THE ongoing regeneration of Scotland's canal network will take another step forward with funding confirmed for an "urban sports" centre in the heart of Glasgow.
Following the success of the giant horse-head steel sculptures known as the Kelpies near Falkirk and the creation of the watersports centre in Glasgow, Scottish Canals propose to convert part of their Port Dundas project in the city into an indoor skatepark.
The agency intends to transform a brick canalside warehouse into the only facility of its kind around in the city, with the aim of providing a facility of international quality.
Glasgow City Council has now recommended providing Scottish Canals with a grant of £300,000 to get the project off the ground. Councillors are due to approve the funding in the coming days.
A Scottish Canals spokeswoman said: "The skatepark is part of our plans to create an urban playground in the heart of North Glasgow and will complement the watersports centre opened last May."
Scotland's first purpose-built urban watersports centre opened on the banks of the Forth and Clyde Canal in Port Dundas last summer, costing around £3.5 million
The Pinkston Watersports Centre was designed by Andy Laird, who helped create the white water and canoe slalom courses at the 2012 London Olympics, at which Scots canoeists Tim Baillie and David Florence won gold and silver respectively.
Pinkston features customisable white water and slalom courses and is the country's only competition-standard paddlesports venue.
Billed as a catalyst for regeneration initiatives in and around Port Dundas and wider North Glasgow, according to a new report on the plans "the former industrial character of the area, including the canal and several vacant
warehouse buildings, lends itself well to the creation of an 'urban sports hub' of related activities".
The report says a vacant industrial building owned by Scottish Canals and known as the Loading Bay is now earmarked for the skatepark.
The report, by the city council's political head of development Liz Cameron, states: "Scottish Canals propose to convert part of the building into an indoor skatepark. This would be the first such indoor facility in the city, with the aim to provide a facility of international quality.
"In 2014 Scottish Canals produced an outline business case for the facility and have been working with designers who have experience in this field. A fundamental element of the business case is the involvement and participation of the local community.
"The adjacent watersports centre has successfully engaged with local communities, and the 'Loading Bay' would seek to build on this."
Sports development officers with local housing associations are also working with Scottish Canals to encourage involvement with communities.
Ms Cameron added that the skatepark proposal and paddlesports park would "act as a stimulus for development and future habitation of the former industrial site, breathing new life into a neglected canal-side asset and reawakening a forgotten but unique area of Glasgow by finding a new role for the Port Dundas area".
As well as the sports facilities, a new cultural quarter has been at Speirs Wharf, which is now home to the National Theatre of Scotland, Scottish Opera, and the Glasgow Sculpture Studio.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article