Question reference: S5W-18107
- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
- Date lodged: 8 August 2018 Registered interest
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Current status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 22 August 2018
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what measures it is taking to increase funding in rural areas for multi-weather pitches.
Answer
The Scottish Government provides funding for sporting facilities through the National Agency for Sport, sport scotland. Since 2007, sport scotland has invested over £168m in sporting facilities across Scotland through their Sports Facilities Fund (SSF).
The facilities already in place, along with future plans, are driven by community demand and encompass all kinds of facilities rather than purely all weather pitches. The guidelines for the SFF were updated earlier this year and can be found at https://sportscotland.org.uk/funding/sport-facilities-fund/ . They now highlight that sport scotland want to support projects that clearly demonstrate an impact on one or more of their priorities for improvement. These priorities include ‘Equalities and Inclusion’, highlighting projects that “widen access, provide opportunity or remove barriers to participation in areas of socio-economic disadvantage or rural parts of Scotland” (as well as another bullet point on projects that widen access for under represented groups that share protected characteristics).
Recent examples of all weather pitches funded through SFF in the Aberdeenshire area include:
- £200,000 awarded to Westdyke Community Club in 2017 for a project to install an all weather football pitch at Lawsondale Sports Centre.
- £186,600 awarded to Aboyne Tennis Club in 2017 for a project to upgrade court surfaces and install floodlights.
- £100,000 awarded to Fetterangus Community Association in 2018 for a sports pavilion project providing good quality changing for Buchan Ladies, the local women and girls football club.