I would be grateful if members who are leaving the chamber would do so quietly and if members of the public who are not remaining for the next item of business would also leave the chamber quickly and quietly, please. The Parliament is still in session.
The next item of business is a members’ business debate on motion S4M-12203, in the name of Stuart McMillan, on congratulating Greenock Morton Community Trust. The debate will be concluded without any question being put. I would be grateful if members who wish to participate would press their request-to-speak button as soon as possible.
Before I call Mr McMillan, I request once again that those leaving the gallery do so quietly, please. Mr McMillan, you have seven minutes.
Motion debated,
That the Parliament congratulates Greenock Morton Community Trust (GMCT) on receiving £106,029 from the Scottish Government’s Climate Challenge Fund; understands that the group will use the grant to promote lower carbon lifestyle choices in Inverclyde, including a sports kit and footwear recycling initiative; notes GMCT’s role in educating school children and providing them with equipment to participate in sport; considers that football clubs across Scotland have an important role in their local communities, and praises all involved at GMCT and Greenock Morton Football Club for the growing community work that they do in Inverclyde.
12:32
I thank all members who signed the motion to allow the debate to take place.
I am a Morton fan, hence my reason for wanting to highlight the excellent community-based work that is going on, centred around the club. As a long-standing supporter of Greenock Morton, I am proud to speak to the motion congratulating the work of Greenock Morton Community Trust, which I will call the Morton trust in my speech.
I highlight that football clubs of all sizes are readily criticised for some of their actions. However, at my request, only a few months ago, Morton got involved with the Inverclyde food bank. What I am about to tell the chamber highlights that football clubs play a huge and positive part in their communities. Many clubs undertake excellent examples of community involvement, and I want to praise them all for that. It is always easy to criticise clubs, but let us give them praise when they merit it, too.
Before I highlight the key elements of the climate challenge fund investment, I want to provide some background on Greenock Morton and the Morton trust. Morton Football Club was founded in 1874, making it one of the oldest senior Scottish clubs. Greenock Morton has always played an important role in the social and sporting life of Greenock and Inverclyde.
Although the club’s fortunes on the field have been varied—in fact, Morton holds the record for the most promotions to and relegations from the top flight; I do not mind the promotions, but I am not so happy about the relegations, as members will understand—there has always been a strong fan base in the community. The fans have always believed that Morton’s rightful place in the top tier of Scottish football will come round again—despite the protestations that my colleague George Adam will no doubt make later.
The link between Greenock and Morton is seen in the club’s crest, which features a sailing ship—a motif taken from the town’s coat of arms, which symbolises Greenock’s shipbuilding and maritime heritage. It is through that connection between the local community and the supporters that Greenock Morton Community Trust came into existence.
The Morton trust was the initiative of Morton’s consultant for club development and former striker, Warren Hawke, who explained:
“We want to reach out to our local community and ensure that there is an interaction between the club and the people that goes beyond watching or supporting the club on a match day. We want to help address social issues and give something back to the people of Inverclyde.”
In order to accomplish that, he invited representatives of Morton and the supporters trust to act as trustees, tasking them with ensuring that the Morton trust meets those aims.
As a registered charity that brings together Greenock Morton Football Club and Greenock Morton Supporters Trust, the aim of the Morton trust is to use the Morton brand to deliver quality community coaching and social inclusion programmes to people of all ages, abilities and backgrounds across the Inverclyde area. I am delighted that Warren Hawke, Karen Welsh, Chris McCorkindale and Cappie the cat are in Parliament this afternoon.
The Morton trust runs a number of very successful football programmes, such as mini Morton, which is aimed at school-age children; micro Morton, which provides sessions for pre-school children; and Morton girls, whose aim is to develop girls’ football teams across a number of age ranges. Overall, the Morton trust delivers programmes to more than 250 primary school children and more than 900 nursery school children a week—that is nearly 1,300 children a week who are obtaining healthy activities from trained coaches.
There is also the football fans in training programme, which is run in conjunction with the Scottish Professional Football League, and the Greenock Morton hockey club programme.
The Morton trust provides a wide range of support to the people of Inverclyde and beyond. In addition to various footballing and sporting endeavours, the Morton trust has various employability programmes and is committed to helping local people to develop the skills and experience that they need to enter an increasingly competitive job market. In February 2015, the Morton trust delivered a pilot employability programme called the lone parent programme. Four out of the 11 who started the programme have found a job.
In February 2014, Greenock Morton Community Trust was awarded £39,388 via the Big Lottery Fund’s young start programme to fund the Morton futures project, which will deliver bespoke courses with the aim of tackling youth unemployment. The courses, which will last from seven to 12 weeks, will work around a sports theme and will offer young people training and volunteering opportunities, and opportunities to gain qualifications. Sixty young people aged 16 to 24 from lnverclyde will benefit.
With the support of community jobs Scotland, the Morton trust has been able to employ staff who will re-enter the job market with new skills and renewed confidence, having made a significant contribution to the work of the Morton trust and the football club.
Such employability programmes can make a difference to the lives of young people across Inverclyde by creating the opportunities for them to become involved in sports programmes, gain employment skills, improve their health and, hopefully, overcome some of the challenges that they face, particularly in the jobs market.
More such ventures to develop more innovative social inclusion programmes to enhance the link between Greenock Morton and the local community are planned for the future.
Greener Morton is the first project in Inverclyde to benefit from the Scottish Government’s climate challenge fund. The successful grant application will allow the Morton trust to deliver an eco-friendly message linked with physical activity to more than 2,000 pupils in primaries 4 to 6 in schools across Inverclyde. The funding will also allow the Morton trust to create Inverclyde’s first football kit and boot recycling facility. That will help underprivileged youngsters in Inverclyde through the re-use of perfectly good boots and kit via the recycling facility. Members will be aware of the ever-rising cost of sports equipment for families with children who are active in sports and will realise that that will be a wonderful initiative.
Some of the funding will also be used to replace tumble dryers with a new energy-efficient drying room for all team kit. The Morton trust will also start eco-friendly schemes, such as car sharing to reduce emissions, across all Morton-related teams. Ultimately, those actions by the Morton trust will help to reduce the club’s total carbon footprint. There are also plans afoot to organise an open day to promote greener living programmes.
New employment opportunities have been created as a result of the climate challenge fund. All the staff have been recruited and the project started yesterday.
The greener Morton project is an excellent example of how the climate challenge fund can be used to support existing local organisations, helping them to develop their services while promoting a more eco-friendly agenda. The Morton trust has worked closely with the ideas bank—a collaboration between Senscot and Beith Community Development Trust—to promote the sharing of best practice.
I am sure that there are other groups across Scotland carrying out similar aims. I welcome the grant given to the Morton trust and have every faith that the Morton trust will get the best value from that funding.
I hinted at the start that I am somewhat biased on the issue of Greenock Morton. However, even allowing for that, I am sure that all members—even my good friend and colleague George Adam, MSP for Paisley and a St Mirren fan—will congratulate Greenock Morton Community Trust on its success in securing that investment, which will allow it to expand the services that it provides to the community in Inverclyde.
12:40
I thank Stuart McMillan for bringing the debate to the chamber. I am delighted to be able to speak in the debate and to recognise the work of the Greenock Morton Community Trust and, indeed, of other football trusts that work to improve their communities.
Football is an important communication medium in local communities, and the community trust is a shining example of what can happen. As Stuart McMillan has indicated, the trust is a registered charity—a combination of the supporters’ trust and, of course, Greenock Morton Football Club.
The community trust provides community coaching and programmes to people of all ages, abilities and backgrounds across the Inverclyde area, but I am perhaps slightly less enthusiastic than Mr McMillan about taking part—I can admire from a distance.
The programmes are invaluable because they are intended to promote and encourage social inclusion—members throughout the chamber can support that. It is interesting that the trust encourages positive interaction between the football club, the fans and the community, all of which gives something back to the people of Inverclyde. That is an excellent example to set.
I was intrigued by some of the courses that are available to the local Inverclyde community, including the mini Morton sessions for school-age children, which are delivered weekly. The mini Morton programme offers children a chance to join structured football coaching sessions with fun challenges in a friendly, nurturing environment. In my day, I have certainly enjoyed sport, including in the Inverclyde area. I have no doubt whatsoever that the benefits that I felt will be shared by those who are the beneficiaries of the community trust’s mini Morton sessions.
The micro Morton programme is aimed at pre-school children aged between two and four years old. Obviously, getting children involved as soon as possible makes them aware of all the advantages and potential benefits of sharing the activities that the community trust has provided. Micro Morton sessions offer children a chance to participate in active play. The trust’s website states:
“Micro Morton seeks to improve physical literacy, co-ordination, balance, communication and listening skills confidence using a mixture of activities such as skipping, hopping, jumping and fun football activities.”
To some, that may seem elementary; to me, it is a very exciting opportunity for those young children to become aware of what sport can offer and the great joy, pleasure and benefits that can be derived from taking part in sporting activity.
I was interested to see that, through the Morton girls programme, the community trust has organised teams of under-13s and under-15s who will play at the Scottish Football Association west region girls league level. That is a great tribute to the talents and skills of those young girls.
The community trust is also committed to helping local people in the community to develop the skills, experience and confidence that they need to enter the jobs market. Stuart McMillan talked about that very positive initiative.
During April in my regional area—in Paisley—street stuff, in partnership with the St Mirren youth academy, will be running a free football camp at the St Mirren training ground in Ralston for boys and girls aged 10 to 16; I will be surprised if Mr Adam does not refer to that. That is another fine example of how local football clubs can communicate in a positive and practical way with their local communities.
The debate has highlighted the important links that local football clubs have with their communities and how clubs such as Greenock Morton and St Mirren transform those links into something that is so positive and so important. I congratulate all those who are involved with the Greenock Morton Community Trust and I wish them every success in what they are doing.
12:44
I congratulate Stuart McMillan on bringing the debate to the chamber. I also congratulate Greenock Morton Community Trust—I say once more for the record that I congratulate Greenock Morton Community Trust—on all the work that it is doing in its community.
When Stuart McMillan first asked me to speak in the debate, I thought that it might have been some kind of joke. Perhaps he thought that it might cause some controversy or lead to some Paisley-Greenock banter or to a reliving of the many successes that St Mirren have had over Greenock Morton over the years—but that would have been petty and not fitting for the Parliament. Mr McMillan then explained that Greenock Morton Community Trust was going to copy the model of the award-winning St Mirren street stuff project. If anything, my fellow buddies and I are charitable. We like to do outreach work and to help other communities in need of our help and guidance, and the community trust provides a perfect example of that.
I go back to the subject of both clubs’ successes. When Greenock and Paisley, or St Mirren and Morton, argue with each other over their successes, it is like two bald men fighting over a comb, but let us discuss them.
Both teams have won the Scottish cup: Morton in 1922 and St Mirren in 1926, 1959 and 1987. Morton were runners-up in 1948, and they were Scottish League cup runners-up in 1964, and St Mirren were winners of said trophy in 2013. As for the Scottish challenge cup, Morton were runners-up in 1993, and we were winners in 2005-06. That seems like an awful lot of second prizes for the Greenock Morton, but I am not one to go on about that, because the biggest trophy for us all in Renfrewshire is of course the prestigious Renfrewshire cup, which Morton have won 52 times and St Mirren have won 55 times. In this century, apart from during three seasons when we had a manager who did not see the importance of that prestigious trophy, St Mirren have won every single game.
The Greenock Morton Community Trust is following on from St Mirren street stuff, which was mentioned by my colleague Annabel Goldie. It is led, in Paisley, by Stephen Gallacher. The project was begun during my time as a local councillor, and is a partnership with Renfrewshire Council, Engage Renfrewshire, Police Scotland and the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service. It has reached out to people throughout Renfrewshire and has made such a difference. It has provided access to hard-to-reach young people, who we often talk about at the Education and Culture Committee. The project has reached those young people and has directed them so that they can become a coach within their club or do refereeing or various other things. It also helps them to get work. Those are things that the Greenock Morton Community Trust and St Mirren street stuff will be doing regularly. Both our towns need that type of support.
I am interested in the fact that the Greenock Morton Supporters Trust was part of the initiative when the community trust was being put together. The St Mirren Independent Supporters Association—SMISA for short—has had much to do with some of the work that has been happening in the community. It appears that, on this occasion, Morton has got the jump on us, because it has a member of its supporters trust on the board. For a lot of football clubs, representation from supporters at board level is very important and can help—it can lead to important projects such as the community trust in Greenock. Nick Robinson was appointed to the board at Cappielow some time back, and that makes a big difference.
Interestingly, for Greenock Morton Supporters Trust, together with the Greenock Morton Community Trust, it is important
“To strengthen the bonds between Greenock Morton Football Club and the local community in Inverclyde and the surrounding area.”
That is very important when we are discussing teams and their communities. Such sporting projects can be used in relation to attainment, whether educational or job related. We need to encourage more of that. We do not seem to be able to find out the talents of far too many young people in our communities or help them in any other way. The community trust is a good mechanism to reach the children and young people we in the Parliament constantly call hard to reach.
Once again, I congratulate Greenock Morton Community Trust on all the work that it is doing in that community. I wish the trust all the best in the future. When our teams meet again on the football field, I hope that Morton get stuffed in the Renfrewshire cup final.
Thank you, Mr Adam. I am delighted that the focus of your speech was Greenock Morton Community Trust, since that is the main thrust of this debate.
12:49
I congratulate Stuart McMillan on securing the debate and join him in congratulating Greenock Morton Community Trust on securing climate challenge funding.
The fund invites applications from communities across Scotland to take action on climate change and to move to low-carbon living. It supports projects that reduce carbon and that are community led, creating a lasting legacy of low-carbon behaviour.
Greenock Morton Community Trust, supported by colleague Duncan McNeil, applied for the grant back in November. Subsequently, it was one of the 33 successful community-led projects that share in the fund. It is the first time that an Inverclyde organisation has received a grant from the fund; it is a first for the area.
As other members have said, greener Morton is a project set up by the Greenock Morton Community Trust, a charity formed by the football club, which aims to provide community football coaching and social inclusion programmes for everyone in the area. The initiative is a good opportunity for people of all ages, but especially for young people who cannot afford to join a football club. It allows them to enjoy the benefits of being part of a football club, but at no cost.
Greener Morton has received £106,000 from the climate challenge fund for its project that plans to create Inverclyde’s first football kit and boot recycling facility, where underprivileged children will be able to get used football kits and boots so that they are able to participate in sport. The lack of affordable kit is a great barrier to young people taking part in sport. The cost of kit can be a huge burden on families on low incomes, who feel that their children are losing out because of that.
The organisation will also use some of the money for a new drying room for the team kit, to replace the tumble dryers that the club currently uses. It will be more energy efficient, cut down fuel costs and reduce carbon emissions.
The project will also promote car sharing, the use of public transport and walking. That cuts carbon and is also an initiative that will help families that are less well off to access safe transport to activities, which is another barrier to young people becoming involved in sporting activities and becoming more active.
The project will also host greener Morton days, which the football team will attend, to raise awareness of greener living.
The project is remarkable in that it has so many social goods; it tackles climate change, while also tackling social exclusion and encouraging young people to get involved in sport. We see childhood obesity rising due to a lack of exercise opportunities and because of the lack of safe places where people can take part in sport. The project tackles that and therefore will make young people more physically literate, giving them skills that will last a lifetime. That not only improves their physical health, but also gives them an enjoyable activity to take part in.
I wish them well and I hope that other teams will follow suit.
12:52
I thank Stuart McMillan for the opportunity, as his motion says, to consider “football clubs across Scotland”. Of course, in the north-east we are somewhat distant from the activities of Greenock Morton. It has been interesting and valuable to hear about what it is doing, but it is worth saying that, with four senior clubs in my constituency—in Buckie, Banff, Fraserburgh and Peterhead—I must be absolutely neutral in anything that I say about support for football clubs.
I have a second reason for not being too particularly addicted to any club. In the 1920s, my father played for Ross County, and I always say to people that that accounts for my knowing very little about football. Of course, Ross County has made substantial progress since my father stopped playing for them. He also had a trial for Queen’s Park, but that got him absolutely nowhere.
Football, like any other participative sport, delivers a great deal to those who play it, and much enjoyment to those who support it. It provides health benefits, musculoskeletal flexibility through taking good-quality exercise and is likely, providing one does not head the ball too often, to lead to a longer life.
At the core of the motion before us is an award of money from the Scottish Government’s climate challenge fund. It is an interesting fund, which has doled out quite a lot of money over a long period of time.
One of the central things about awards from that fund to communities such as the Greenock Morton Community Trust is that there must be genuine innovation in the proposal that is submitted to the fund. In other words, if applicants are just repeating something that has been done, they will not get the money. That is where the Greenock Morton Community Trust has really ticked the right boxes; it is doing some things that have not been done elsewhere and it is taking forward ideas that may or may not work to the extent that the bid suggests.
When I was a minister, I found myself appearing before a parliamentary committee to be questioned about the activities of the climate challenge fund, and I was asked, “But, minister, how do you know all these projects are going to work?” I somewhat confused the committee by replying, “I know that they won’t all work.” Even if an award is made and does not work, we will learn something from that. I welcome what the Greenock Morton Community Trust is doing, and it looks as if the elements of its activity of which I have been made aware have every chance of being successful.
I have community trusts in my constituency, in particular the Princess Royal Sports and Community Trust, where Alan Still exhibits significant leadership, bringing people into Deveronvale’s facility to support activity, and engaging with four-figure numbers of people across our communities through four full-time coaches. Along the coast a little bit, near Portsoy, the Boyndie Trust runs a cafe and community bus service. Trusts come in all shapes and sizes and provide employment for many people. There is also the Banffshire educational trust, which is administered by Moray Council. A lot is going on in my constituency that will be replicated by community trusts elsewhere.
I congratulate Greenock on the success of its bid and I wish it well in delivering what it has promised to tackle. I hope that if Greenock is playing any of my teams it will have great success in doing so, although that hope of success is moderated by belief that it would be much better if my teams won.
You are right, Mr Stevenson, to note that the motion contains some wording that allows me a little bit of leeway. Nonetheless, the main thrust is to congratulate Greenock Morton Community Trust.
12:57
I thank Stuart McMillan for securing today’s debate. It is a fantastic idea. I too congratulate Greenock Morton Community Trust on winning a grant from the Scottish Government climate change challenge fund. Well done to the trust for its great ideas. The Morton trust’s goal of promoting environmental awareness while working with young children in the Clyde valley is an exceptionally good idea. Football clubs play an influential role in our communities, and all of Scotland should take note of Greenock Morton Community Trust, join in with its ideas and promote them even further.
Beyond sport, Greenock Morton engages with the local community, which is an important element, as environmental awareness begins with education. Our children have to be engaged now so that they can improve upon the policies not only of today but of future generations. That in itself is important. Generations that will come in the future will benefit from our young, and I have seen practical examples of that in my own home. My grandchildren advise me on how to use the waste bins and what goes in which bin, which is fantastic because it just shows that, if you engage with young people at an early age, not only do they benefit themselves but their prior generations also benefit. That is something that we should be proud of.
I am impressed by Greenock Morton Community Trust. I hope that it makes the most of the grant that it has received and that it will continue to build on its success. I hope that the trust’s example is seen by people all over Scotland and helps to improve community outreach work, the importance of which cannot be overstated. I call on the Scottish Government to continue to support community groups like the trust that engage with our young people and create awareness of the climate challenges that we face not only internationally but in Scotland.
Football clubs such as the Morton trust have set an example, and other local community groups and football clubs could engage in the same way. Partick Thistle in Glasgow is another club that does a lot of work in the community. It engages with young people and does a lot of work to encourage them to participate in the sport. Given the right opportunities, those young people could benefit from such funding.
The climate change challenges for Scotland are huge, and I believe that engaging with the young is the most appropriate route to deal with those challenges. We see day in, day out how climate change is affecting the globe, and it is important that we carry our young people with us in tackling the issue to ensure that future generations are not only aware of the challenges that we face but are able to deal with them. If we equip them with the right knowledge and skills, they can continue that work.
There is almost a snowball effect: we start small and build on that success, and then continue to do so. Well done, Greenock Morton Community Trust—you do a great job, so I ask you to continue that and to ensure that you engage with others so that they can learn from you.
13:01
I congratulate Stuart McMillan on bringing this important debate to the chamber to highlight the success of Greenock Morton Community Trust in gaining an award of £106,029 from the climate challenge fund.
I am delighted to offer my congratulations to the trust. As Stuart McMillan said, its innovative project includes a sports kit and boot recycling scheme, which allows youngsters from less affluent families to use sports kit that would otherwise go to landfill; a bulk laundry system using energy-efficient industrial machinery; an eco-friendly football programme that includes climate change topics; and a car-sharing scheme. Those are all fantastic initiatives, and I wish the trust every success in what it is doing to support local communities in Inverclyde.
Every individual, household and community has an important role to play in helping us to achieve our climate change targets, which are the most ambitious in the world. I am delighted to have announced earlier today the award of 26 additional climate challenge fund grants totalling £1.9 million to support local efforts at the community level.
The total number of communities that have been helped by the fund has increased to 547 since 2008, which is a phenomenal number. The total number of projects that are supported by our investment of £66.3 million is 756.
Details of the latest awards are available on the Scottish Government website. Although it is difficult to capture in a few words the diversity of past funded projects, I will highlight just a few examples. The Local Energy Action Plan project in Renfrewshire provides home energy checks supported by thermal imaging, promotes local food growing and operates a local car club, and it recently received a grant for youth engagement from our junior climate challenge fund.
In the Highlands, the Velocity Cafe and Bicycle Workshop is working hard with the local community to make Inverness a cycling city, while promoting local and seasonal food.
Those are just a few examples in addition to the work that we have seen from the Greenock Morton Community Trust. I give huge thanks on behalf of the Scottish Government to all our communities for their initiatives and for their commitment, enthusiasm and hard work.
Given the unprecedented level of demand for financial support, the fund is now fully subscribed and is therefore closed to new applications. To help to determine how we can best support community efforts in future, we will now review what we have learned from its operation to date.
As I said in the chamber last week, 2015 is a crucial year for our international climate change effort. In December, Governments from around the world will meet in Paris to agree a new global treaty. One of my earliest ministerial duties was to attend the Lima conference in December last year, where I met many international figures who were committed to challenging the international community to deliver a global treaty to match Scotland’s high ambition. This December in Paris, I will continue to press for greater efforts that reflect our climate science.
We as a Government have the ambition to do much more, of course, and we recognise that there is still much more for us to do on climate change. However, the essence of our approach to government is partnership working with all levels of Scottish society. Third sector organisations such as Greenock Morton Community Trust play a major role by working directly with individuals and communities to co-produce solutions and approaches that support resilience and wellbeing and help to combat inequalities through skills development and local job creation. I know that that is supported across the chamber.
Over half of our total support of £66.3 million for the climate challenge fund has been invested in our most disadvantaged areas. We are committed to regenerating and strengthening local community areas such as Inverclyde. In addition to the climate challenge award to Greenock Morton Community Trust, we have invested £32.2 million in the Riverside Inverclyde urban regeneration company to benefit communities across that area. We will, of course, continue to foster the creativity and innovation that exist in Scotland’s communities.
Greenock Morton Community Trust is an absolutely fantastic example of how our football clubs can engage with and support the local community in a variety of ways outside football. That activity off the pitch is a powerful way of engaging individuals in a broader agenda, and it will deliver physical, health, wellbeing and environmental benefits across the whole community. I commend the trust for its excellent work.
To pick up a point that Rhoda Grant made in her speech, I absolutely agree that the climate challenge fund is an opportunity to leave a lasting legacy for low-carbon behaviour.
I very much welcome the debate, again thank Stuart McMillan for bringing such an important issue to the chamber, and thank all members for their excellent contributions. I thank Annabel Goldie, who talked about the benefits of our local football clubs and the benefits of sport to the Inverclyde area, especially for children, including our young girls.
Finally, I sincerely thank once more the hundreds of other communities across the country for their magnificent efforts, and I look forward to visiting some of them in the near future. Greenock Morton Community Trust demonstrates what is happening. What those communities are achieving and delivering is important in helping us to realise our climate change ambitions in Scotland and on the international stage.
13:08 Meeting suspended.Previous
First Minister’s Question Time