is an essential component in our ten year plan to increase the number of players in Scotland and raise standards at all levels of the game.

“These indoor centres are fitting for a country of Scotland’s stature in world football, and I am certain they will serve all sectors of the sport from beginners and youth teams to professional clubs and the national teams.

“I would also like to put on record our thanks to those local authorities involved for embracing the concept and making the additional resources available that will allow the projects to go ahead.

“The Scottish FA looks forward to working closely with all of the local authorities to optimise the use of these splendid modern facilities, and I hope that it will not be long before resources permit the network to be further extended.”

RUGBY
" Scottish Rugby is delighted to learn of this major investment in the future of sport in Scotland. We are particularly encouraged that the emphasis is on providing quality facilities for elite athletes while at the same time remaining true to the ethos of sport for all in making these facilities available for the wider community." - Phil Anderton, Chief Executive, Scottish Rugby.

SWIMMING
Tim Jones, Performance Manager for Scottish Swimming said: “The Royal Commonwealth Pool plays an important role in the performance of Scottish swimmers. Home of one of our high performance swimming programmes, and the venue for numerous past national and international events, it is great news that a decision has finally been made to refurbish this facility.

“The pool will be instrumental in the development of our stars of the future and will continue to be a focal point for swimming in Scotland.”