I take it that the new masterplan involves the sale of the football/hockey pitches and the velodrome - in order to build even higher density 'luxury' 2 bedroom flats? What a result.

Perhaps the Council can now turn their tiny minds to a change in policy on their tram set. How about a minature railway in Princes Street Gardens?

Meadowbank is not ‘back on track’. The Labour-led council are simply spinning their line to suggest that they care about public opinion. This paper’s own poll found 87% in favour of saving Meadowbank. For obvious reasons, Ewan Aitken etc. are trying to stall this debate until after the elections.

The ‘Save Meadowbank’ campaign has no wish to participate in talks over the size of a post-demolition community leisure centre that might be squeezed alongside the 800+ homes on the current Meadowbank site. Any talks must start from the basis that no decision on the demolition has been made.

Ex council leader, Donald Anderson told us at the 600+ public meeting on 17th March that the demolition debate was ‘still open’, and that representatives from our campaign would be invited to join a consultation group. Well, the invites never materialised, and we’re now told that the demolition is going ahead. I’m not the brightest person in the world, but it seems to me that Anderson lied to over 600 local residents and athletes in order to try to shut us up.

Ewan Aitken told us that SportScotland would not provide funding for a refurbishment; that a new-build was the only option the council had. According to SportScotland, this is untrue: they “look equally favourably on new or refurbishment projects"; that it was a council decision not to refurbish Meadowbank. The council’s own documents dating back to when the demolition decision was made back in 2004 support Sport Scotland’s position on this. If only Aitken had read them!

I know that we should not be surprised by the revelation that Labour politicians have lied, but it is something that they should be held to account over.

It won’t cost a fortune to refurbish the existing stadium; it might cost a lot to upgrade it to the standards required to host some world-class events, but that’s not what the ‘Save Meadowbank’ campaign, the locals, the athletes, or the people of Edinburgh in general are

Listening to residents? Whatever next, taking account of their views? Anyone would think an election was coming!

The campaign’s website (www.savemeadowbank.org) notes:

“We agree with the council that "Edinburgh is a beautiful and prosperous city and one of the best places to live in the UK." With this in mind, surely there is scope for publicly-funded world-class sports facilities at more than one site! If the people of the west of the city want more facilities, they should have them.

“We don't need to find the funding next week! But if the Council goes ahead with their demolition plans, the east of Edinburgh will pay the sporting, economic, health and social price for many years to come.”

So while the people of Sighthill may not want their only green space completely covered with a stadium that their economic situation implies they won’t have access to, they have every right to expect decent affordable local facilities, and we should aim to provide just that.

This whole sordid affair has really opened my eyes up to just how far the council will go to push through a plan that the public overwhelmingly oppose. The Greens; the SSP; and of course, my own party, SOLIDARITY, have fully supported saving Meadowbank from the start. The success of the ‘Save Meadowbank’ campaign shows from the fact that we now have the backing of the Lib Dems; and the SNP, who until recently supported the demolition, now say that they want to have another look at the issue in light of the revelation by SportScotland that refurbishment was always an option.

They don’t have too long left now, but should New Labour ever decide that democracy is a good idea, they don’t have to suffer any more than they were already going to on May 3rd. If they continue on their current course, they will only have themselves to blame.

Kevin Connor
SOLIDARITY council candidate for the Craigentinny/ Duddingston ward that covers Meadowbank

Is this Labour trying to win votes at Meadowbank.Common sense tells me you can`t have Sighthill without selling Meadowbank.The burden would fall on the overtaxed ratepayers and is again another example of the people who would be using it aren`t bearing the brunt of paying for it.Time for change and a local income tax, so everyone pays not just the house owners.

This seems to be a slight variation on what the Labour Party, with the support of the other political parties, have always intended to do. The public are to have extra opportunities to decide on minor details, while not being able to influence matters which the Labour Party presumably thinks are far too important for the public to have a view on.

As for the assertion by Mr Aitken that they would not scrap the Sighthill or Commonwealth Pool projects, as that would mean millions of pounds of National Lottery money earmarked for Edinburgh "vanishing", I suggest people ask Sportscotland about this assertion, so that they can consider the veracity of Mr Aitkin's assertion. http://www.sportscotland.org.uk/SiteNavigation/Contact+us/ has the contact details.

One thing is clear. The most frightening thing about this is that every political party voted for it. That should have set alarm bells ringing somewhere as when party politicians are unanamous that usually means a big mistake is being made. In Westminster the Chancellor Support Agency and the Dangerous Dogs Act were welcomed by party politicians of all shades.

I predicted this a few weeks ago, although I thought they would wait until the 27th or 28th of April. New Labour are not to be trusted, they want to sell off Meadowbank don't belive a single word they say.

After all they have done to keep this rotten abour administration in power, I still cannot believe the poll that says the FibDems are likely to have the most council seats after the election.

Who is intending to vote FibDem? Please explain yourselves!

Kevin , I don't trust this or like this as a compromise.

Keep it going.

6 months ago Meadowbank was not fit for purpose, and was to be demolished, there was no alternative. Gradually the council have been found to have ignored the public, lied about the money available, spent money delivering leaflets telling us this was the case.
An absolute disgrace. These people are at it! They have lied from day one. I don't know what they are up to, but it is obviously not above board.
Only one solution - vote them out on May 3rd.
Aitken, Anderson - you should be in court over this!

Yep, here's some. This is the most expedient of political backflips. Next thing you know, they'll be telling us that the decision to demolish was only taken "in principle" pending consultation. Vote them out!

Another council bag of lies is happening on the Canongate
www.eh8.org.uk for latest

This is yet another example of the mendacity and egregiousness of our cooncillors and their supine officials.

There you are.......three words to look up in the dictionary from one sentence, but an accurate summary of how bad our councillors actually are.

Vote Labour out on May 3rd.

Good news at face value but I'm in the doubters camp over this.
Lets consult the citizens and then make the decision, mmm

Nice one, David #12!

The officials have been supine for at least 20 years with every new appointment, especially to senior management, being supervised and approved by here today, gone tomorrow* lefty councillors.

* with acknowledgement to the late Sir Robin Day.

David #12.

You forgot to add "specious", which also describes many of our politicians.

the council are probably panicking at the bribe money they will now have to pay back to the housing developers.

Personally I suspect that it is the party politicians who are supine, going along with whatever the unelected officials say.

Remember, it was the officials who presented the party politicians with only one option. That should have lit all the lights on someone's mushroom management detector, but the sheep decided to go along with the recommendation of the unelected officials. It appears that none of the party politicians had the get up and go to ask why they were only being presented with one option.

It is things like this that cause some people to wonder what is going on. Do some officials and party politicians have as high a standard of probity as we expect, or is something underhand going on? While I don't think this is generally the case, the more I look at the council the more I wonder if I am naive.

We can sometimes get rid of the party politicians. It appears that this threat is what is making them pretend to listen to us, despite all of them voting over many years to sell off Meadowbank to their friends the property "developers" and use the money to concrete over the park in Sighthill. What we can't do is get rid of the officials, both in the council and Sportscotland.

Meadowbank back on Rack - once again the council s-t-r-e-t-c-h the truth and deliver more pain to their constituents. So they're gonna keep the track but still put up the same number of luxury flats? It'll be interesting watching the M&S delivery man dodging through the runners trying to get to the stair. The bottom line is, do we need more sport facilities in this area or considerably less, bearing in mind that there's over 1000 new flats ALREADY gone up nearby (Hibs ground, Hawkhill etc).
We owe it to our kids to save Meadowbank, so vote accordingly!

The people of Meadowbank want to keep their stadium and the people of Sighthill don't want a concrete monstrosity they couldn't afford to use on their doorstep.

Boot these councillors out on May 3rd and let's get our democracy back.

when was the last athletics meeting held at Meadowbank?

Taken from the East Edinburgh New Labours gruesome twosome, leaflet

"Portobello and Caigmillar can be Edinburgh at its very best. We can be proud that Edinburgh is one of the top places in Europe to live and work. It wasnt always like that. It happened because a Labour-led council worked hard over many years to improve our city.
There's still much to do, of course. We want to see everybody in Portobello and Craigmillar share in Edinburgh's success. There are parks to improve and create, local shops to support, schools and homes to be built,streets to keep safe and traffic to mananage"

One of the pair is advocating affordable housing, leisure opportunities and the means to get to and from them. Schools they think these will help their children?
The need for residents to feel part of a community.

Gruesome #2
Advocates that they worked with the community to stave off the
Superstore .. big porky, this particular councillor was, I'm led to believe working against the community! as per PCATS flyer.
Investment in Council housing Stock? Local school pupil attainment and achievement? and our own new local sports centre built into the council's Budget plans.

"So, by electing a Labour team ensures that our Local area prospers, everyone is properly cared for and our people are treated fairly"

What the *ell have they been doing this past 10+ years,Oh yes a community garden, so the rezzies
at Joppa wouldnt have another 'crappy white edifice' stuck
at the other end of the prom.

Legends in their own Lunchtime..
kick them out come May 3rd

To see how deceitful the council have been it is worth looking at two of their reports carefully. Their report of 2004 is not linked to from any of the glossy pages such as http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/internet/leisure/sports_devel...
no doubt because the council are aware of how shoddy it is. However, http://cpol.edinburgh.gov.uk/getdoc_ext.asp?DocId=25925 is the report.

Section 3.7 outlines a range of facilities to be provided, including a municipal stadium, 50 metre swimming pool, curling facilities and indoor velodrome. Section 3.8 implies that all of these things can be fitted on a site of 30 acres, but that a site between 30 and 50 acres would be preferable.

Section 3.11 states that Meadowbank is 25 acres. Section 3.12 states that there is little prospect of expanding the range of facilities provided.

Section 4.1 states that the 50 metre swimming pool can be provided at the existing site, which is 8 acres. That means that the site requirements of section 3.7 can now be reduced to 22 - 42 acres for the remaining facilities. So Meadowbank, at 25 acres, would be able to accommodate the remaining facilities of Section 3.7, but there is more.

Section 4.3 talks of an international sports stadium, not the municipal one of Section 3.7. Thus what is being proposed exceeds the requirements outlined earlier in the report.

Section 4.12 talks of the curling and velodrome being at the Jack Kane Centre. It doesn't say how large an area these would take up, but I doubt if it is less than that of the commonwealth pool, 8 acres.

The upshot of this is that the site requirements of section 3.7 can now be reduced to 14 - 34 acres.

Then the "development brief"
Report Unsuitable

One wonders how long it will take for this money grabbing Town Council to grant developers permission to build luxury flats in Princess Street Gardens and/or the Royal (Queens) Park, etc.

Upgrade Meadowbank and forget building anything (sports-wise) at Sighthill, no one will travel from east Edinburgh over to Sighthill as the current site (Meadowbank) is ideal for a sports venue due to its size and close location to the Town Centre.

Roll on 3rd May, Labour annihilation day (I hope).

#20 Danny
The facilities need to be there for people to train. You can't go bike riding without a bike, you can't run 400m hurdles without 400m of track and some, guess what - hurdles.

"But we did not carry out the kind of consultation we should have done in the Meadowbank area with the residents and sporting organisations who use the facilities. We want to recognise that and address the concerns people have without dismantling the whole programme we have in place." - The Rev.

I think what he means is that they want to fudge the plans until after the election. If they get elected again, the bulldozers will move in whether people want it or not.

Providing council services should not require selling off every acre of playing fields and sports facilities to developers.

Council spin is sometimes hard to see through, so just for confirmation,
“Council leader Ewan Aitken says he is committed to the demolition of Meadowbank”
(‘Talk 107’ News all day today).

Well, the ‘Save Meadowbank’ campaign is ‘committed’ to saving the 37 year-old stadium, and we think that New Labour has ‘committed’ a crime on this.

Talk 107 has been fantastic on this issue, with many presenters including the breakfast show’s Scott Wilson and Susan Morrison “100% behind the campaign”. (The support of Sunday morning presenter, Tommy Sheridan, goes without saying).

So 'democracy' involves bulldozing a stadium for luxury flats, which the local population don't want and building another stadium on a green space, which that local population don't want either!!

It is crafty that the Council attempts to divide the population by transgressing and possibly allowing the running track to remain. The Save Meadowbank Campaign state that they are not looking to develop a 'world-class' facility and are just looking at a simple refurbishment. That is completely acceptable. Yet, lets consider what the council plans, to spend millions on a '6,000' seat stadium, which is less capacity than the existing stand at Meadowbank!! Is this the limit of the ambition of our council? Why do we as residents of the capital city of our country put up with this poverty of aspiration. We work hard to make the city what it is, yet we are failed by our elected representatives. Why don't we have a world class arena for athletics? I think recent times have opened alot of people's eyes, to the general contempt the council has for its citizens, lets take democracy back.

#25. I know that. I've no axe to grind, and anyway my preference, without knowing too much about the situation, would be to upgrade the stadium rather than knock it down.

So, when was the last meeting? :)

Here's a good example of eating your cake:

A compromise that makes the Council look good, and possibly winning back some of the disgruntled voters (stop laughing - I said 'possibly').

And (I love this bit) ...very clever...they get to build all those houses that will generate all that EXTRA income for the Council.

You have to admire them.

Ewan Aitken is disingenous here. This is merely a further "consultation" on the original plan of what kind of leisure centre shall we have in the newly developed housing site.

What would be much more exciting is if the council actually reviewed the whole decision making process and consulted with the whole populace of Edinburgh to see if we want to spend our council taxes on the Sighthill white elephant or not.
The council needs to re-think the whole project as things have changed since 2004. Velodrome to Glasgow, no curling facilities needed, Glasgow wanting to use Commonwealth pool as part of 2014 Commonwealth Games bid (get some money from them then) and various other changes. So all in all time to re think......

By the way beware the supine councillors who slept walked into "unanimous" cross party support at a full council meeting. That means they all agreed the original plan...I trust that many of those who now say they disagree are big enough to admit that they ahve reflected on that decision in 2004 where they got it wrong!

"They say the running track could be saved and a new sports centre built on the site of the existing stand - without cutting the number of homes proposed." I feel like I am in a parallel universe reading this - this is impossible. Are they going to put the houses in the middle of the running track? do you have to run around the track a few times to get to your new luxury flat?
This is pure spin to try to get people to think New Labour has a heart and cares about what people in Edinburgh or elsewhere want. However what they don't realise is that we are not so stupid as they may wish us to be. People saw through the lies over Iraq, and the WMD that didn't exist; we saw through New labour's early tricks of announcing 'good news' about money invested - several times over (remember that?!); we sure as anything won't fall for this trick - we have got to keep up the fight to save Meadowbank, and get it refurbished.... and, most importantly, beware the 'working group' where they will isolate a few folk to agree to their pessimistic view of what is possible and then blame them if it all goes wrong....don't fall for it.
Good for the Save Meadowbank Campaign - you have already seen through the lies - keep up the pressure and they will cave in. If you don't it will be Meadowbank caving in, under the demolisher's ball and chain......

#32 Red Ted - well said.

If this lot get away with it the Commonwealth Poll will be the next place to get the chop. Nice lot of Council Tax from that site - eh boys?

Labour have to go, they have been inpower long enough both locally and at Westminster.

To all those that support the plans for flats to be built over Meadowbank, please just do the following and keep your conclusions to yourself - you don't need to answer.

1) Take a look at the aerial picture at the top of this article. Then imagine a big grey splurge of flats where the green spaces are. Is this what you want?

2) Ask yourself, if this was my back garden, then would I want it? If it affected me directly, then would I be in support of this?

Personally I am in favour of development, but not at the expense of inner-city green areas that are a very finite resource in space, but potentially infinite resource of enjoyment for the current and future peoples of Edinburgh.

Now, there are those in the council that say we have to compromise. But these same people created the plans. So basically they are saying they can't compromise on their our own plans. That's no compromise at all.

It's a matter of priority. What do you want Edinburgh to become? Do you want to turn this green city into a high-rise block? Maybe you think this isn't happening much in your lifetime, but what about our kids and the future generations. How much will they have left?

I urge those that enjoy Edinburgh's unique sites to not take them for granted. All it takes is a little unconsciousness and they're gone tomorrow. We, all of us, have an obligation to at least leave Edinburgh in the condition we found it. That's just being polite. Hopefully we can do better and improve on what's already here - not destroy it.

34, AaronL:

Well said - that probably reflects the views of a great deal of people in the city. People who are not against development, they are just proud of their city and don't want to see it ruined with high density developments that are stealing our open spaces and turning our streets into car parks.

Well said.

This is just another example of cynical Labour Party manouvering before the forthcoming elections. The Labour Party piles lie upon lie and would say anything to try and get a few extra votes. If anyone is naive enough to believe this tripe they need their head looked at.

The people of Edinburgh deserve to have their facilities protected from these imbeciles who only ever lumber from one disastrous decision to the next !!
Hopefully, we can all make sure that whoever we vote for next month will commit to saving the few facilities the curent mob of "monkey spankers" have left us !!
Oh & a message for Steve Cardownie, I hope your youngest is doing well & I totally agree with you on the trams, another disaster in the making for sure !!!!

Firkin little snyaffs squirming to try and save their jobs .... after years of putting two fingers up at the public by massive council tax rises, a blatant disregard for the money they spend, corruption, and total incompedence they think this will save them.

Hehe ... bon chance!

I just hope that folk don't vote liberal as they are part of the Lib LAB pact that has ruled us with the tax ban spend waste fiasco for ten odd years ....

Politicians and councillors, I really hope, are about to be taught a lesson on how they actually ARE accountable to the public.

As Sir Alan Sugar would say ... 'LABOUR - Your Fired !'

What about a national cricket facility to encourage the game?
Despite the lack of any national coaching facilities in schools there are still more cricket players in Scotland than rugby players.
There is the potential for Scotland to be a world class country in this sport.
So why do the sporting and political establishment keep ingnoring it?

*** Good on you Red Ted **32- well said and you are right we need to keep up the pressure on Aitken and his wee ned friends to ensure Meadowbank is not demolished.

To me, this yet again smacks of New Labour electioneering, where they have given us false promises in a desperate attempt to get as many votes as possible at the Council elections.

I don't often agree with the Liberals, but I DO agree with comments made by a Lib-Dem Councillor on the Forth 2 phone-in a few weeks ago (the first one to be presented by Colin McKay, where a Councillor from each of the four biggest parties (Labour, SNP, Lib-Dem and Conservative) answered calls from the listeners). On that show, the Liberal Councillor in question, blamed the fact that a new stadium is even being considered, on the fact that the Labour Council has failed to keep its sporting facilities up to date (if Meadowbank Stadium had NOT been allowed to become rundown over time, there would have been no need to build a new stadium to replace it). For that, the finger points directly at the transfer of the Council's sporting facilities over to Edinburgh Leisure, which has been New Labour's means of escaping from any blame for our sporting facilities NOT being kept up to scratch.

I used to live in the East of Edinburgh years ago and even then, that area had already lost the sporting fields at Hawkhill. If Meadowbank Stadium goes as well, there will be NO real sporting facilities in that part of the city. The local kids NEED something to do as an incentive against turning to drink, drugs and crime and our sporting facilities play a key role in that.

The loss of the Hawkhill playing fields has over time, resulted in the Lochend area (within Ewan Aitken's own Council ward) becoming more and more run down with gangs of local kids hanging around and drinking cheap alcohol, setting fire to the rubbish bins in Lochend Park at the same time. That is therefore, a problem which would just become even worse still, if Meadowbank Stadium were to be closed down.

Taking all that's been unearthed to date into account it's unbelievable that the council can assume that we'll be happy with anything other than a commitment to refurbishing Meadowbank. What is it that we have to do to get the message through to these people that we don't want or need another housing scheme in place of our sports stadium. What labour's come out with is really bizarre to say the least. Is it supposed to calm us all down and think we've achieved our goal, hmmm, don't think so. Our kids would still lose out. I see their new sports centre doesn't appear to have grown, still the poxy one 'multi purpose hall'. Interesting how the track can now be fitted in tho'. Only thing I can think of is that it will be counted as part of the 'obligatory' green space required as part of any new development!! Who knows! All I do know is we want Meadowbank refurb regardless of Sighthill plans (the latter of which surely needs looked at again). Who to trust going forward????

Does anyone know what the plans are for the Jack Kane Centre?

When the council advertised their great big plan for new sports facilities way back in the Evening News in 2004, they said that they would bid for the commonwealth games and sell off Meadowbank, demolish the Jack Kane Centre and replace it with a Football barn and curling arena.

Since Glasgow beat them to it, the council have been VERY quiet on their plans (until the Meadowbank situation blew up in their faces this year).

There has been nothing mentioned about Hunters Hall/Jack Kane, since 2004. This would make you think that the council have just done a u-turn on that decision and tried to hide the fact they ever mentioned it. If this is the case then, how come I drove past 2 billboards in Craigmillar with "SAVE THE JACK KANE CENTRE - PUBLIC MEETING held by Lawrence Marshall on 26th (or 28th) March"?

If the council are still going ahead with their original plans, then it is YET ANOTHER example of how the East of Edinburgh is being robbed of it's sporting facilities.

I would like to remind the council that Meadowbank and the Jack Kane centre are the only 2 SPORTS centres in Edinburgh. The rest are multi-purpose LEISURE centres which are not fit for any sports coaching.

I have to laugh at the propoganda pushed through my door the other day. It was an A5 flyer telling me to vote for Shami Khan and Ewan Aitken because they will "fight hard to make sure that sports facilities in the area increase in quality and quantity". LIES LIES AND MORE LIES!

If anyone is interested in listening to Tuesday's hustings meeting at the St. Brides Centre, which partly triggered this story, then tune in to Talk 107 between 7pm and 10pm, this Sunday 22 April.

I know that's a little plug for Talk 107 but I am not affiliated with them in any way. I just want people to be able to hear what was said for themselves as it is directly relevant to this article. Feel free to slap me on the rist if I broke the rules!