The All Weather Sports Court Project

The Shieldaig grass sports field build in 1996 with grant assistance from Sportscotland provides good and well used facilities for young people in the village to play football in fine weather. It is also used regularly by the school for physical education. The field and the surrounding fencing have been kept in good condition.

A needs assessment carried out by the Community Council in 2004 identified 2 major deficiencies in locally based provision for sport and recreation facilities which are useable in wet weather (when the surface of the grass field is unplayable or can be damaged) and facilities which will be used by the adult members of the community.

Since then it has also become clear that the school playground is totally inadequate and that they too lack facilities for wet weather physical education. 

The decision was therefore taken to re-establish the Shieldaig Sports Association to develop an open-air multi sports court in the village adjacent to the grass sports field and the primary school. To make maximum use of the facility and to be cost effective, it was decided to make it a dual use community/school project and to draw up a specification which enabled the court to be used for the maximum number of sports and to be attractive to the widest range of local participants. It was decided at an early stage that Shieldaig was too small to try to develop its own indoor recreation centre. People would have to continue to travel to Torridon, Gairloch, Inverness or Glenmore Lodge depending on their specialist interests.

Aims

 The aims of the project are : 

• to raise general levels of fitness and well-being in the community by encouraging those who take little part in sport and recreation now to do so in the future. While some people keep very fit, too many do not.
• to provide a facility for youth football which is useable for longer and in poorer weather conditions than the existing sports field. The underlying aim is as much to do with social development and community inclusion as building fitness levels.
• to widen the range of recreational provision in the community making it an attractive place for young families to choose to live and work.  Shieldaig is fortunate in having a nucleus of working families because of the jobs in the local prawn fishery and the recent development of affordable housing.  But inadequate local facilities can still be a deterrent to families deciding to stay or move in.
• to provide the primary school with a safe (sheep free) “superviseable” play ground and all weather facility to be used for physical education

 Facilities

The proposal is to build a multi sports court based on Sportscotland’s outline specification. The 648 sq m. court will accommodate a full size 5 a side football pitch and doubles tennis court and be useable for basketball/netball, short hockey and cricket, badminton, volleyball and “sports hall” athletics. The court will be fully fenced. Placing it next to the existing grass sports field will enable all of Shieldaig’s sport and recreation facilities to be located in the same area and make use of the existing wooden sports equipment store and changing room. It will also simplify the drainage arrangements for the sports court by enabling these to be linked in with the existing drainage for the grass sports field. The specification for the court will include for a fast draining, robust, easily maintained surface with low costs in use. This will be the over-riding consideration and compromises will be necessary as between the ideal playing surface for the individual sports. Skateboarding and biking will not be permitted on the court. The design will enable full access by the disabled.  

 As with the grass field, vehicular access to the sports court will be discouraged in order to minimize traffic past the school entrance. This will be even more important given the court’s extensive use by the school.