Key Sporting and Other Partners

Football

Football has played a significant role in the social fabric of the far North of Scotland since 1883 and the area boasts one of the world's longest running football teams.

There are 14 football teams operating in the immediate area including Halkirk FC, Halkirk United FC, Caithness United FC, Caithness Boy's FC, Wick Academy FC and Thurso FC.

These clubs are indicative of a vibrant and highly successful network, which underpins the fabric of a remote and fragile economy.

The new indoor sports hall will operate in collaboration with the Highland Football Academy in Dingwall. The objective is to allow young people the opportunity to develop and demonstrate football skills and ability to the stage where they are able to progress to the professional ranks.

Currently, footballers and their families making use of the Highland Football Academy in Dingwall face a 200 mile round trip at least once a week to enjoy the coaching facilities at Ross County FC.

This journey is onerous in the extreme and places enormous demands on young players and their families alike. Unfortunately this causes a significant attrition rate of young, talented youngsters dropping out of coaching programmes. The new centre in Halkirk will provide facilities for coaching of high quality and thus act as a driver for the ongoing development of youth football in the north of Scotland.

A stakeholder audit confirmed that each of the local clubs will support the facility wholeheartedly. The results also indicate that each of the above clubs would constitute regular customers using the facility on average two evenings and one day per week, for an average of 9 months of the year with sporadic usage thereafter.

These results indicate that Football in the North of Scotland has a rich and highly successful heritage. What new successes the area could enjoy as a result of the new facility is a mouth watering concept

Rugby

Rugby is an important participation sport in Caithness. The local team - Caithness RFC have enjoyed meteoric success achieving promotion 3 times in the last 4 years and having players selected for the National Squad at various age levels.

One of the Club Coaches is the Scotland Under 18 National Coach and he has taken Scotland to the International FIRA competition in France.

Caithness RFC has indicated extremely strong support for the new facility. Their secretary has confirmed the club would use the new training facility at Halkirk, two evenings per week and for half a day on a Saturday.

The club has 50 players on the main list and over 150 juniors in their active coaching programme. The successes of the club have seen their regular spectators grow to over 500 people per game. This has resulted in ever more demand for coaching and training facilities which the region currently can not offer.

Caithness RFC has serious ambition and has developed an enviable track record for quality both on the field at national and international standard. This is supported by world-class coaching.

However, there is a potential plateau due to the limitations on winter training and the range of support services they can offer their senior players.

The new Halkirk Sports and Leisure Centre can be expected to play a pivotal role in the ongoing success of Caithness RFC.

Athletics

There are three major athletics clubs in the area. Caithness Amateur Athletics Club, Wick Triathlon Club and Caithness Distance Running Club.

Caithness Amateur Athletics Club currently has 74 junior and 37 senior members with a wide age range (ages 7 years to 60 years.

Whilst there are some indoor facilities, consistent access has proven to be an issue and owing to weather and prolonged periods of darkness implementing and sustaining training regimes has proven difficult - especially with juniors.

Their current 100m outdoor track - like many of the county's sporting venues - is prone to flooding, especially during the winter.

Whilst the Halkirk facility will not offer a straight 100m track it will provide a valuable indoor, year-round, circuit training option.

When allied with the Gymnasium, Health Club, Sauna/Steam rooms the facility will prove a much needed and high-quality addition to the athletics facilities currently in the county

Golf

In 2006 the Caithness and North Sutherland Junior Golf Partnership was formed to make the most of recourses and to advance coaching of the ever-increasing number of children taking up golf in Caithness. The clubgolf programme delivered by the Active Schools Coordinators has made a difference to the numbers of youngsters taking up golf in our area.

Some of the children who entered the programme at the start are now at a level where they need a higher standard of help, which in most areas of the country would be a simple process of visiting their local club Professional. However, children living in Caithness and North Sutherland, which are relatively remote and low population density areas, are lacking this facility.

It is important that we now develop more indoor facilities (to compliment those at Thurso High School and Thurso Golf Club) in order to keep the game from stagnating over the winter months and allow coaches to work all year round with juniors in order to help them reach their potential or personal goals.

Gymnasium and Leisure Suites

There are indoor gymnasium facilities in both Wick and Thurso at the Highland Council Swimming Pools. There are no privately operated gyms in the area.

Despite there being two well appointed gyms they cannot cope with demand and both are oversubscribed.

There are 3,000 members on the current members list in Thurso and a need for an additional 300 places.

These 300 places do not take into account the anticipated increase in use from the various clubs in the area, all of whom would make use of a facility if it were located where they are training.

The Gym is expected to play a key role with a variety of community groups, specifically new mothers who will be able to make use of the child care and crèche facilities in Halkirk. The Gym will include Sauna/Steam rooms to complete the package for a modern tailor-made facility. This will be supported by fitness rooms for yoga and aerobics.

Day Care, Crèche and Sports Clinic

There is a clearly identified need for crèche and day care facilities within the area.

There is a long established precedent for having day care and crèche facilities operating in tandem with gyms. This formula ensures the gym achieves a consistent user base through the day (when gyms are conventionally quiet) and frees up the apparatus for the peak evening sessions and weekend training regimes.

Four locally based therapists have indicated that they will use the sport injury clinic as a base to provide evening therapeutic sessions for the public.

Indoor Climbing Wall

The government has gone on record in HASPEV Part II stating that adventure education should provide a key element of the schools activity programme. However, there are no full scale indoor climbing facilities in the far North.

A small 10m by 7m climbing wall will allow children to engage with a hugely popular adventure sport. The facility will offer top-roped climbing activities and auto belaying devices.

Staffing, trained by a Mountaineering Instructor, will come from the existing compliment of staff.

Beyond school pupils, the primary market will be youth groups and the established adult leisure market in the north as evidenced by the Caithness Mountaineering Club.

The inclusion of the climbing wall will help overcome seasonality, spread the facility appeal to a wider market and ensure the centre offers an exceptional level of facilities for athletes of all ages and disciplines.

Coaching

Coaching Highland has indicated strong support for the development and would anticipate utilising the facility for the development of 'coach education' courses.

Coaching Highland has a primary aim to develop coaches and relevant support mechanisms. Although based in Inverness, Coaching Highland operates across the whole Highland area. The primary focus on core sports in any one year varies - currently the focus is on athletics, badminton, canoeing, cricket, curling, disability sport, golf, rugby, sailing and shinty. In previous years, the focus has fallen on basketball, football, hockey, rugby, swimming and tennis. They do however run a large number of courses annually for a vast number of other sports plus generic workshops such as Child Protection, First Aid and Sports Nutrition for example and all of these are open to coaches of any sport.

The Principal of North Highland College has given strong endorsement for the centre. This will allow students to offer NC level coaching without having to travel over 100 miles to Inverness

Events

The area attracts a number of major events, including the Halkirk Highland Games and the Nashville Country Music Festival which attract thousands of visitors to the area.

Discussions with event organisers and promoters confirms there is an unmet demand for a large, covered area for up to six large scale events throughout the year.

'Events' not only offer stable revenue streams but excellent growth potential as the value of such a large all weather stadium become apparent

Heritage and Restaurant

It is hoped that fund-raising will enable HCSF to construct a further building which will house the exceptional collection of vintage cars and other items of motoring memorabilia. The collection is presently in local private ownership, but it is understood that, one day, part of the collection may come into HCSF's ownership. Along with this collection, the building may also be able to accommodate heritage displays, organised by the Halkirk Heritage and Vintage Motor Society.

A further facility for this additional building would be a restaurant.

Café and Services

Catering will, of financial necessity, be a limited provision. Nevertheless, it is hoped that the provision of light refreshments during the period of operation through high quality vending will create a hub of social activity.