Council confident £500k grant will not be withdrawn if 3G pitch overruns June deadline

SHETLAND Islands Council is confident that a £500,000 grant for the new 3G pitch will not be pulled if the project goes past its 30 June deadline.

The Scottish Football Association (SFA) has pledged the sum to the all-weather pitch in Lerwick, with councillors hearing previously that the facility had to be open by the end of June or else the money would be withdrawn.

However sports and leisure manager Neil Watt said he was now confident that was not a “hard deadline like it might have been”.

He said the football association was “far more relaxed about their support of the project” now that construction was about to begin.

Work at the site is expected to start early in March, Shetland News reported earlier this month, with councillors told of that new start date at Monday’s education and families committee meeting.

Construction had initially been due to begin on the £1.46 million project at the start of January, but that has been pushed back after talks between the council and contractors.

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Watt said the SFA could “understand the reasons why the project is starting slightly later”, and was “very comfortable” with the council’s progress.

And he added they were “content if it runs over a bit – they’re no concerned about it”.

Council leader Emma Macdonald said that was a “good thing”.

But she questioned whether the council had “absolute clarity” that if the project did go past the 30 June deadline the SFA would not pull its £500,000 funding.

“You said the word ‘probably’, and ‘probably’ gives me a little bit of fear,” Macdonald said.

“I think we need that clarity that we will definitely be given that funding if it goes beyond the date.”

Watt agreed that he would ask the SFA to put it in writing to the council, but said he was sure the association was “fully committed to the project”.

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According to the papers put before councillors on Monday the pitch project is expected to be completed in June and is “likely to meet” the target set.

The £1.46 million project was finally given the go-ahead in December 2024, with Shetland Islands Council set to put £690,000 in towards the costs.

The Scottish Football Association has pledged £500,000, with sportscotland committing £200,000.

Scottish Rugby has added £50,000, with both Shetland Rugby and Shetland Football Association putting £10,000 in.