Skatepark: 'A scheme is not yet off the drawing board'

Published on Friday 28 March 2008 08:19

IT will come as no surprise – and certainly not to the Evening News – that plans to locate a skatepark in the Meadows have been quietly dropped a year after the council announced it was considering resurrecting plans that had been abandoned three years previously.

We stated at the time that it should have been clear to even the most blinkered supporter of the scheme that re-opening the case for the Meadows was a non-starter – and so it has proved to be.

Some people will find it incredible that although plans to build a world class skatepark were unveiled in Edinburgh as long ago as 2002, a scheme is not yet off the drawing board.

After first examining the Meadows as a potential venue the scheme was abandoned when it became apparent that the unique protected status the area enjoys would have made it nigh on impossible to proceed. Such would have been the level of objection that it is highly unlikely the whole process could have taken place without a lengthy and expensive public inquiry.

But it was not until 2006 that an alternative site –Inverleith Park – was identified, which sparked immediate protests from nearby residents, ultimately leading to the council backing down again.

There's little doubt the protests against the Inverleith plan were sparked by nimbyism. While locals are happy to see football, rugby, cricket, tennis and bowls played in the park, for some reason the thought of a facility that will attract teenagers in jeans and hooded tops clearly struck fear into them.

There was certainly not a whisper of protest to be heard when the local boules club successfully applied to relocate and expand their petanque pitches around the same time.

Now, after almost six years of delays, the council has today outlined its latest favoured site in Saughton Park and it is to be hoped that the same narrow minded attitude which has seen others sites rejected will not surface again.

While the call to provide proper skateboarding facilities goes unanswered, youngsters who participate in boarding will continue to seek out suitable places to practise their tricks and routines. As they require paved or concreted areas, preferably with obstacles, the most likely venues will remain built-up areas and shopping centres, which often brings them into close conflict with residents and other users. A dedicated park is long overdue and it will be interesting to see whether city sports leader Deidre Brock can deliver one when others have failed so miserably.