School sports pitches have been sacrificed by one-third of Scottish councils undertaking building programmes financed by controversial public private partnerships, The Herald can reveal today.
School sports pitches have been sacrificed by one-third of Scottish councils undertaking building programmes financed by controversial public private partnerships, The Herald can reveal today.
Official figures from SportScotland, the national sports development agency, show 10 of the country's 30 authorities that have used PPP projects to improve their school estate between 1996 and 2008 now have fewer playing fields.
The outcome has been described as a "national scandal" at a time when Scottish pupils take part in less physical education than those in nearly any other part of the developed world, and the nation is officially the world's second-fattest behind America, with more than one-quarter of adults classified as obese.
Currently, 27% of boys and 40% of girls fail to meet the target of at least one hour of moderate activity most days.
Today's statistics show the most playing fields were lost by Stirling Council, which has nine fewer football, rugby, or hockey pitches, followed by Falkirk, down seven, and West Lothian, down six.
Other councils to lose pitches are East Dunbartonshire, South Lanarkshire, Inverclyde, East Ayrshire, South Ayrshire, Fife and Moray.
The local authorities point to a net countrywide gain of 19 pitches, with 13 councils gaining fields, and say most of the replacements are all-weather synthethic surfaces.
However, critics say the official figure does not include "informal sporting areas" around former pitches, and claim the real loss is far greater.
Colin Rennie, manager of Fields in Trust Scotland, said: "It is deeply worrying that, as a nation, we are allowing this to happen at a time when health statistics show we are far too inactive.
"We understand that the condition of our schools meant that the government should seek to replace these schools with new ones, but the fact we have lost pitches in some areas as a result is nothing short of a scandal.
Across Scotland, 30 of Scotland's 32 councils have used or are currently using PPP to rebuild or refurbish around 300 schools by 2009. SportScotland monitors PPP planning proposals that impact on sports pitches, and can formally object during the planning process.
Isabel Hutton, education spokeswoman for Cosla, which represents councils, said: "Local authorities will weigh up a range of factors, such as school rolls, the need to close or amalgamate schools or the building of new schools and, therefore, it would be misleading to make simple comparisons between headline numbers.
"All of Scotland's local authorities remain fully committed to playing their part in improving the health and fitness of our children and young people."
