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ABERDEEN CITY COUNCIL COMMITTEE: Culture & Sport Sub Committee DATE: 8 March 2013 DIRECTOR: Gayle Gorman TITLE OF REPORT: Sports Grants (Under £5,000) REPORT NUMBER: 1. PURPOSE OF REPORT This report brings before Committee applications for financial assistance from three organisations requesting under £5,000 and makes recommendations accordingly. 2. RECOMMENDATION(S) (a) That the Committee considers these applications and approves the following recommendations: Garthdee Alpine Sports £2450.88 Glentanar Community Football Club £1,170 Netball Scotland £3,500 North Region Girls Football League (NRGFL) £3,396 Ride the North £2,000 Scottish Institute of Sport (Grampian) £5,000 Stoneywood Dyce Cricket Club £1,585 3. FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS The sports grants budget for the 2012/13 financial year is £98,181. Assuming that the recommendations are approved at the Education, Culture and Sport and Culture and Sport Sub committees this cycle, there will be £12,311.62 remaining in this budget. Please see appendix 1 for previous awards of grants funding in the current financial year. 4. OTHER IMPLICATIONS Local sports groups and organisations adopt a variety of methods to attract funding, however some groups would be unable to host an event or develop further without the financial assistance available from the City Council. Groups who do not meet the criteria will be assisted by officers to source alternative solutions. 5. BACKGROUND/MAIN ISSUES The financial assistance budget for 2012/13 has been set by the Council at £98,181. Sports grants application forms and guidelines are available on the Aberdeen City Council website www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/sportsgrant. These documents are also available in hard copy upon request. The grant criteria are directly linked to the five key objectives of “Fit for the Future” the Sport and Physical Activity Strategy for Aberdeen (2009-2015). Applications are assessed against the criteria and recommendations made for Committee approval. Officers support organisations with feedback and information about how to improve the quality of their application, where deadlines allow, and if it is requested. For more information about frequent reasons for resubmission, deferral or rejection please see appendix 2. 6.1 Garthdee Alpine Sports In April 2007, Aberdeen City Council transferred the management of the Garthdee Alpine Sports Centre to Garthdee Alpine Sports Limited (GAS) with a remit to deliver a continued service on behalf of the Council as an Arms Length External Organisation with charitable status. Garthdee Alpine Sport is looking to develop a community snowsports programme which would provide 6 x 6 week blocks of ski and snowboard lessons for children aged between 10 – 15 years living in the local community. The sessions would be focused on fun, gaining social skills; improving snowsports skills and further training for those who want to progress in freestyle or race training. This project is requesting funding to enable the lessons to be subsidised for the participants who may not be able to afford it or who are not currently engaged in sport and physical activity. Over the timescale of this project it is estimated that a maximum of 120 children and young people would have the opportunity to participate in these sessions. Although this application does not fully demonstrate how the organisation will target young people and evaluate the success of the initiative, the concept is good, whilst requiring some further development. As an arms length organisation council officers will work with the facility to develop this proposal. On the basis of the above, officers recommendation is that the Garthdee Alpine Sports should be conditionally allocated £2450.88 subject to further discussions regarding targeting and evaluation of the programme. Funding Requested Funding Recommended £2450.88 £2450.88 6.2 Glentanar Community Football Club Glentanar Community Football Club was established in 1998 and is an Aberdeen city club based at Woodside Sports Complex providing opportunities for girls and boys to participate in football activity. Glentanar currently has a membership of 200 young people and is one of five clubs in the North Region who recently gained the Scottish Football Association Development Quality Mark Award. This is a prestigious award which recognises pro active clubs working to increase youth and community participation in the sport. The club has submitted an application for financial support to replace the current square box steel goals for a modern safer product which can be assembled/ dissembled on match days and for training. By having portable goals this will enable the club to have the ability to move pitches as appropriate for grounds maintenance and player development and it is hoped that it will also reduce the likelihood of vandalism at the facility. It is recommended that the committee approve the allocation of match funding towards this equipment to enable more young people to have the opportunity to play football. Funding Requested Funding Recommended £1,170 £1,170 6.3 Netball Scotland The Annual Netball Europe Open Championship will return to Scotland this year and will be hosted in Aberdeen at the Aberdeen Sports Village. This year‟s event has grown in size due to the development of netball to open level and will see Scotland, England, Wales, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, Switzerland and Gibraltar compete in this event between the 31st May and 2nd June 2013. Hosting this major event in the city gives Netball Scotland and Aberdeen City Council and partners an opportunity to promote the sport to schools, local community and clubs in and around the city. It will also allow spectators to see top class international players and provide an opportunity to develop umpires, bench officials and volunteers as we approach the World Youth Netball Championships and Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014. Netball Scotland will work in partnership with the Grampian Netball Network a recently created group who have been established to introduce the primary school engagement scheme, host a national pathway development group, coordinate coach and volunteer education programme and host major national and international events in the City. If this recommendation is agreed by committee it will allow the following activity to take place: - Netball Europe Open Championship – 7 teams participating over 4 days with 112 players, coaches, team managers, performance analysts and physiotherapists. - Volunteers – 50 volunteers will be recruited and trained - School Development Programme – host a school development programme on the 30th May in advance of the first game Scotland v Switzerland at 4pm for 150 participants - Netball Scotland Pathway Event – North development centre coaching session will take place on the 1st June with a question and answer session with the team and a viewing of the Scotland v Wales match. - Bench official training and testing – 6 Aberdeen based official will officiate and a further 4 will be trained during this event - Getting started and netball leaders award tutor training – 10 individuals based from the city will attend this enabling them to deliver tutor training. Funding Requested Funding Recommended £3,500 £3,500 6.4 North Region Girls Football League (NRGFL) This grant application includes two projects, both of which aim to develop football for girls of primary school age in Aberdeen, one at grass roots level and one for talented players. These two projects will help complement and develop the North Region Girls Football League existing programme of football events for girls of primary age in Aberdeen and will complement the SFA‟s Youth Action plan. The North Region Girls Football League consists of the following components: Project 1 – To increase the number of girls aged primary 1 to 4 age playing football in Aberdeen by running twenty six weekly fun football events during 2013 indoors at the Aberdeen Sports Village. This is designed to build on activities the NRGFL have run for this age group and will target 150 youngsters. These sessions will include a mix of fun activities, ball skills based training, 4v4 fun football and an introduction to goal – keeping. The NRGFL will also identify parent volunteers who are willing to become involved in helping to run the sessions and thereafter to become involved in assisting, forming and running sustainable groups of participants at either an existing girl‟s football club or an individual school or group of schools. The league will organise a coaching course and also provide ongoing support and guidance to the recruited volunteers. Project 2 – To form a girl‟s development centre for 25 selected players aged 8 – 12 years old from Aberdeen by running three 8 week blocks of training during 2013. These will offer a high level of coaching and will complement the existing development centres for talented girls at under 13‟s and under 15‟s age groups. Girl‟s football is one of the fastest growing sports in the region and these projects will help to raise the profile of football and sport in general for citizens of the city from a young age. On the basis of the above, officers recommendation is that the North Region Girls Football League should be allocated the full amount of their funding request. Funding Requested Funding Recommended £3,396 £3,396 6.5 Ride the North Ride the North is based around a cycle between the two principal cities in the north of Scotland and will be developed in future to highlight the beautiful scenery of locations such as Loch Ness, the Speyside Whisky Trail and Aberdeenshire‟s Castle Trail - all areas with many miles of quiet roads and offering wonderful cycling. While the future development will evolve as the event goes forward, it is proposed that the route/format will change each year to keep the event fresh and to highlight the extensive network of great cycling routes in the area. The intention is that the event will run annually between Inverness and Aberdeen, on different routes perhaps, but consistently linking the two cities.