Common good

A proposal has been put forward to build a 3G all-weather football/rugby pitch in the town and two possible sites were identified on existing pitches close to the high school, with its changing facilities and parking.

However, a third site has been added more recently, due apparently to objections from executive housing close to the high school sites.

This third option is in the town’s Victoria Park (donated to the Royal Burgh by a local landowner) the only public park south of the river Tweed. If the pitch was to be built on this site – Common Good Land – it would remove a large area from public use and involve the felling of a significant number of mature trees, and trees planted for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. Space would also be taken over for parking and changing facilities. Surrounded by a high chain-link fence, it would be, in effect, private property, on Common Good Land.

Common Good Land in Scotland belongs to the whole community and should surely only be used “in extremis” for projects essential for the welfare of the whole community, where there is no alternative land available.

Alison Pearson

Peebles