Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said Thursday that the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games could have a lasting legacy of real improvements to the lives of people across Scotland.
She made her comments as the Scottish Government published an interim Games legacy plan, outlining a vision of how the Glasgow Games and other major events, such as the Ryder Cup, can bring wide-ranging benefits for Scotland.
The plan follows extensive consultation and, according to the Scotsman newspaper, over the coming months the plan will be developed into a full, detailed blueprint to be published next summer.
The legacy plan has health as a unifying theme and there will be programs covering sport, education and learning, culture, volunteering, the greener agenda, business, tourism, skills and employment.
Sturgeon said, “the legacy’s importance cannot be overstated. It’s about more than hosting a two-week sporting festival – it offers us the chance to make real improvements to people’s lives, to raise our sights as a nation.
“Our vision is of a legacy which helps people live longer, healthier lives, in strong, supportive communities, valuing and protecting the built and natural environment, with new and better skills development, employment and volunteering opportunities”, she said.
Meanwhile, as the legacy plan was unveiled, Louise Martin, who led the city’s presentation at the Commonwealth Games vote in Sri Lanka, hinted that Glasgow might not have bid for the 2014 Games or London for the 2012 Olympics had the recession occurred earlier.
The Evening Times reports she said, “I shrink from saying Glasgow wouldn’t have done it, but it looked a lot healthier before this time of recession. I have to believe we will come through this. It will be challenging, but we will find ways of making it work.
“It would have been a much harder decision for London. They had virtually all their venues to build, whereas 70 per cent of the Glasgow facilities for 2014 were in place”.
According to the Evening Times a consultation on the Games impact found a “significant minority” of respondents expressed concern it only covered their specific interest in part – or did not cover all the benefits they want. “A strongly expressed view that the consultation paper undervalued and downplayed the sporting legacy”, was identified in an analysis of responses, reports the newspaper.
Tackling health inequalities was also not specifically mentioned as a key objective of the “healthier” part of the legacy, said respondents, who also said the “greener” part of the consultation paper could have contained more detail.
