New land is crucial for zoo to succeed

I WRITE in response to the article, "Zoo sets the fur flying as it unveils plans for big land swap", about Edinburgh Zoo's proposed investment in Edinburgh (24 July).

The map (without a legend) that accompanies the article is inaccurate in that it fails to provide a clear indication of the exchange we are presenting to the council and the fact that the community will actually gain over a third in extra land area should the swap go ahead.

It is also worth noting that the additional land will allow for the creation of a much enhanced setting for the "Rest and Be Thankful" landmark, as well as providing additional pathways and viewpoints. This is all about improving Edinburgh Zoo and Corstorphine Hill together.

The zoo needs different, not more, land and the appropriately sited land further down the hill is crucial for its future development as well as remaining one of Scotland's top visitor attractions.

Our location on Corstorphine Hill is one that we are committed to staying at, but thanks to recent health and safety and disability legislation, is one that we struggle with in relation to vehicle and pedestrian conflict and acceptable gradient of the hill.

We have explored all other potential avenues in relation to these being addressed within the zoo's existing boundaries but these are prohibitive in practical terms or from a cost perspective.

With no government funding, the only practical way to fund these improvements is for the zoo to do it without funding from the taxpayer.

Our local community has been extremely supportive of the zoo's activities in the past and we hope they will consider our proposals fairly.

These are rooted in necessity as we must address legal requirements or consider the size of our operations in the future.

While we understand locals may have concerns, we hope they can realise the situation we are faced with.

DAVID WINDMILL

Royal Zoological Society of Scotland

Edinburgh