2011 International Children's Games 'will be great success'

Clydesdale West SNP Councillor Ian Gray reckons that this area will cope admirably with an influx of 1500 competitors aged 12 to 15 and their 300 coaches, who will come from 45 countries.

"We will use a host of different centres in North and South Lanarkshire when staging the Games," Ian told the latest Carluke Community Council meeting on Thursday.

"The facilities that we have are far better than anything I saw at last year's Games in Athens, which had very poor facilities other than a beautiful outdoor swimming pool.

"Although we don't have five star hotels for the 1500 competitors to stay in, we'll use four new secondary schools in this area as hostels.

"The accommodation and the meals will be phenomenal. As you can see, I've tried the food already!

"It's been a big effort to bring this event to Lanarkshire.

"Both our local councils pledged 1 million each to it, which I don't think they would have done had they known what was going to happen to the economy.

"We hope to have The Proclaimers performing at our opening ceremony at Fir Park, Motherwell. The Proclaimers are well known worldwide due to their soundtracks being played on the Shrek movies."

For more information on this article, see this week's Carluke and Lanark Gazette, which is in the shops now.