Parties unite in support of 2014 Games campaign

Published on Saturday 6 September 2008 22:49

SCOTLAND on Sunday's campaign to win Lottery funding for Glasgow's 2014 Commonwealth Games bid has won backing from every political party in Scotland and has led to a Scottish Parliament motion demanding a "significant" award of cash.

First Minister Alex Salmond, Labour leadership candidates Iain Gray and Cathy Jamieson, Lib Dem leader Tavish Scott and shadow Scottish secretary David Mundell have all declared they believe that an injection of extra Lottery funding is required to ensure that the historic event becomes the catalyst for a transformation in sporting infrastructure around the country.

A parliamentary motion is to be launched this week in a bid to win Lottery funding for Glasgow 2014. In the name of independent MSP Margo MacDonald, it will call for "substantial" sums of Lottery cash to be distributed to create a legacy around the games that "benefits all Scotland".

Britain's former 100-metre gold medallist, Allan Wells, has also given his backing to our campaign.

The campaign – A Fair Deal for Glasgow – was launched last week. Funding for the Glasgow Games, which will cost 300m, is already guaranteed, but organisers and politicians in Scotland say that extra Lottery cash is required to ensure the Games become more than just a one-off hit.

A host of projects which could benefit are being drawn up, in a bid to put pressure on the UK Government to back a one-off Lottery grant. It comes after the Scottish Government claimed that the huge Lottery funding required for the London Olympic Games in 2012 had sucked 150m of Lottery funds away from Scotland in order to pay for the massive construction project.

MacDonald's motion, to be lodged in Parliament this week, will ask MSPs to call for "a substantial sum of UK Lottery funding to be released now, thus ensuring both support for ongoing coaching programmes and a legacy from the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow that benefits all Scotland".

It adds that such investment would "lay the foundations for health and sporting improvements across the entire population of Scotland".

Along with Salmond, all three Labour leadership candidates – Andy Kerr, Iain Gray and Cathy Jamieson – said they backed the aim of securing Lottery money.

Gray said: "The 2014 Commonwealth Games should be more than a one-off event, it should provide a lasting legacy of regeneration, skills and of opportunities for people in Glasgow and across Scotland. I think we should look to Lottery funding to see if it can make a contribution to ensure this lasting legacy is secured for Scotland."

He added: "It's in Scotland's interests to work with, rather than against, Westminster on this and I hope the SNP can rise above their well-worn tactics, and resist using the Commonwealth Games as a political football."

Jamieson added: "I support using Lottery money to give Glasgow a lasting legacy from the Commonwealth Games. These Games give us the chance to engage Glasgow's population and improve the quality of life. Lottery money can help to increase participation in sport with resulting improvements in health and education.

"We can increase training opportunities and apprenticeships. By using Lottery money wisely in Glasgow we can transform Glasgow's statistics on health, education, employment, and crime. In doing this we improve Scotland's statistics at a stroke."

Tavish Scott, leader of the Scottish Lib Dems said: "Scotland can benefit enormously from London 2012 and the Glasgow Commonwealth Games. This really is a once in a generation chance to change the face of Scotland.

"That is why I support the Scotland on Sunday campaign and why I want politicians from across parties to work together to get a positive result for Scotland on this. It would be nothing short of a tragedy if, having awakened an interest in sport amongst our young people, we did not have the facilities and coaches required to allow them to get involved."

MacDonald added: "We want to give the Commonwealth Games added value. To use a sporting metaphor, the Chinese have raised the bar for all international events and Games. Of course, we aren't going to emulate that, but the standards that have been laid means that we have to have a higher ambition now."

UK sports minister Andy Burnham has so far ruled out any extra Lottery funding on the back of the Commonwealth Games. Ministers point out that the Glasgow Commonwealth Games bid team did not ask for Lottery funding when it made its bid.

Wells said he wanted to see a real, grassroots sporting legacy from the Glasgow Games.

"I would hope the system would be pro rata. This will be the only time, in my lifetime, when the Olympics will be in Britain and I think it will be great. But I understand that Lottery funding is being lost by different causes, not just the sport, to pay for it."