Glasgow’s poor ‘are priced out of sport’

THE poor are being excluded from new sporting facilities built to provide a legacy to the Commonwealth Games because the cost of using them is too high, MSPs have been told.

David Smith, chairman of Drumchapel Community Sports Hub, complained of a “postcode lottery” of access to sport in Scotland and said that investment in infrastructure in Glasgow was often benefiting those from further afield, rather than members of the deprived areas where centres were based.

His comments came as it emerged Glasgow Life, the council’s arms-length firm that runs sports facilities, has written to football clubs in the west of the city telling them that their long-standing bookings, which saw clubs rent pitches at a special 11-a-side match price and use them for training, would not be renewed so slots can instead be offered to private customers at more lucrative rates.

Mr Smith told Holyrood’s Health and Sport Committee, which was taking evidence on the legacy of Glasgow 2014, that higher costs meant grassroots clubs were looking to the private sector for cheaper alternatives.

He told MSPs: “We now have fantastic resources but now the issue is being priced out of using those facilities.

“Surely the people in that community should have the opportunity to get on to these surfaces and use the equipment that’s been bought. That’s certainly not the case, which is tragic.”

A Glasgow Life spokesman said the city was “leading the way” in improving access to sport facilities, with free swimming, golf, tennis and bowls events attended by 322,000 people last year. There is also a “free football happy hour” for under-18s.