If U-turning were a competitive sport, Stewart Maxwell would be in pole position to win gold. The Sports Minister in the Scottish Government confirmed yesterday that the SNP had gone back on its Holyrood election manifesto to abolish sportscotland, the national sports development agency. Instead, plans to move the agency's headquarters from the outskirts of Edinburgh to the new national indoor arena in the east end of Glasgow, which had been thrown into jeopardy by the SNP's pre-election pledge, will now proceed. Much political capital has already been made by the opposition parties, which have not been slow to seize on the U-turn. But that will be of no concern to sportscotland or, indeed, those with an interest in ensuring sport has its rightful place in delivering a better, healthier future for Scots. The relocation, which was central to the previous Scottish administration's bid to host the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, should be a dynamic for economic and social change to break cycles of poverty and ill-health in deprived areas in the city and beyond. Frankly, moving sportscotland should never have been put in doubt by the SNP raising the prospect of a match being lit under the agency in a much-vaunted, if in this case an ill-thought-out, bonfire of the quangos.

If U-turning were a competitive sport, Stewart Maxwell would be in pole position to win gold. The Sports Minister in the Scottish Government confirmed yesterday that the SNP had gone back on its Holyrood election manifesto to abolish sportscotland, the national sports development agency. Instead, plans to move the agency's headquarters from the outskirts of Edinburgh to the new national indoor arena in the east end of Glasgow, which had been thrown into jeopardy by the SNP's pre-election pledge, will now proceed. Much political capital has already been made by the opposition parties, which have not been slow to seize on the U-turn. But that will be of no concern to sportscotland or, indeed, those with an interest in ensuring sport has its rightful place in delivering a better, healthier future for Scots. The relocation, which was central to the previous Scottish administration's bid to host the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, should be a dynamic for economic and social change to break cycles of poverty and ill-health in deprived areas in the city and beyond. Frankly, moving sportscotland should never have been put in doubt by the SNP raising the prospect of a match being lit under the agency in a much-vaunted, if in this case an ill-thought-out, bonfire of the quangos.

While welcoming the Scottish Government's decision, there are aspects of the overhaul of sports organisation in this country that give cause for concern. Chief among these is the subsuming of the Scottish Institute of Sport (SIS) into a streamlined sportscotland. SIS prepares elite athletes for world-class competitions but its board will disappear in the shake-up. Dougie Donnelly, the commentator and SIS chairman, tells The Herald today that he was not consulted about the move. While the sportscotland U-turn demonstrates that the SNP was prepared to take on board the many reservations expressed about scrapping sportscotland (such was the chorus of opposition that ignoring it would have been a huge politcal risk), it is regrettable, to say the least, that the same courtesy was not shown to SIS.

The Commonwealth Games are the only multi-sport, world-class event in which Scotland fields its own team of elite athletes. How can marginalising the high-powered top-achievers who have given their expertise and commitment to SIS serve the interests of Scottish athletes looking ahead to the Commonwealth Games on their own turf in 2014 (and the London Olympics two years earlier) be a positive or a justifiable step? It will be harder to attract people of their calibre in future.

Like athletes, the agencies and bodies that look after their interests must be lean and fit. There is scope to slim down sportscotland and give it a sharper focus. But it is difficult to see how the plans for SIS can help the performance of our elite athletes. Other matters need to be clarified, most notably the question of funding the sportscotland relocation and the reorganisation of the merged body into four regional hubs. Sport will now have to pick up part of the bill. This seems unfair, given that the shake-up is not of the sector's making and given sportscotland's long-term commitments - which could now be made more difficult to meet.