Elected Member Briefing - Information on accommodating sports groups following the closure of Bells Sports Centre

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

Background

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 has been circulated as an attachment to this briefing.

Last modified on 17 September 2025