Funding Community Sport

Part of the debate – in the Scottish Parliament at 10:18 am on 25 September 2008.

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Photo of James Kelly James Kelly Labour 10:18, 25 September 2008

I thank the member for that intervention, which was another useful advert. I urge everyone to sign Elaine Smith's motion on the issue.

I welcome the Olympics coming to London in 2012. I am already seeing some of the benefits of that in my constituency, in that the Toryglen sports development centre has been appointed a football training venue for the Olympics. I know that that will inspire many young footballers in the Toryglen area.

I recognise the importance of lottery funding to the Commonwealth games. We won only one gold medal in the 1996 Olympic games, and our success in the recent Olympics shows that our lack of success in the 1996 games was due to underfunding. The additional funding this year made a big difference. I hope that further funding can contribute to our success in 2014.

On lottery funding for the games, we have to recognise that a balance must be struck between the needs of the voluntary sector and the requirements of other lottery fund recipients. I acknowledge the work that the Big Lottery Fund does to support sports projects, such as the recent grant that was made to St Anthony's primary school in my constituency, which enabled it to buy badminton equipment.

The SNP Administration must take on board some of the issues around targets for PE and improving the infrastructure of schools. There are also challenges for councils. The total budget for sport across the councils is £500 million, but that will come under pressure as council budgets are decided for next year.

This has been an excellent debate to promote the cause of sport and identify the other policy areas whose outcomes we can improve by increasing participation in sport. I congratulate Margo MacDonald on using this motion to keep sport on the agenda. Let us keep talking sport up.