| Meadows
is a no-go for skatepark
On 28 May 2003 Herbert Coutts attended the ESP's bi-weekly
planning meeting with disappointing news. He explained
that the proposed site on the meadows has to be taken
out the picture. He went on to explain that in 1991
Edinburgh District Council, initiated a law, the ‘District
Council Confirmation Order Act (1991)’ to protect
some of the city’s oldest parks and green spaces.
This law prevents any form of development or construction
on the Meadows, Leith Links, Calton Hill and Princes
Street Gardens.
The council are prepared to go to parliament to have
the law changed to enable the skatepark to be built
and other improvements to be made on the meadows but
we are looking at a minimum of two years to change the
law.
This leaves the ESP with the following options.
- Inverleith Park was originally identified as the
2nd option after the Meadows, so we could fallback
on this as the proposed site for the skatepark.
- Alternatively, the council are keen to argue against
the legislation so a skatepark could be built on the
Meadows, all be it with a significant delay in the
park opening.
Despite these obvious setbacks the money that was
originally secured from the Scottish Executive, £380,000,
for the creation of skateboarding facilities in Edinburgh
is still available and an application for an additional
£150,000 from Sports Scotland is still an option
under consideration. The ESP remain hopeful that Edinburgh
will eventually have a skatepark!
- esp |
