1st July newsletter
...
Dear ESP Supporter,
It’s been a while
since we’ve been in touch but as you are no
doubt aware it’s been a while since anything
has happened on the Edinburgh Skatepark front, with
the exception of Sighthill of course.
The whole plan to build the central skatepark in the
Meadows took a seriously ‘low blow’ as
a result of a serious oversight by the council. The
law that prevents any form of construction on that
particular piece of green & pleasant land in the
city centre (and Princes St. Gardens, Calton Hill
& Leith Links) got forgotten about!
However, once the full implications
of this became clear i.e. it’d take a minimum
of two years to get the law changed, an alternative,
& hopefully better, location was sought. A short-life
working group (although there turned out to be nothing
‘short life’ about it, more like a ‘U.H.T.’
working group!) was established to identify alternative
sites for the park. Russ Hall, Ali Low & Tobi
Linnel represented ESP on this group.
Various sites were looked at across the city &
the short list was whittled down to St. Marks Park,
Inverleith Park, or, the alternative, to wait until
the Meadows situation was resolved, which was not
an option as far as ESP was concerned.
Surveys of local skaters were arranged through local
skate shops to get skaters views on the options &
the majority of returns opted for St Marks Park. What
looked like an ideal location unfortunately held a
dark secret! Engineering reports highlighted that
the parks’ previous life as a rubbish dump,
rendered it useless, as it couldn’t support
any type of construction, least of all several hundred
tons of concrete skatepark!
That left us with Inverleith Park. Several soil surveys
were carried out at the beginning of the year on five
potential sites within the park. The results showed
there were two main contenders for the site, (i) near
the pavilion on the right as you enter the park opposite
the botanical gardens, (ii) on the former pitch &
putt site above the pond.
The main problem with the pavilion site was the high
water table, which would have required a pumping station
to be built to avoid the skatepark flooding and a
new city outdoor swimming pool being created! This
also created a major issue in regard to the safety
of children, animals & various others should the
pumps ever have failed.
The pitch & putt site offered much greater scope
with various contours that could be incorporated into
the park design, natural drainage to the pond and
during construction being able to ‘cut &
fill’ resulting in no excavated material having
to be removed from site. ESP stated categorically
that this was their favoured option for the siting
of the skatepark.
Following a site visit on 20th May attended by various
council officials, Councillor Ricky Henderson, Herbert
Coutts (Director of Culture & Leisure) and engineering
consultants, ESP reps. Mark Foster, Russ Hall &
Johnny Martin were able to convince the group of the
merits of the former pitch & putt site.
The resulting report to the Council Executive on 1st
July, recommending the construction of the skatepark
in Inverleith Park states, “The Edinburgh Skatepark
Project has been involved from the outset in the selection
of the site for the skatepark. Their view is that
Inverleith Park is the preferred option to deliver
a quality facility for the city within a reasonable
and manageable timescale and wish to see the skatepark
sited on the former pitch and putt site.” A
delegation from ESP also spoke at this meeting and
the Council Executive agreed to the recommendations.
The amount now required to build the park and agreed
to by the council executive, is a massive £513,000.
There is however currently a shortfall in the funding
available of approximately £200,000 and an application
for this is being submitted to Sport Scotland to hopefully
gain their support for this much needed international
standard facility. If this is unsuccessful, the council
executive has indicated that they will identify the
funding required to bridge the gap.
Consultation meetings will also be held with the community
around Inverleith Park and ESP is looking forward
to being part of, and contributing to, this process.
Draft park designs are currently being developed by
ESP with Clive Bowman, are based on a site area of
40mx 60m, this is currently bigger than any park in
the country!!!
The draft ‘timetable’ for the skatepark
development now being worked to is as follows:
