Majority back hockey pitch move to Lerwick, SIC says
SRT says Brae facility is losing £5k a year at present
BUILDING a new hockey pitch in Lerwick and a 3G football pitch in Brae could save Shetland Islands Council £500,000, a meeting will hear next week.
Councillors will be told that there is a reduced capital cost to taking on the existing Brae hockey pitch and turning it into a synthetic football surface, instead of building a new pitch on the existing Brae school site.
However the move has been met with strong opposition, with both the Delting and Whalsay hockey teams telling the SIC they do not want to see the hockey pitch move to Lerwick.
The SIC has consulted on two prospective options regarding the hockey pitch, which relate to plans for a new school in Brae.
Estimates have suggested that a new Brae education campus could now open in late 2028, possibly in October.
One option is for the council to purchase the Brae hockey pitch from Shetland Recreational Trust (SRT) and resurface it for football, and create a new 3G hockey pitch in Lerwick.
Another is to build a new synthetic football pitch on the current school site once the old buildings are demolished – which is the current plan.
Elected members are set to decide at next Monday’s education and families committee meeting whether to continue with that or pivot to the Lerwick hockey pitch plans.
Estimates from the council show that it could cost £7.97 million to build a new 3G football pitch on the existing Brae school site, but would cost £7.46 million to instead build a new 3G hockey pitch in Lerwick and play football on the former Brae hockey surface.
The SIC said the £510,000 saving related to reduced groundworks, lower pitch construction costs because parts of the hockey pitch would be reused and reduced requirements for roads, footpaths and kerbing.
Over the course of 25 years, however, the SIC said it could cost £1.29 million more to maintain and replace both a synthetic football pitch in Brae and 3G hockey surface in Lerwick.
Councillors at Monday’s meeting will be warned that any delay to their decision “will impact on the timescales” for the Brae campus project and “could place the overall project in jeopardy”.
Strong opposition has been voiced to plans to take the hockey pitch away from Brae, but the SIC said the majority of people felt that it was the preferred option.
A public consultation was held throughout April to the plans, which garnered 1,107 responses. Several public meetings were also held.
The SIC said that there was “overwhelming agreement that Shetland needs to retain at least one synthetic hockey pitch”, and broad agreement that the North Mainland also needed to retain a football pitch.
While Shetland Hockey backed the plans for a new hockey surface in Lerwick, two hockey clubs – Delting and Whalsay – voiced their opposition to the plans.
Delting said it was in support of a new hockey facility, but felt it “should be in addition to the Brae pitch, and not in replacement of”.
And the club said it felt they should have been approached as soon as the takeover of the hockey facility was tabled, so that they could provide context and raise any concerns.
“It is extremely disappointing that this oversight has left our community feeling like decisions have been made without proper discussion and without seeking the views of everyone who currently accesses and enjoys the pitch,” it said.
Whalsay also said it would oppose the move of the hockey pitch to Lerwick, saying the distance its players would have to travel for games would potentially see players leave the game.
“Some of our team-mates would not be able to catch an earlier ferry due to work commitments and would then result in us having low numbers,” it said.
“There is also the possibility of weather disruptions and the ferry running to Vidlin adding extra travel time.”
It added that there were serious concerns about there being no available changing facilities at a prospective Lerwick pitch, calling this “unacceptable”.
However, the SIC said most respondents to its consultation were in favour of the hockey pitch moving to Lerwick – including Shetland Hockey and the SRT.
“Travel to Brae is a barrier for South Mainland, Westside and Lerwick families, especially for juniors who rely on lifts,” it said.
“Hockey participation has declined in some areas because the only pitch is too far away. A Lerwick pitch would make hockey more visible, accessible and sustainable.”
Shetland Recreational Trust has supported plans to hand the Brae hockey pitch over to the SIC, with the charity essentially losing money on the facility each year.
The SRT said that income for the pitch is around £15,000 per annum, but that running costs were around £20,000.
And the trust said the pitch would soon need replaced, but that there was “no dedicated funding source” to do this work.
The estimated cost of resurfacing the existing hockey pitch is approximately £815,000, councillors will hear next week, with an estimated cost of £1.2 million for a new pitch.
The Brae campus options appraisal will go before education and families on Monday, and then the policy and resources committee on Wednesday 24 June.
It will finally be debated at the full council on Tuesday 30 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 into 2027.
The Scottish Government has already committed to providing half of the funding, though this would come over a 25-year period.
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