Call for funding as Leith Links named worst park in Capital

Published on Thursday 24 December 2009 09:16

CAMPAIGNERS are calling for more money to be spent on Leith Links after it was named the worst of the Capital's main parks.

Council officers and volunteers assessed 134 parks in the city, marking them on criteria including access, maintenance, quality of equipment and cleanliness.

They found that three of the city's six "premier parks" – Princes Street Gardens, Inverleith Park and Leith Links – had declined in quality in the last year.

The remaining three, Calton Hill, The Meadows and Bruntsfield Links and Saughton Park, had remained the same.

But across the whole city, there was a small improvement in quality, with 61 per cent meeting the required standard, compared to 56 per cent last year.

Campaigners in Leith are now calling for greater investment, after the Links was marked "poor" or "very poor" in more than half of the categories.

It was marked down for signage, litter management, grounds maintenance, infrastructure maintenance, conservation, and education and information provision.

Alasdair Tibbett, chairman of the environmental group Greener Leith said: "The play equipment is among the oldest and worst quality in the city. At the moment, most of the improvements have been down to community effort, such as the bulb planting.

"It's interesting to compare Leith Links to the Meadows as there is such a difference. The Meadows has a cafe, good quality play facilities and well maintained paths and trees. In theory they should be on the same level.

"We know it's a difficult time, but if there's investment in parks, it should be coming this way."

A recent survey of Leith Links residents and park users found many of them would like to see old tennis courts restored.

They would also like to see more planting, and better upkeep of paths.

Mr Tibbett added: "Leith Links is exceptionally well used. For example, Leith Athletic Football Club works with thousands of young people a year, but it's not just about football – people are keen to see better quality planting and pathways improved."

Princes Street Gardens also saw a drop in quality, and was marked down from "excellent" to "good" this year. Its "community involvement" was judged to be "very poor" while its marketing and promotion was also poor.

Among the other parks, the best were Braidburn Valley Park and Harrison Park. Overall, 30 per cent had seen an improvement.

Councillor Robert Aldridge, the city's environment leader, said: "Our annual quality assessment has shown there are a few parks in need of improvement, Leith Links being one of them.

"In response to this we are now developing Park Improvement Plans, the first of which will concentrate on those with a poorer performance, with the aim to raising them to a better standard in 2010. Throughout this process we will take into account the opinions of the local communities."