Meeting of the Parliament 12 February 2026 [Draft]
[Inaudible.] My competence with the technology in the chamber is matched by my competence at football.
In these sorts of debates, many of us will say that we came into politics and the Parliament to make a difference, but we all know that it is the organisations in our communities that really can make that difference. I am in awe of what Edinburgh South Community Football Club and Inch Park Community Sports Club do. They are community wealth building in action. We have just passed legislation on that, and Inch Park Community Sports Club was formed from an asset transfer.
Edinburgh South Community Football Club is one of the biggest footballing organisations not just in Edinburgh but across the country. It has 75 teams that play in boys’, girls’, women’s and men’s football, with more than 1,000 participants taking part weekly and more than 200 volunteers. The community sports club does so much more, by running free counselling, after-school clubs and so on. Those organisations are at the heart of the community of south Edinburgh and they support groups across the area.
Like many community sports clubs, they need to grow, expand and develop their facilities. They need 4G pitches to continue to compete at the right level, and they have land on their doorstep—it is tantalising. If members go down to Inch park and look through the railings, they will see what the council calls the nursery, which is just wide open land. There is a bit of concrete and some skips and other things there. Essentially, the council uses the area to store stuff. It is a perfect size for a football pitch and yet, despite pursuing the issue since 2018, the answer that the groups have been getting is, “Not quite yet. Let’s have another look.”
If we are serious about community empowerment and community wealth building, we cannot put this sort of problem in front of communities. We have to get behind them. The reality is that, despite all the meetings, we are not making progress. I was pleased that, when I pointed out to council officials that I had secured this debate, we got another meeting. I do not think that it should take a member of the Scottish Parliament lodging a motion to bring the issue to the Parliament to secure a meeting that was promised would be held in January just before Christmas.