Private firm to net £20k sports deal

PRIVATE consultants are to be drafted in to draw up a new strategy for the Capital's sports facilities.

The city council is to spend 20,000 hiring the consultants, who will work on a ten-year approach to all of the city's sports facilities.

It is intended that the new strategy will provide a framework that will help the city towards the council's ambition of becoming the most active city in Europe by 2020.

The new strategy is expected to detail what the best option would be for the future use of Meadowbank Stadium and other facilities.

However, the plans have been criticised by opposition councillors who have questioned the need to bring in consultants to work on the review.

A recent review of the city's library service led to the council spending 137,000 on consultants.

Paul Godzik, sport and leisure spokesman for the Labour group on the city council, said: "The Lib Dem/SNP administration seem addicted to spending taxpayers' money on consultants.

"While I have no doubt that there is a need to fully map the facilities we have and provide a framework for future development, it seems incredible that neither the council nor Edinburgh Leisure has the capacity to deal with this in-house."

Included in the review will be an assessment of the options available for the reuse of Meadowbank Stadium.

The city council had initially hoped to bring in around 17 million by selling land on the stadium site for a housing development.

It was then to use the money to contribute towards the 25m cost of a new 5,000-capacity stadium, running track and indoor sports centre to be built on the eastern part of the site.

The plans were put on hold because of the economic climate and city leaders said earlier this year that they had no idea when a new stadium could be built.

"With the collapse of their proposal to redevelop Meadowbank. it seems like a case of back to the drawing board," said Councillor Godzik.

"It has been obvious for some time that the Lib Dem/SNP administration have been working without a strategy for sport, they clearly lack the vision to take the city forward, and have done nothing to deliver the 21st-century facilities that our city is crying out for.

"Their prevarication and incompetence means that Edinburgh is a long way from meeting the 2020 target."

The council has advertised for companies to bid for the contract and set a deadline of 11 January.

It said that the strategy would provide a framework for the "prioritisation, provision and development of sports facilities in Edinburgh over the next ten years".

Councillor Deidre Brock, the city's sports leader, said: "This administration aims to make Edinburgh the most active city in Europe by 2020. The forthcoming sports facilities strategy will inform the future direction of sport and leisure in the city and help us deliver an infrastructure fit for Scotland's capital in the 21st century. We look forward to evaluating the strategy's recommendations once it is complete."