The Scottish Sports Alliance has launched its own manifesto ahead of the 2016 Scottish Parliament election
An alliance of sports bodies, councils and local clubs has demanded political parties put sport at the centre of their manifestos for the 2016 Scottish Parliament elections.
The Scottish Sports Alliance called on all parties to work with it to build on the success of Glasgow 2014 and get more people taking part in sport in the country.
Sport, the alliance says, has the ability to enhance economic productivity, reduce crime and enhance learning simply by improving people’s physical and mental health, and enhancing their learning and employability skills.
We need to ensure that politicians from across all parties in Scotland recognise the contribution that sport makes to Scotland
Launching the Scottish Sports Alliance’s own manifesto, record-breaking cyclist and adventurer Mark Beaumont, said: “Scotland is a nation that loves sport. Almost one-fifth of the Scottish population is a member of a sports club in Scotland.
“Following the huge success of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games – hailed as the “best Games ever” - we need to ensure that politicians from across all parties in Scotland recognise the contribution that sport makes to Scotland and to prioritise sport within their forthcoming manifestos.”
The Scottish Sports Alliance is the collective voice of the Scottish Sports Association, Scottish Student Sport and the Scottish Association of Local Sports Councils.
Together these organisations represent over 900,000 sports club members in Scotland.
The alliance’s manifesto outlines five key sporting priorities it thinks politicians should be focussing on in the run up to next year’s election.
These include getting health, justice, education and transport departments to set up partnerships together and earmarking more money for sport; more training of specialist PE teachers; a range of better facilities being made available; volunteering opportunities in sport being better supported and long term investment into sport to create a world class sporting system.
