SOUTH Kintyre Sports Council has been advised by councillors to go it alone if members want to see an all-weather sports pitch in Campbeltown.
At Monday’s night’s sport council meeting at Aqualibrium, Councillors Rory Colville and John Semple said they thought the best way to ensure that the town got a pitch was to turn it into ‘a community-led venture’.
The SKSC already has an outline business case for the application to build the pitch and is due to hear soon what level of support it could expect from Sport Scotland but Argyll and Bute Council has said it does not have capital funds to do the job this year, put the plans into its schools estate budget and it looks very unlikely that cash would be forth coming from the council for some years.
‘Atlantis Leisure in Oban is a community run organisation; the swimming pools on Islay and Mull are,’ said Councillor Colville.
David Paterson, secretary of the SKSC, said the council had ‘moved the goal posts’. Campbeltown remained the only town with an all-weather pitch.
Councillor Semple said: ‘What you have is fully worked-up specifications, a business plan. It has to be guided by you.’ He stressed that the pitch should become a community project and get its financial backing that way.’ Councillor Colville also suggested that help could be available from the area development group.
David Paterson, secretary of SKSC and the other member sat the meeting remained unconvinced.
‘I know the amount of time it took to raise the money for a mini bus. The pitch would need a project manager,’ said David.
A spokesman for the Sports Council said after the meeting: ‘It is bitterly disappointing news again that the all weather pitch has effectively been shelved by the Council. The Sports Council feels that by moving the all weather pitch project under the umbrella of the school estate the community will have to wait until either a new school is built or major development is carried out - this could be five to seven years away. In the meantime we are left as the only major community in Argyll without access to all weather facilities and this, in the present day, is not acceptable.
The idea of turning this into a Community Project is certainly worthwhile considering Argyll and Bute Council have completed the Outline Business Case. However, this is a major project for any community organisation to take on and we don’t know if the Sports Council has enough time and experience.
‘In the meantime, we will continue to highlight the cause and await the outcome of the stage 1 application to Sports Scotland.’
