Elected Member Briefing - Information on accommodating sports groups following the closure of Bell's

About this Briefing Note

Report by: Stephen Crawford, Strategic Lead - Property Services

EMBN Number: 064-25

Date: 17 June 2025

Subject: Information on accommodating sports groups following the closure of Bell's

Details

Purpose

To avoid taking up time of Council on 18 June 2025 with answers on detailed figures for the arrangements made to accommodate sports clubs within the wider estate in Perth following the closure of Bell's Sports Centre.

Briefing Information

From the Council decision in January 2024 on the Transformation of Leisure Assets report it has been the Council's clear direction to reduce the three current major sports/leisure sites into one on the grounds of affordability. This was first highlighted as a proposal for consideration in the December 2023 Transformational Review of Arms Length Organisations, and was acknowledged as one of the reasons for approving the Live Active Leisure withdrawal of services from Bell's Sports Centre in May 2024.

Due to the size and location of the Bell's Sports Centre site it was not considered suitable for the size and scale of development required to accommodate the facilities mix agreed for the single site as part of the Transformation Review of Leisure Assets. As a result, and as set out in Appendix 6 to the Perth City Integrated Investment and Leisure Assets Review Update report to Council, officers have worked with Live Active Leisure to map existing sports hall provision in Perth to allow block booking for sports clubs in the 2024/25 season.

That appendix sets out information on availability and usage of sports halls in Perth city and plans for improving access and moving to a single booking system.

This briefing provides detailed response to recent correspondence from the Community Sports Network which suggested that particular sports had not accommodated. The detailed breakdown of accommodation on these sports shows teams and groups were accommodated last year in the wider sports hall estate in Perth. Additional sports were also accommodated.

Allocation by sports group 2024

Netball

• Bridge of Earn Netball Club at North Inch Community Campus
• Cherrybank Netball Club at Bertha Park
• Perth and Kinross District Netball at Bertha Park
• Perth and Kinross Netball Association at North Inch Community Campus
• Perth and Kinross Junior Netball Association at North Inch Community Campus
• Perth Senior Netball League - offered space at two schools but chose Strathallan
• Tower Tiger Netball - Glenearn Community Campus

Table Tennis

• Saints TT - North Inch Community Campus on Thursday day nights. Requested four tables and were provided suitable space.
• Perthshire Table Tennis - Friday nights at North Inch Community Campus. Request for four tables was accommodated.
• Perth and Kinross District Table Tennis - Tuesday nights at Bertha Park. Request for six tables. If this cannot be accommodated in one hall then there is scope to extend the booking, earlier or later, and use an adjacent hall to provide required space.

Badminton

• Multiple bookings accommodated from various clubs/groups
• Some availability for casual bookings is retained at North Inch Community Campus or Glenearn Community Campus each night during the week

Roller Derby

• Fair City Rollers - accommodated at Perth High Sports Hub

Volleyball

• Perth Volleyball Club - accommodated at Perth High Sports Hub on Tuesday evenings as per their request.
• District Leagues - there was no request to host the district leagues in the public estate by the conclusion of last year's mapping exercise in June last year.  This was hosted at Perth UHI.  We did receive requests later in the year for additional space.

Demand for indoor football space

Football is incredibly popular and current takes up considerable time and space across our leisure estate, space which would then be available for other sports/ groups if Council agrees to proceed with synthetic pitches at Bell's.

The majority of football usage of current sports halls is for 5-a-side/ junior training, with around 6 hours of 5-a-side training a week through block bookings, and around 2-3 hours of additional ad hoc bookings for 5-a-side. This is in comparison to 20+ hours per week of bookings when Bell's was operational.

While the high level proposal for Bell's Sports Centre considered in September suggested non-regulation 7-a-side football, you will note that the follow-up consultation and the report before Council refers to synthetic pitches only without reference to a particular sport. However, the current usage shows that there is demand for 5-a-side/ training space which can be accommodated within the proposed synthetic pitch space.

Available court space in Perth and Kinross

Elected members may also find it useful to have sight of a recent FOI response which sets out the court hall provision in Perth city, including size, and current line markings. This is circulated as an attachment to this briefing.

IR 5349 FOI Response

Request details:

I would be grateful if you could please tell me how many competition-sized netball, basketball, volleyball and badminton courts on the council's estate have been available to book for sports organisations and the public in each of the last 5 years in a) the total council area, and b) within Perth City.

Service response:

All Perth & Kinross Council school facilities that have games halls are available to book by sports organisations and the public, either via MyPKC or the ECS Lets Team.  All facilities meet SportsScotland guidance for the lines that they have down and have been available for booking for the last five years with the exception of during the National Health Pandemic. 

Games halls range in size throughout the estate, details of secondary school hall sizes within Perth & Kinross including those located in Perth City are noted below.  Primary school games halls are available for use, and these vary in size between one and two courts. 

The vast majority of games halls are marked for various sporting activities.