Highland Council welcomes Scottish Rugby funding for Highland RFC

The Highland Council has warmly welcomed the news that Highland RFC has joined rugby clubs across Scotland to benefit from Scottish Rugby’s second round of Club Sustainability funding. 

Highland RFC was awarded £40,000 as a share of £340,000 of funding from Scottish Rugby worth shared across 12 clubs in the second round of support after last season’s first round investment.

The successful clubs have also received National Lottery funding from sportscotland to the value of over £300,000 for their projects, which have a combined cost of £5.9m, representing an unprecedented scale of investment in the infrastructure of club rugby in Scotland.

Andy Little Club Chairman at Highland RFC commented: “The Canal Parks redevelopment will provide first class facilities for our club, the wider rugby and sporting community in Inverness and surrounding area and the award of this funding from the Club Sustainability Fund is welcome as we continue to grow our sport in partnership with Highland Council and Scottish Rugby.”

In many cases the Club Sustainability Fund and sportscotland support contributes towards large-scale projects already being developed by clubs and backed by other funding partners such as local authorities.

Chair of the Planning, Development and Infrastructure Committee, Cllr Audrey Sinclair welcomed the announcement of the funding saying:

“This is excellent news for rugby in the Highlands. The major enhancement to the pitch, clubhouse and changing facilities will be a valuable asset for the wider community of Inverness and beyond. The synthetic pitch will provide an excellent new surface for rugby, with the added bonus of the facility being available for wider community use for sports such as football, shinty, hockey and American football.”

Plans, which formed part of the delivery of the West Link road and enhanced sports and recreational facilities, were approved by the Council for the reconfigured and enhanced rugby sports facility at Canal Parks, Inverness in August 2015.

The development will include the formation of an all-weather rugby pitch and repositioning of two re-graded grass pitches, with pitch lighting. The old clubhouse will be replaced by a new community clubhouse with a large carpark and a footpath from Whin Park to the Caledonian Canal. The pitches will be fenced, so as to allow dog walking around the site, but prevent fouling on the pitches. Access to the site will be from Bught Road.

Councillors approved the plans and agreed that there should be high quality landscaping and the potential for public art incorporated into the development.

The funding applications for either capital or revenue projects were assessed by both Scottish Rugby and sportscotland will also provide additional funding to enable many of the ambitious projects to be developed.

The revenue strand aims to help clubs increase their income, membership and relationships with the local community and businesses.

The capital strand will help clubs increase the quantity and quality of rugby participation in their area, by releasing money for large facility improvement projects, such as pitches, floodlights, training and changing areas.

Ed Crozier, President of Scottish Rugby, said: “The Club Sustainability Fund enables us to improve the infrastructure of the domestic game across Scotland through supporting clubs and their project ideas.

“Together with the BT sponsorship investment, we are helping to improve club facilities for grassroots rugby.

“We hope such investment will encourage more players and communities to get involved with their clubs to help create a rugby legacy within the domestic game.”

 Michael Cavanagh, sportscotland’s Lead Manager, Sports Development: “As we continue to build a first class sporting system for everyone in Scotland, our partnership with Scottish Rugby when delivering the Club Sustainability Fund is key to improving rugby facilities for clubs and communities.

“It will provide greater opportunities for people to take part in sport while also generating new revenues for clubs.”