Council / Council to explore Lerwick hockey pitch after narrow vote
AN OPTIONS appraisal which could lead to the construction of a new hockey pitch in Lerwick will be carried out by Shetland Islands Council (SIC).
The move came up against strong opposition in the council chamber on Wednesday, with several elected members voting not to carry out the appraisal.
It comes as the SIC considers plans for a new Brae school, which is likely to be built on the existing Delting football pitch site.
The SIC is proposing to either build a new synthetic football pitch on the current school site once the buildings are demolished, or to potentially purchase the Brae hockey pitch from Shetland Recreational Trust and resurface it for football.
In that scenario, the council said it would look to construct a dedicated, all-weather hockey pitch next to the new North Loch 3G pitch in Lerwick.
Several councillors were against the idea of a new hockey pitch being built in the town though, with Liz Peterson saying it could have a detrimental effect on the North Mainland.
And Moraig Lyall questioned how it would look if the council acquired an “aging SRT asset” like the hockey pitch, having not done so with Scalloway Pool.
Lyall called for the SIC to not carry out an options appraisal at all, and to instead to proceed with the Brae school project as planned.
Councillor Davie Sandison however said that the community thought that the Lerwick hockey pitch “was an idea worth pursuing”, urging his fellow members to at least explore the costs of the project.
The debate came during Wednesday’s full council meeting, where elected members were asked to instruct the education department to carry out an appraisal on the two potential options for the replacement of the Brae pitch.
They were also asked to refuse a request from Shetland Netball Association to extend the existing Brae games hall by 7.5 metres for the playing of competitive netball.
Project manager Andrew Lyall said a cost estimate had found this was likely to cost between £2-2.5 million, a figure which staggered councillor John Fraser.
“That is £3,333 per centimetre,” he said.
“That doesna add up for me.”
He asked for members to be briefed on how that “exorbitant” figure had been reached.
Lyall said sportscotland had been approached, but were not willing to contribute towards the cost.
North Mainland councillor Andrew Hall agreed the estimate “seems like a hell of a lot of money”, adding: “I’m not sure where that figure’s come from”.
Councillor Neil Pearson asked where hockey players would play if the one pitch in Shetland – at Brae – was purchased and resurfaced for football.
Lyall said that, in that scenario, the new hockey pitch in Lerwick would be built in the first quarter of the year during the “off-season”.
The hockey pitch in Lerwick, the Brae football pitch and the new school could all be built at the same time if that option was selected, he said.
The meeting heard that the Delting community had given the pitch to the SRT free of charge, and there was the expectation that the SRT would give it back to the SIC for free.
Depute political leader Gary Robinson said he was concerned the SIC was “creating an expectation we simply can’t afford to meet” by talking about a new Lerwick hockey pitch.
And Robert Thomson agreed, saying they were trying to build a new school at a reasonable cost.
“We can’t keep adding things on, and on, and on,” he said.
“If we had money this would be lovely, but we should not be building any new facilities.”
Shetland West member Liz Peterson said she felt “quite strongly” that the hockey pitch should be retained in Brae.
She said moving it could be “detrimental to the whole area”, adding people who used the pitch often ate at takeaways such as Frankie’s and visited local shops.
But Lerwick South councillor Fraser took a dim view of that argument, saying the future of the project “should not be defined by the sustainability of Frankie’s”.
He said he would likely be called a “Toonie so and so”, but said the hockey fraternity wanted a pitch built in Lerwick.
“For many years they’ve been crying out for a suitable facility in the town,” Fraser said.
A motion from Alex Armitage to continue with the extension of the games hall for netball did not secure enough support in the council chamber to proceed.
It came down to a vote between Sandison’s motion to proceed with the appraisal, and one from Moraig Lyall to throw it out and continue with the school construction as planned.
Sandison’s motion was passed with 11 votes against Lyall’s eight.
The options appraisal is set to be presented to councillors in June.
In January 2024 the SIC approved an outline business case for the Brae campus, with an estimated cost of approximately £42.5 million, subject to the approval of a full business case which has yet to come in front of councillors.
It had been expected that the full business case would be considered later this year, but the timeline has now slipped to spring 2027.
The Scottish Government has already committed to providing half of the funding, though this will come over a 25-year period.
The council estimates that the school could be delivered in October 2028.
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