South Lanarkshire councillors have approved a request to rename a recreational park in a Clydesdale village after a local legend.
At the Community and Enterprise Resources Committee meeting on Tuesday (August 9), councillors approved the request made by the Forth Development Trust (FDT) to rename the recreational ground behind the Willie Waddell Sports Centre to ‘Jim Paton Recreational Ground’ to pay tribute to a dedicated villager.
The trust wanted to dedicate something to Jim Paton, who passed away on December 23 last year after battling cancer for a number of years, as he was heavily involved with the community and had a passion for sports.
FDTreceived permission from Mr Paton’s family and conducted a community consultation which received welcoming feedback for the decision. The trust will fund new signage for the recreational park.
A source for FDT told Lanarkshire Live : “In memory of this remarkable man, the Trust is working with a view to renaming the recreational Park – The Jim Paton Recreational Park.
“It seems appropriate for a man whose interests were steeped in sport and spent much of his time encouraging the youngsters of Forth and District to get involved in all sports including football, athletics, badminton – he will be sadly missed.”
Councillor Catherine McClymont (Clydesdale North), said: “I was approached by FDT and villagers to see what could be done to recognise the work Jim had done in the village following his passing.
“It was agreed the best place for Jim to be remembered would be the recreation ground. I made enquiries into how this could be achieved.
"The first thing was consultation needed to be done within the community and permission was sought from relatives.
"I had known Jim since becoming a councillor and always found him to be a very charming and extremely helpful person who always had a smile for you.
“I nominated Jim in 2014 to be a Queen’s baton bearer at the Commonwealth Games. He was not in the best of health at this time but he did it with a smile as always.
"Jim dedicated a lot of his spare time to the young people of Forth and was extremely popular with everyone. The naming of the grounds is a fitting way to commemorate this wonderful man and I am extremely pleased to have been involved.”
Sports was Jim’s passion, he was the first amateur runner in a professional race to win Carnwath’s famous Red Horse Race. He ran marathons all over Britain, including the London Marathon.
He took part in a variety of charity events, his most significant one being with his friends and colleagues from Carstairs State Hospital in 1987, where he was a nurse, he and the five others ran from Lands End to John O’Groats covering 874 miles in just 10 days – this was in aid of Stanmore House.
Through his love of running, he was one of the founder members of Forth Road Runners which then branched out into becoming a children’s running club, which Jim ran for 33 years.
His love of badminton led to him becoming a volunteer at the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh in 1986. He also coached children in the sport.
As well as this, he coached and managed Forth Amateurs, Forth Wanderers and then Coltness United Juniors in football as well as the Forth Primary School Football Team.
Forth Primary School is dedicating an annual shield in memory of Jim, named ‘Jim Paton Football Shield’ for the commitment and dedication he gave to all the pupils.
Jim also carried the Queen’s Baton in 2014 for the Commonwealth Games, where local villagers turned up to show support and watch him doing the honour.
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