Sports facility plan dropped after youth football fears

The pitches at Kincorth are used by hundreds of people every week [BBC]

Plans for a sports facility in Aberdeen will not proceed after concerns it would take over pitches already used by hundreds of youth footballers.

A new all-weather Cruyff Court had been planned for the Kincorth area but it has now been agreed the council will look at using a disused bowling green instead.

It was also agreed plans would proceed to develop other Cruyff Court sites elsewhere in the city.

Local teams have welcomed the decision after months of campaigning to save their pitches.

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There are already three Cruyff Courts in Aberdeen.

They offer 24-hour access to small-scale, all-weather football and basketball facilities.

The idea was set up by the Johan Cruyff Foundation - founded by the Dutch international who died in 2016.

Aberdeen City Council's (ACC) finance and resources committee agreed to not proceed with the plans in Kincorth following engagement with the local community.

Kincorth AFC and Kincorth Emirates Youth - who use the pitches on the originally proposed site - said last year that a pitch used by hundreds of children would be lost as a result.

It was feared teams might have to disband.

Dani Kindness from the club told BBC Scotland News he hoped lessons would be learned by ACC and there was a sense of relief the plans had been shelved.

He added: "It is tight space for the amount of teams we have, so we were concerned it would take up too much room and we would lose pitches as a result.

"There was no dispute the court would be a fantastic thing for the area it just felt we had not been spoken to enough prior to them announcing plans for it.

"It feels like it was just a wee bit of poor communication."

'Community got behind us'

Kindness, who is also involved in running a summer tournament played by hundreds of youths, added the outcome was good for the area as it would not miss out on a development which would bring some good to the community.

"Kincorth is lacking facilities, it would have been a real shame to miss out on it totally," he said.

"The community got behind us and said there are definitely better options."

A joint motion from administration and opposition councillors noted the "clear majority view" of people in Kincorth was to develop the disused bowling green site.

It added plans would be developed to turn the site into a 3/4G pitch and a multi-sports facility.

The next steps will be discussed by the finance and resources committee later this year.

More on this story

• New sports facility could leave youth football teams without pitch