THE development of a new football facility in Cardenden has been given the support of the Scottish Labour Party’s deputy leader Kezia Dugdale and local Parliamentary candidate Melanie Ward.

They met with the chair of John Thomson Memorial Committee, Alex Burns, in Cardenden, to discuss plans for a new 3G training facility for Bowhill.

The new facility, to be sited next to the Bowhill Swimming Pool, will be named in memory of local football legend, John Thomson, and will be used to support local teams and encourage more young people in the area to get involved in the sport.

On the project Ms Dugdale said, “This is a really exciting project made possible by the hard work of local volunteers working in partnership with the Labour-led local authority. It was a real privilege to meet Alex Burns and hear about the effort of all the volunteers that have worked tirelessly to make the dream of this new facility a reality and ensure the memory of John Thomson lives on.” The visit coincided with a commitment that £200k of funding will be made available for the project from Fife Council. On the investment Melanie Ward, the Labour Parliamentary candidate for Central Fife, which covers the Bowhill area, said, “As Labour’s candidate to be our local MP and Scottish Labour’s Young People’s Champion, I’m really glad to see this further example of Fife Labour’s commitment to Sport and Physical activity.

“We know that getting young people more physically active is key to ensure they live a long and healthy life. Creating great facilities like that proposed by the John Thomson Memorial Committee will encourage more young people to take up sport and become physically active.” The chair of the John Thomson committee added, “The support we are getting for this project from Kezia and Melanie and across the community has been overwhelming and to get the news that Fife Council are willing to give us this support is a great boost to the project.

“We are committed to raising the remainder of funding required and to working with our partners to ensure this project becomes a reality in the near future.” The work to achieve this facility has been ongoing for two years and funding has been sought from a number of sources.