Councillor wants to see national sports competitions brought back to Perth

dailyrecord.co.uk:

A Perth and Kinross councillor has called for financial investment to bring national sports competitions back to Perth.Following the closure of the city's Bell's Sports Centre in the summer, several tournaments which took place there are now being held elsewhere in Scotland.Cllr Frank Smith has made an appeal to bring the empty sports venue back into use and capitalise on the "huge potential out there".The Conservative councillor - who as a former golf pro at Craigie Hill Golf Club is passionate about sport - told councillors of his sadness at seeing national competitions disappearing from the Perth stage.At a meeting of Perth and Kinross Council's Scrutiny and Performance Committee on Wednesday, November 20 the Amond and Earn ward councillor asked Live Active Leisure's chief executive what was being done to attract large sports events to the Fair City.Cllr Smith said: "There are a lot of new sports appearing all the time.

My feeling is what are you doing in terms of bringing tournaments to this area?"For example, we have to go to Toryglen, Ravenscraig to play different competitions.

What have you got events planning so you can set up something in the future for us?"Chief executive Paul Cromwell told councillors venue options were now limited following the closure of Bell's Sports Centre.The decision to close Bell's was taken due to financial pressures and repeated flooding of the venue, most significantly in October 2023 when several flood gates on the Perth Flood Prevention Scheme were not closed in time.At Wednesday's meeting Mr Cromwell said: "Obviously we are much more limited now without Bell's.