Youth football clubs across South Lanarkshire are facing “astronomical” price hikes for pitch lets after the council slashed the discount they are entitled to.
Coaches and parents are up in arms and a petition to stop the changes has quickly gathered thousands of signatures.
And grassroots officials are planning to get together next week for a crisis meeting in a bid to fight back.
Up until now, children’s teams enjoyed a discount of 75 per cent for pitch lets – that will now become 50 per cent.
Chris Hampton from UTD Sports in Cambuslang, raised his concerns over the decision and he will work with other clubs to lobby the council.
He said: “The price hike is astronomical, I’ve informed all the members and parents this morning about it, telling them about what this will mean for the club, what it will mean financially, what it means as a community in a wider sense. And after speaking to some other clubs they’re on the same boat, so we’ve all emailed all the local councillors.”
The cost for letting pitches for UTD Sports will go up considerably.
Chris said: “We’ve been running since 2016, and the reduction has always been 75 per cent for under-16s, a 75 per cent reduction from the total adult cost.
“At this moment in time, our teams use Stonelaw High School’s Community Sports Centre, so a pitch there now is costing us £12.50 per hour for a seven-a-side pitch. Round the corner at Eastfield it is £15 per hour for a seven-a-side pitch, which is absolutely fine.
“We initially thought that with the emails we received on Friday that those lets were going up by a couple of pounds, we thought we were going to be paying about £14 for the £12.50 one and about £17 for the £15 one, which we were fully expecting and we were absolutely okay with.
“But now, the let price is now going from £12.50 per hour for a seven-a-side pitch to £26.75 an hour, it’s going up by 114 per cent.
“Since 2016 we’ve never put up our monthly fees to be part of the club, we’ve tried to make it as affordable as possible. However, from March 1 for the first time ever we had to put the fees up by £10 because we were already pre-empting these increases by the council, but what we weren’t pre-empting was a 114 per cent rise. So right now, our lets have now massively gone up from April 1. That’s before the kids play a match at the weekend, that’s purely for them to go on the training pitch.”
He added: “We’ve written to the council today to say that these unprecedented increases are only going to result in one thing, it’s going to mean that local teams are going to cease to exist, purely because of the astronomical price increases. Unless teams are willing to put these fees onto parents, which in a cost of living crisis, nobody’s wanting to put those costs onto parents, teams are going to then fold and cease which will then have a huge negative impact on the children of South Lanarkshire, who will either have to go to other council areas to access football or they’ll just not access football at all because we’ve been priced out the market.”
Other clubs in the area are facing the same issue. Blantyre Soccer Academy will see the cost of lets almost double which will have a huge impact on the club and the children.
Jimmy Whelan from Blantyre Soccer Academy said the council made the decision without speaking with local clubs.
He said: “We had no consultation on this with the council to tell us that they were putting the lets up, we understand the lets will go up every year but not to an extent like this.
“We used to pay £20.50 for an under-16 pitch, now we’ll pay £40.90.
“It’s going to have an effect on the club because we’re a means tested club, we charge fees obviously but because we’re in a high SIMD (Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation) area, we try and make it as little as possible for the kids to participate, this is just going to blow things right out of the water.
“We have overheads and the kids are all provided with kits and different things, and I just don’t know how parents are going to afford it to be honest. And the club can’t sustain it.
“We’ve never had an increase like this before.”
Brian McLear from Eddlewood Football Association in Hamilton fears that the price increase will turn children away from football.
He said: “The facility increase has a huge impact on our current fees and will affect our club at all age groups and their ability to function.
“As a club we will need to put additional costs onto parents and carers during a cost of living crisis and young players will be unfairly pushed away from sport.
“At Eddlewood Football Association, a registered charity, we have always taken pride in keeping our costs low to support child wellbeing and inclusion in sport.”
Neil Mcgeady from East Kilbride Thistle Amateur football club fears he will have to close the club due to the price increases.
He said: “If we have to stay and play in East Kilbride, I’ll need to fold my team because it’s bad enough the now in East Kilbride playing football.
“I’ve emailed the council saying I won’t be using the pitches until this is sorted.
“I think if the council wants to see Scottish football progress, they’ll need to put some of their prices down. I understand things need to go up but this is the biggest increase I’ve ever seen.”
And Club Chairman of Kirkfield United in Lanark, David Manning, said: "We feel that by providing a safe environment for young people to play, train, engage effectively with others and crucially have fun is critical for their mental / physical wellbeing and social development.
"Therefore, we are both saddened and disappointed to learn of the recent proposal by South Lanarkshire Council to increase the charges for the hire and utilisation of their football pitches and the impact that this will have on our Club’s continuation and more importantly on our young people.
"The 114% increase will result in an annual short fall of £32,353.20.
"Although we can increase Club fees to cover some of this shortfall, it will not be possible to cover all. Additionally, our Parents and Carers are experiencing cost increases in all aspects of their lives. For some, this will result in the very difficult decision to remove their child from undertaking in extra curriculum activities.
"This decision will therefore have a long-lasting impact on both the sporting development of football within this country and more importantly on our young people whom we should be supporting through facilitation and accessibility to opportunities for all, not just a few. "
And a petition has been set up by Blantyre Community Council calling on South Lanarkshire Leisure Trust, South Lanarkshire Council, Trust Members and all South Lanarkshire Councillors to intervene and reverse this unreasonable decision. It has been signed almost 4000 times.
Councillors across the area have been inundated with complaints from clubs and parents who are worried about the eye-watering increase.
At a full council meeting held last month, the SNP group contested the charges and voted against the increase, however they were out-voted by other political parties.
An SNP council group spokesperson said: “The impact on sports clubs is devastating as we predicted and was entirely avoidable. The sustainability of many local clubs is now a real concern.
“All 27 members of our group voted against these cuts. We proposed a budget which included £2m additional funding to SLLC (South Lanarkshire Leisure and Culture) which would have removed the need for this level of price increase. The administration and their pals need to own this decision and explain how they will support local clubs and do so quickly. “
And Rutherglen MSP Claire Haughey wrote to South Lanarkshire Council’s leader Joe Fagan expressing her disappointment and urging him to protect grassroots sports.
In the letter, she wrote: ‘Understandably, I have been contacted by many constituents who are furious about these changes – most of whom are concerned that their kids’ football teams or dance groups will be forced to close given the significant additional costs. Clubs themselves have contacted me saying that they do not feel that they can pass on these additional costs to parents and carers because of the cost of living crisis, leaving them in a no-win situation.
‘According to some of this correspondence, the price of some football pitches has more than doubled from £12.50 per hour to £26.75 per hour, effectively wiping out any benefit clubs once had when compared to standard junior rates. By the time SLLC’s uplift is accounted for, the devastating effect of the slashing of the concession rates means some costs are rising by 114%.
‘This is nothing short of a disgrace.
‘It is time for the council administration to step up, own their decision, and outline how they are going to protect grassroots sports and groups in its aftermath.’
A crisis meeting is planned for next Tuesday at 5.30 at Newton Farm Primary, where representatives from teams will discuss the changes.
South Lanarkshire Council have been approached for a comment, but have not yet responded.
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