Lochcarron Primary School Parent Council want to construct an all-weather sports pitch, or Multi Use Games Area (MUGA), on an existing grass playing field beside the Primary School. They have recently received agreement from the school and The Highland Council's (THC) Property & Assets and Estates teams that this facility would be an acceptable and desirable development on the land owned by THC. Further, the school senior management and THC agree the MUGA could and should be made available to other sporting and recreational organisations in the community out-with school hours, thus providing a safe, all year round sporting, leisure and recreation facility. These discussions and agreements are set out in minutes of an on-line meeting held on 9th September, recorded by THC and attached later with this submission. This project is most important to the Lochcarron community because at present the Primary and Nursery School serves children aged from as young as two years old to twelve from across the local area, with a current roll of 54. Unfortunately, but unsurprisingly, the West Highland climate means the existing grass pitch beside the school is unusable for much of the academic year. The school also has no games hall so children often have to use the dining room or the tarmac playground for Physical Education and play times, which is hardly ideal and limits the activities they can safely take part in. Tick bites on the grass pitch are also an ongoing concern. Several children have needed antibiotics after tick bites and there are many individuals in our community living with the long-term effects of Lyme disease. The Parent Council and teachers believe that replacing the grass with an all-weather surface would significantly reduce the tick risk and provide a safer and more reliable space for the children to use. However, a new all-weather pitch would not only benefit the school. The Parent Council have been in discussion with several local groups, including the shinty club, and they now expect the facility to be available for community use in the evenings, at weekends and during school holidays. Provision of facilities for community leisure, exercise and recreation must surely be a principal obligation for both local and central government but the Areas Place Plan for Wester Ross is strangely silent when it comes to proposed developments in Lochcarron. Nevertheless, the most welcome allocation of THC Community Regeneration Funds for the construction of footpaths for leisure, exercise and recreation in Kirkton Woodland behind the school this summer is evidence that the community is not being overlooked. Indeed, THC is currently underway with construction of new Affordable Housing at Kirkton Gardens behind the school and in nearby Strathcarron. All these developments are great news for the Lochcarron community and these would be further cemented with grant allocation for this new MUGA. One major positive impact of the MUGA will be for the shinty club. Lochcarron Camanachd is the oldest shinty club on the West coast of Scotland. Like many small rural sports clubs, it faces an annual struggle for survival as young community members move away for work. The club currently relies on veteran players to supplement the youth squad, making long-term sustainability a critical challenge. However, primary school participation remains strong; the key to the club's future success therefore lies in retaining these players through their teenage years and into adulthood. A major barrier to this retention is the lack of all-weather training facilities. This year, adverse weather frequently left the club's main grass pitch unplayable. To survive and grow, the club must provide a reliable space where youth and senior generations can practice together regularly. The proposed all-weather MUGA at the Primary School will be a game-changing outcome, allowing players of all ages to be coached and develop their skills consistently, throughout the year without the discouraging interruptions of unpredictable weather. The children of Lochcarron already take part in badminton, shinty, basketball and cross-country, with several pupils reaching national competition standards and a former pupil was recently recognised as the Women’s Camanachd Under-14 Player of the Year. The MUGA's provision will have an inevitable outcome in improved fitness and spots performance by pupils but, with the new Kirkton Woodland paths already raising suggestions of future "park runs" for families, the proposal of the MUGA has started talk of five-a-side football tournaments and "walking football" for the older adults. Key milestones achieved so far have been the commissioning by THC of a project plan in the form of the Lochcarron MUGA Feasability Document from their preferred consultants Sports Labs Consult, and the costing quotes for two options of MUGA size, also by Sports Labs. Both documents are attached with this submission. The Parent Council has had discussions with Sport Scotland who initially indicated they would match fund the project. However it now appears they will only do so if THC are providing funding and, as the land owners, are applying for funding from Sport Scotland themselves. This may over-complicate the processes but could be an option if insufficient funds are available through this application and other sources being pursued. Regarding alternative funding sources, the Parent Council team have raised over £30000 themselves to date and believe they can secure twice that amount from local sources in a relatively short time. The meeting and minuted agreement between the school, THC and the community on 9th September, described in the first paragraph above and attached to this application, are a further key milestone and the latest is the launching last week of a Community Engagement Survey to test and demonstrate support for the MUGA project within Lochcarron and the surrounding district. This already has had responses numbering in the hundreds and almost universally proving positive. The full results will be provided as support evidence with a full grant application if this submission is accepted. The Parent Council team have now generated considerable momentum and local interest in the MUGA proposal and are very keen to maintain those through this application to BeConnected. They are aware of the pending moratorium on grant allocations from THC due to the council elections being held next Spring and have therefore prepared this submission in the hope that the next steps can be a full application with funding availability fully understood and detailed for consideration prior to that cut-off. The hope therefore is that grant approval in principal could be received in the New Year with a view to permissions being in place and contracts being let for construction of the MUGA during next summer's school holiday.