Caird Park site chosen for Dundee regional sports hub

Dundee's Caird Park is already home to a golf course, an athletics stadium and a velodrome

A new £10m regional sports centre is to be built at Dundee's Caird Park.

The location has been selected for the centre by a development group including the city council, sportscotland and the city's two professional football clubs.

The large-scale facility will be made available both to professional athletes and for community use.

Dundee was selected to host a regional centre after narrowly losing out to Edinburgh in the race for the National Performance Centre for Sport.

Caird Park is already home to a golf course, an athletics stadium and a velodrome.

Dundee City Council and sportscotland, part of the Scottish government, have each contributed £5m to the cost of the centre, having previously worked together on city projects including the new Olympia swimming pool and the Dick McTaggart regional gymnastics training centre.

The regional sports hub is designed to complement the new National Performance Centre in Edinburgh

Council leader Ken Guild said the group had been working hard on the plans.

"While Camperdown Park was the preferred location in our national bid, we feel that Caird Park, which already pays host to a range of sports, is much better suited to the regional model," he said.

"I am delighted that both Dundee FC and Dundee United FC remain involved in the project.

'Fantastic facilities'

"This process has reinforced a shared determination that sport can be used to enhance the lives of individuals and help sustain improvements across our communities."

Scottish government sports minister and Dundee MSP Shona Robison added: "This new state-of-the-art sports centre will be a great asset for athletes, but it will also provide some fantastic facilities for the local community in Dundee to help keep people active and energise the legacy of the recent Commonwealth Games."

The city's two universities, NHS Tayside, Dundee and Angus College and Leisure and Culture Dundee are also part of the development team.

The regional facility is one of a number of new facilities across Scotland designed to complement the National Performance Centre, which is due to be completed at Heriot Watt University's campus in Edinburgh by 2016.