Sport / New 3G pitch given final approval by Shetland Islands Council
A NEW 3G pitch in Lerwick has been given final council approval after another lengthy debate and vote.
Shetland Islands Council (SIC) will put forward £690,000 towards the synthetic surface project – £210,000 more than it had initially been asked for.
That came after the successful tender for the contract came in over budget.
However income from the pitch will be used to pay back the full amount to the SIC’s reserves, following an amendment by council depute leader Gary Robinson.
A further amendment from councillor Arwed Wenger to dismiss the £1.46 million project entirely failed to find a seconder.
The final green light came at today’s (Wednesday) full council meeting after more than an hour of debate and a vote.
External funders such as sportscotland, Scottish Football Association and Scottish Rugby have already agreed to provide more than half of the total costs of the project.
The Scottish Football Association has pledged £500,000, with sportscotland committing £200,000.
Scottish Rugby has added £50,000, with both Shetland Rugby and Shetland Football Association putting £10,000 in.
The synthetic surface will replace the current Clickimin rugby pitch, and can be used for football and rugby – as well as by pupils of Anderson High School, Bells Brae and Sound primary schools.
South Mainland councillor Robbie McGregor said the SIC would be a “laughing stock” if it turned down the amount of funding on offer.
He said colleagues on the mainland had been “absolutely flabbergasted” by the grants being given to the SIC for the project.
And he urged his fellow members: “For God’s sake, let’s support this”.
But there were some dissenting voices in the council chamber, with Wenger and councillor Ian Scott in particular questioning if the pitch would be used as much as had been claimed.
Members heard the pitch is expected to be used for 10 hours a day.
However, from 9am until 3pm it will most likely be used by schoolchildren or the SIC’s sports and leisure service – with the council receiving no money during that time.
Sports and leisure manager Neil Watt said they expected the pitch to be hired from 5pm-10pm every day.
Scott said Watt was “not really serious” when he quoted the 10 hour daily figure.
“It’s not going to be used on Christmas day, it’s not going to be used on New Year’s day, it’s not going to be used on the Wednesday after Up Helly Aa,” he said.
“I think this is a great idea, but I don’t think it’s been put in a realistic perspective.”
Wenger, who is councillor for Lerwick North and Bressay, was even less enthused by the project.
He said the SIC was spending “public money” to essentially build a rugby pitch, something that already existed.
Over the course of a discussion that lasted over an hour, almost every member in the chamber and at home watching remotely had the chance to have their say one way or another on the project.
Watt answered questions about the plans, telling members that “pure grain” – essentially corn churned up – would be used as infill for the pitch.
He said this was “completely bio-degradable” and “sustainable”.
That earned praise from both councillors Moraig Lyall and Alex Armitage, who had previously voiced concerns about the use of the potentially carcinogenic rubber crumb and its impact on the environment.
However Lyall said she felt Shetland’s football clubs should have put money in to the project as a “good faith gesture”, particularly as they would make good use of it.
A number of councillors with links to sport in Shetland, including former referees Stephen Leask and Allison Duncan, gave their backing to the plan.
Leask drew laughter in the council chamber after claiming the pitch would help athletes prepare for the Olympic Games – before correcting himself to say the Island Games.
Davie Sandison said he hoped the Lerwick pitch could be a “trailblazer” for the SIC, helping it secure funding for more pitches like this for other parts of Shetland.
He proposed that the SIC approve the extra £210,000 spend and give the pitch the final green light, which was seconded by John Fraser.
However Robinson suggested the council instead should ensure it recouped its overall £690,000 from the income the pitch made.
The SIC’s depute leader said a similar arrangement had been in place for the new Eric Gray centre, and that it would be “fundamentally unfair” if the council did not ask others to do the same.
Fraser questioned if that would affect the project’s timeline – with the pitch needing to be in place by 30 June 2025 to ensure it receives the full £500,000 funding from Scottish Football Association.
He was assured by finance chief Paul Fraser that would not be the case.
Depute convener Bryan Peterson – who told members he was most definitely “not a sports person and not an ex-referee” – seconded Robinson’s proposal.
He said he had spoken to a number of people about how important the project would be, and said he supported it.
After a vote, Robinson’s amendment to ask for £690,000 to be paid back into the council’s reserves from the pitch’s income was passed by 12 votes to eight.
Construction work on the new 3G pitch is expected to start in January.
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