New Petitions

Thank you for allowing us to address the committee. John Waddell will read our opening statement—we share the work between us.

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to support the petition by the unite the clubs campaign. The petition was presented to the Parliament on 14 February after a march through Edinburgh city centre that was attended by more than 3,000 people. The march was organised to highlight the poor condition of the facilities—including pitches and pavilions—that are used by grass-roots, community-based sports clubs.As our forum is based in Edinburgh, we have focused on the lack of good-quality facilities in our capital city. However, we have received much support from clubs throughout the country that have similar tales to tell: changing facilities that have not been developed for more than 40 years; non-existent maintenance; children changing in facilities where there are clear breaches of health and safety; facilities where no regard has been paid to disabled users or female users; pitches where grass is not cut or lined; pitches that are so uneven that a ball rolls from one end to the other without being touched. In many public parks that are used for playing and training, volunteers have to remove dog dirt and more dangerous items such as glass and syringe needles, and many of the dreaded ash pitches are still used week in, week out.We are aware of the national and local strategies to improve sports facilities in general. However, the condition of the facilities that are currently in use has deteriorated over many years. Similar strategies have been in place, but they have failed due to a lack of investment both locally and nationally.In our experience, and in that of thousands of other volunteers, poor-quality facilities have a direct impact on the number of people who take part in sport. Many clubs—such as those represented by the unite the clubs campaign—have to turn away children at a young age or, at best, put them on waiting lists because they do not have the facilities to support the members. It is also our experience that the lack of decent facilities has a direct impact on the number of older children who continue with or take up sport.Our climate clearly does not help to attract young people to sport. However, countries with much worse climates than ours have invested heavily in sports facilities and there are clear benefits to the health and social behaviours of their people. We need to invest now to save in the long term. We ask the Scottish Parliament to acknowledge the important role that community-based sports clubs play at the grass roots in developing the health and well-being of the children, youths and adults of Scotland. We urge the Parliament to raise the profile of sport and to give councils direct and indirect support that allows them to provide facilities to a standard that befits a leading European nation. In that way, we will not let down our citizens and we will move away from being the sick man of Europe.

I am happy to answer questions. John and I have a few points that we would like to raise and we will answer any questions that we can.

We believe that it is down to the council, which has the budget to upgrade and maintain the pavilions. However, even council officials have admitted that over the past 25 or 30 years the funding has not been there—it has been used on other things, such as education. The facilities that we use have been neglected. To be blunt, a lick of paint on the outside of the building seems to be the council's way of upgrading something, while inside there is no running water, hot water or heating. The boys and girls are happier to be outside on the pitch than sitting in a damp, cold facility.

That is a great way to work. All sports use the facilities, although I am talking mostly about football; clubs take a great pride in what they do and they can look after the facilities. At Saughton park, two grass pitches are maintained by Tynecastle boys club—or football club, to be politically correct. Those pitches are available virtually every week, whereas those maintained by the council are often off. It is up to the other clubs in Edinburgh—Edinburgh City, Hibs and Preston, for example—to do the same if they want to have and use that type of facility. I think that they are talking about that, and the clubs will take pride in maintaining the facilities.The money comes in from the council, but it does not get to where it is supposed to go. We were up at Sighthill this morning, and there was glass lying on the pitches. The council is trying to improve the facilities but, as John says, a lick of paint does not do it. Regardless of child protection law, which says that the kids cannot use showers, there still have to be showers available, because of dog dirt for example. We cannot stop people and their dogs using the parks—they are public parks—so it is up to the clubs to look after the place. They would take great pride in cleaning up if everything was in place. For example, there is no bucket to put dog dirt in up at Sighthill.Until the clubs started maintenance there was either no water or only cold water. If a kid fell in dog dirt when they were playing football—as has happened many a time—and the mum said, "You're no coming in my car; you've got to clean it off", they would have to use cold water. On a freezing morning, that is no good, so the mother would say to the kid, "Right, you can get the bus home." That is the sort of society that we are living in. Facilities must be in place for those kids. There are too many distractions and outlets nowadays. We all have families. I have a son and a daughter. If the proper facilities do not exist, they will play PlayStation games. People are turning into couch potatoes. We are talking about a health issue, which we feel strongly about. Facilities must be brought up to the right standard.

I do not think that there are any problems in that respect. Most clubs would be happy to take over the Sighthill pavilion, for example, but the problem that we have noticed is that some pavilions do not come up to a basic standard. We have pushed the council on having a basic standard for our pavilions. Soap, towels, hand-driers and things for females should be available in them, and they should be accessible to disabled people. We told the council that just after the elections, and we are still waiting for feedback. Once we get a basic standard in place, I do not see any problems with handovers to clubs.It should not always be only one club that uses facilities. Les Trotter and I are at Hutchison Vale Football Club, which should not be the only club that has the right to use a pavilion. Perhaps we could share it with Salvesen Boys Club, for example.I do not think that there is any problem with any club running facilities. However, facilities must be at a standard before they are taken over.

Broxburn United still had to sell off a certain amount of green space to get its facilities—which seems a bit crazy. However, Broxburn United is a good example. Preston Athletic now has its own bit of land, too. Over five to six years, it is now getting its own facilities built, including changing rooms and places to hold meetings. Local people will be able to go along, and they can use baby clubs, toddlers groups and so on. There are excellent facilities at Hallhill in Dunbar for the junior football club and for rugby. They are sustained by power from solar panels and wind turbines. It is a great facility, with Astroturf pitches. Everything is there. We say to the City of Edinburgh Council that, if a small council such as East Lothian Council can provide such facilities, why can the city council not do the same?

That is right. Clubs might ask for places to get done up, but we always get knock-backs from the city council, which has been negative.

That is the problem. If it was not for grass-roots, community football, there would be no professional football players—I am talking about football at the moment, but I know that the issue that we have raised concerns sport in a wider sense. Although grass-roots football is important, it does not benefit from the money that goes into the game. The money goes from sportscotland to the premier league clubs. I go along to premier league games and have a season ticket, but I will not do that any more, because I believe that the money has to be structured into the youth levels of all sport—whether it be rugby, hockey, football or whatever—instead of being given to the governing bodies to distribute to the clubs. Schemes such as initiative football take young players for a year and, if they are unsuitable, put them out the door, whereas youth clubs—for girls and boys—keep young players with them for years and help them along in a structured way. Not enough money is coming from the top level to the lower levels. If the Scottish Premier League wanted to give money to the youth clubs, that would solve a lot of problems, as we could look after our own areas. Public parks must be kept public, but clubs could maintain certain areas of them. For instance, the facility at Saughton park could be shared with Tynecastle, Lothian Thistle, Hutchison Vale or Salvesen. Obviously, the schools could use the facility for free during the day—and take advantage of the third generation Astroturf that will be laid down in November—and the venue would still be open to the public.The issue is all about communication and where the money gets directed. We had a meeting with Kenny MacAskill, who said that money might be available through the national health service's drug prevention funding to do up the grass-roots facilities. Fantastic stadiums are not going to happen. We simply want the dilapidated stadiums across Scotland to be brought up to a minimum standard so that they can be maintained by the club—be it a rugby club, a football club, a hockey club or whatever. The clubs must be more involved with the local councils and be able to take pride in the facilities. However, a basic standard has to be achieved first—not just a lick of paint. A decent investment needs to be made. Rather than spending £20 million in 10 years' time to get 30 new pavilions, you should spend £2 million or £3 million now to bring the pavilions up to a decent standard.

Yes, totally.I think that you have answered the question for us, but one thing that I can say is that we had a meeting with Graham Croucher and Colin Mackay at Meggetland last week on that very issue of how the clubs could work together. Lothian Thistle, Hutchison Vale and Tynecastle would definitely work together, so we could start the process from there. However, clubs all over the country should be involved. It would not matter which clubs shared facilities as long as the funding was put in place.

There does not seem to be any system of inspection. I presume that the buildings are owned by the city council, so there must be a statutory duty—if that is the word—to inspect the electrics and water and so on to ensure that everything is functional. However, such inspections never seemed to happen until we started to make a few waves. When we asked what standard of facilities the pavilion should have, we received a reply on a bit of paper that must have been written at 2 o'clock on a Friday afternoon just before people finished. We are still waiting to hear what standard applies.

We are asking for nothing more than what should already be in place. We know that vast amounts of money are not available for other facilities. We are asking only that the existing properties—unless they need to be condemned—be brought up to standard and then maintained at that standard. Perhaps the council and the clubs could work together on that to ensure that the buildings are still available in 40 years' time. That is basically it.

All those areas will be lost if nothing is done now. We do not know whether the proposed stadium at Sighthill will be built. Five pitches might be lost to make way for a stadium that might not be used for the same purpose. Where will the 500 or 600 kids who are involved in the teams go? They will turn to something else if they cannot play football there, or any other sport, such as hockey; it is not just about football. They will be on the streets and will do what they want. We must look after our kids and get them out playing all kinds of sports. We will not give up until we get what we want. We will march again. I am very passionate about it.

I know.

We have already done that. We intend to approach all members. Thank you for listening to us.