Anger as MoonWalk is forced to move from city centre

Published on Friday 6 February 2009 20:54

THE founder of Britain's hugely successful MoonWalk events has launched an attack on Edinburgh council after being forced to relocate its Scottish fundraising event.

The fourth Edinburgh Moonwalk has become the latest victim of a clampdown on events at the Meadows.

More than 12,000 bra-clad women had been due to take part in this summer's event, which starts at midnight and sees walkers following a marathon-length course to raise money for breast cancer research.

However, organisers have been forced to relocate it to Inverleith Park in the wake of complaints the Meadows is overused for major events.

Nina Barough, who has been staging MoonWalks across Britain for ten years, said she was dismayed that the move had been forced on the "Walk the Walk" charity.

Ms Barough, whose three Edinburgh events to date have raised more than 5 million, said the local authority should have instead targeted long-running Fringe shows.

Ms Barough said she had been forced to delay opening entries to this year's event for three months because the Meadows was ruled out by the council – and threatened to move the event out of Edinburgh if the new location was unsuccessful.

"The Meadows was ideal because of its central location and we feel a bit hard done by being told to move when we are a charity and a lot of commercial operators have been using the Meadows during the Fringe.

"This is the first time we've had to move any of our events in Britain and we're having to redraw the whole route. We may have to look at staging it in another city now.

Steve Cardownie, the city council's deputy leader, said: "We're trying to improve the balance of usage across the city's parks to maintain their beauty whist ensuring Edinburgh continues to offer a fantastic range of top events."