Ban on Meadows events until plan to protect park from damage agreed

Published on Friday 29 May 2009 09:57

ALL events have been banned from the Meadows next year until a plan to protect the park from damage is agreed.

Councillors have ruled that no more new events will be scheduled until they agree a new management plan for the park which will include an annual limit on future events.

But the Chinese State Circus and Lady Boys of Bangkok events will still go ahead this year, despite fears voiced by locals that they will ruin the area for the second year running.

In a charged debate at yesterday's full council meeting, city leaders said they could not move the circus or Lady Boys because they were included in the Fringe guides that have already been printed.

But the Evening News understands last-minute talks are still taking place with organisers to see if one of the events could move to another suitable location in the city.

And local campaigners may yet have their way as both events will still need to get approval from the city's licensing board.

A number of other events, including the Moonwalk and Taste of Edinburgh, have already been moved from the Meadows to Inverleith Park, while the start and finish of the Great Edinburgh Run was switched to George IV Bridge.

Campaigners and opposition politicians today said the council still had to address the long-term future of the Meadows.

Chris Wigglesworth, convener of the campaign group Friends of the Meadows, said: "Our long-term concerns are for the future of the Meadows, especially if we continue to have all these sustained periods of use by large events.

"The damage we are doing to the grass and the soil below will take years to fix if we keep going at this rate."

Mr Wigglesworth called on the council to properly repair the damaged area in the Meadows along the lines of East Princes Street Gardens, where workers dig down 60cm and lay new turf every year after the winter festivals finish.

Peng Lee Yap, also of the campaign group, added: "If we are going to have these events then we need to seriously reconsider the bond paid by these organisations.

"To properly repair these areas you must be looking at close to a six-figure sum but the 5,000 to 7,000 which the circus has to pay at the moment is just derisory. This is not nimbyism, we have no problem at all with iconic events taking place in the Meadows.

"The Make Poverty History march had 250,000 people at it and there was no damage so it can be done, but we just need to be more responsible in the way we use the park."

The number of shows, festivals and sporting events taking place in the city's parks has grown by more than 200 per cent in the past four years, with an average of five events a week. Earlier this month, the council pledged to enforce strict limits on the number of events taking place under a new strategy for managing Edinburgh's growing events calendar.