The draft document says refurbishment

"would be a short-term, short-sighted approach to the provision of sporting facilities and would not meet the national agenda or the council's vision for appropriate sporting facilities.

and we've all had and spent the brown enevelopes

Great,

Perhaps some decent investment in West Edinburgh which for too longs has been the more neglected side of town.

Get Sigthill build, a new home fro Edinburgh Rugby.

Absolutely ludicrous.

The removal of the facilities at Meadowbank is just the latest in an absolute catalogue of stupid decisions by the Council.

This world class nonsense has to stop. If athletes are good enough then they will go to the next level anyway. The target for the Council should be to get people and particularly children to participate in tumble tots, in fencing, in basketball, football, gymnastics, country dancing, martial arts, ballet or anything else which can improve health, well being and respect for others. These things don't need 'world class' facilities or '21st Century facilities' at the Council ie our expense. Will the people who have been doing these sorts of things at Meadowbank travel across to Sighthill to do them?

DISGRACEFUL.
I have no objection to a stadium at sighthill. The more sporting facilities in Ednburgh the better. (will ordinary people be able to afford to use it though?) Lets face it this Council doesn't exactly have a great track record for supporting any kind of sport unless there is something in it for them. In this case money for the land that Meadowbank now sits on.
Buliding Sighthill should not be at the expense of the sporting facilities in the east of the city. Take away Meadowbank & we have nothing. Who would go to the Jack Kane Centre. Been there done that. Its like a war zone only with golf balls & golf clubs instead of bombs & bullets.
There are festivals that go on all year round in this city. Where does the money go?? Maybe the hotels, shops & Council might want to give up some of those profits to help keep the sporting venues that we have and help support the builing of new ones Nope!! Didn't think so.

#2 I agree it is about time West Edinburgh had some decent facilities. #3 People have had to travel to Meadowbank so why not?

The SNP and Stefan Tymkewycz in particular circulated literature for months in the vicinity of Meadowbank promising to stop the demoltion. If the SNP-Lib Dem Council go ahead with it few people will trust the SNP ever again.

“The council-appointed panel is understood to accept warnings from officials that refurbishing the ageing arena would be a waste of money.”

Em, well…of the 18 panel members, only 5 supported the “independent” chairman’s decision to rule out refurbishment.

Given that the working group’s “draft conclusions” are not actually the conclusions of the working group itself… it seems that the final report will now be known as the “chairman’s report”.

It turns out that the “independent” chairman was not so “independent” after all.
Now there’s a surprise…

A public meeting has been organised by the Save Meadowbank campaign on Friday 17th Aug, 7pm at Meadowbank.

For more details, see:
www.savemeadowbank.org

The place is a total heap of crap. Good ridence too it.

People are moaning for the sake of moaning.

The usual "Broon envelopes" comments are a bit dull now lads.

Were this and the trams not two key points in the SNP's election campaign? Trust will be lost if it continues

Thank goodness! Common sense at last. Meadowbank is unfortunately past its use-by date and if we want to develop athletes of the future we need brand new facilities in Edinburgh. Sighthill is the obvious site so let's get on with it.

Might sound silly but why not bild the new one at Meadowbank

How sad the group that wants to destroy Meadowbank has to use these disgraceful tricks and conveniently "leak" the draft report, exactly now that the Chairman is in line with them. The Chair should not defend the interests of the Council or anyone in particular but must ensure a fresh review was made and all the views and facts are reported. A Chairman's report could be as useful as anyobody else's ...

It is also sad that this article was published with such a bias, following a similar one a few weeks ago where the Councillors were being "convinced" to ger rid of Meadowbank. later denied by the Council.

sport, sport, sport
meadowbank's outdated but still has some good facilities so why get rid of it. and surely they must get some revenue out of all the gigs that go on there at T on the Fringe? (even though the sound is utterly awful and the tickets a rip off) Also, local schools use it so where would they end up going?
anyway we all know what'll end up happening. they'll sell it for millions to be redeveloped into flats no-one from the area (me) can afford, and all the money will go... where exactly?
bitter, i'm so bitter!

PS whilst on the subject of sport - perhaps the government would like to take a direct debit from my near-minimum-wage paycheck to fund the 2014 commonwealth games and another for the Olympics? I'd like to see the reaction if they tried to put the money into an arts, theatre, cinema, music etc project of a similar scale.

#4
Of course they have to sell the land, pensions have to be paid so where else can themoney come from?

#1 ok ok, another one who claims that local government elected members and/or officers are taking bribes. Any evidece? To make such suggestions you must have some, surely? No doubt you'll take the evidence to the police? No? So you are covering up a criminal offence? Or you could always go along to a meeting of the Council, or put up posters, and name the guilty parties in public.

Of course, you could just be an idiot.

GB

Lets wait until the final report is given before jumping to conclusions. We will soon see where supports lies in the taskforce.

Considering the biased nature of this article, it seems likely that this report has been leaked by those opposed to the future of Meadowbank as a public facility.

Just remember, developers stand to make 1000s of millions of pounds profit from building houses on the Meadowbank site. With that kind of money flying around, I'd be careful who you listen to. It is also wise to establish that whoever you are listening too doesn't stand to make a financial gain from the proposed developments.

shooter 12
No not a silly question. No reason it couldn't be built on the existing site except that once again the developers are lining up with thier cheque books to purchase prime building land at Meadowbank. It has ever been so in this city

#22 - care to enlighten us all with the benefit of your expertise? More and more people want to live in Edinburgh. If no new properties are built, property prices go through the roof and your children and mine won't be able to afford to live here. If property is to be built it has to go somewhere. Edinburgh folk seem to want to keep the greenbelt. Unless you want a return to building more "multis", where will the houses and flats be built? If they are outside the city, that puts more pressure on roads and public transport.

I don't claim to have the answers - do you? Your "back of the fag packet" approach seem to suggest that running a capital city is easy. Perhaps it would actually be in all our interests if the Council make a complete hash of the city to drive incomers away and give us some stability!

(Have I detected a cunning plan?)

GB

another disgraceful decision in the making ! How is it that these "elected" officials continually make decisions that so few local people seem to support ?
What will happen to the many local children who currently use Meadowbank (Portobello Park/golf course,Jack Kane may not be far behind) ? What facilities will they have ?
If they must have houses in the area why can't they knock down & use the monstrosity next door to Meadowbank ? Been lying empty for years now !
Good luck to the Save Meadowbank campaign & lets have some councillors on here giving us their views !!!

The "Save Meadowbank Campaign" was an embarrassing attempt to stop common sense which itself was hijacked by political clowns .

Thank god common sense has won .

New sports facilities on both sides of the city from the sale of a outdated dinosaur of a facility and some people claim this is the council mismanaging things ?

give me strength

#26

If the campaign did not get off, then we would probably of been left a 'scout hall' facility in the end.

Evening News comment;

...Our top swimmers & divers should not have to travel to England for regular training & competition....

Our top 'cyclists' should not have to travel down to Manchester for the same reasons - Meadowbank cyclist facility was not upgraded decades ago.

Why can't the council look at other sites. The block of empty offices across the railway line.

I can see the west side coming to a stand-still, with all the projects happening over their (trams & sighthill).

If we need to knock down sport & leisure facilities in Edinburgh then it is maybe time to move into some of the green belt.

#28

Edinburgh Council's own documents state that the new velodrome planned for Hunter's Hall (which is now canceled) would cost £3m. However, when the taskforce was shown a plan to upgrade the EXISTING velodrome at Meadowbank, for a cost of £3.5m, this was thrown out as not possible due to the costings being too low.

I smell a rat here and we've seen this kind of dodgy dealings before. If you want more information on how developers have successfully infiltrated councils, please check out Dispatches program on Britain’s Bad Housing.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8576816145694781...

why dont people use there own names?
how many people posting have children involved in athletics?
sighthill is easy access for all edinburgh i agree but athletes come from all areas as far as the borders ,dunbar and north berwick.
as for snp promises lol
mr cardownie could win 100mtrs backwards.

Wait for the definitive report not the Evening News imaginary leaked report. All we ask for is proper consultation when the council wants to spend such an inordinate amount of money on an ill thought out venture.

All CEC see when they look at meadowbank is a big pile of CASH. Lets face it with a £10 million deficit in council coffers, CEC need all the help they can get. Then there is the almost certain overspend on the tramz, so even more money required the list goes on and on and on.
CEC don't really care about people in that area it's money they are after. Nothing changes does it?.

~32

Maybe it's time to have an election for 'new' Directors.

It is them who are not representing the interest of Edinburgh people.

It is them who are responsible for the mis-management of public money & over-spending.

They should be ordered to face criminal charges for gross mis-conduct.

They are only trying to cover up their own mess with the over-spending & mis-management of public money.

#29

I watched your video link. Interesting but not suprised at all.

It is all about money, corruption, lies, spin, bullying.

It is time people rebelled against this rubbish we normal people have to take, day in day out - and forced to live with the consequences!

Meadowbank closure will be a disaster!

Ah well, I will be at the meeting to support saving it.

I was up on Arthurs Seat today & looked down upon Edinburgh...

There are plenty of 'new house building' going on in Edinburgh.

The 'butterfly' site next Easter Road, Muirhouse, Fountainbridge, New Haven coast, Craigmillar and many others.

There is plenty land around Edinburgh that could be built upon 'first & before Meadowbank site' - Leith Docks & Salamander Street area, New Haven area, Craigmillar Castle hillside & some Farm fields plus others.

And also, I cannot believe the Council cannot apply for another grant for another purpose for saving Meadowbank. The Executive, sportScotland, SFA & Nationa Lottery & others are giving away public money for good ideas & projects especially regarding sport.

Okay they cannot re-apply for the same one - apply for something different. .... SFA Quality Mark football pitches for their 4x4 game start up centre, running track & regional Gymnastics centre.

Major Financial banks are getting involved in kids football;

Scottish Widows - Edinburgh Primary Schools.
Bank of Scotland - Edinburgh Secondary Schools.

Why can't they get more involved with it & spend more cash - build sports centres etc. instead of advertising & paperwork!

The Royal Bank Group would make a great investment in rebuilding a Meadowbank or a Sighthill.

If one of them was to .... then others would follow I bet.