Council agrees £5,000 island games grant
SHETLAND Islands Council has agreed to grant £5,000 to the Shetland Island Games Association towards the cost of competing in this week’s events in Gotland.
The request had initially been deferred by the local authority’s policy and resources committee last week amid concern that the application for funding – received in May – had come too late in the day.
A new scheme is to be set up to deal with any future applications for funding from islanders travelling to national and international sporting events.
Taking the decision while this year’s sporting action is taking place, several councillors said there would have been no doubt over awarding the grant had the application been submitted earlier.
Deputy leader Steven Coutts had proposed not granting the money at this stage on the grounds that the council needed to be “open and transparent and not making policy on the hoof”.
“There’s no doubt participants in the island games are ambassadors for Shetland, and we wish them well,” he said, “ but I think in terms of timing of the application, they timed this wrong.”
He suggested creating a scheme to “provide certainty to individuals that are going away as ambassadors to Shetland” in line with the timeframe for setting the local authority’s 2018/19 budget.
That suggestion was unanimously accepted. But members also voted 11-5 in favour of an amendment from Central ward councillor Ian Scott to grant the £5,000 towards the cost of Team Shetland’s efforts this year.
“It’s a modest amount and these people spend a lot of money going there,” Scott said.
He said that, while it was unfortunate some people may not have gone to Gotland on financial grounds, the council should be seen to support “a bona fide, respectable organisation that’s worked hard for the last 20-odd years”. Scott added: “It’s not as if they’re going to nick off to the pub with it!”
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West Side councillor Theo Smith concurred, saying the message the SIC had sent out up to this point had been “pretty poor”, and he welcomed both Coutts’ proposal for a new scheme and Scott’s call for the funding application to be approved.
“We’re not giving it to any Tom, Dick or Harry,” he said. “It’s going to be used properly, and I think we should entrust them to do that.”
Central ward member Davie Sandison pointed out that raising funds for the island games was a “continuous process”, and he felt the council’s contribution could be viewed as “seedcorn”.
“This council should put out a general comment out to the business community of Shetland, and say get out there and support people who are doing things [to represent the islands].”
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