Meadowbank Stadium
I took my son up to Meadowbank Stadium for his athletics class this week. He loves going there and its easy access for me as its only ten minutes walk away though part fo that is up a steep hill.. He also attends another class and makes good use of the activity club in the holidays. I seem to spend most of my time either taking him up the hill or collecting him from that wonderful, but aging stadium which was built for the Commonwealth Games in 1970.
I was remembering recently that when I went to Meadowbank Stadium as a lad of his age it was to watch first Ian Stewart and then Lachie Stewart win gold medals in the 1970 games. What a joy that was and what a boost for Scottish Sport.
Sadly, Meadowbank stadium could no longer host such a prestigious event. Even with refurbishment it could not reach such great heights. Yet Edinburgh, as Scotland’s capital, needs an international class stadium. But that needs the cash to pay for it.
The Council has managed to get some cash from sports Scotland to both build a new, international class stadium on a site in the west of the city and to fully refurbish the Commonwealth pool, which, as an A listed building, can’t be knocked down. But to fund the rest we are going to need to sell the Meadowbank site.
So here does that leave my boy and the thousands of other local people who use Meadowbank as their local sports centre. The answer is that I have had built in to the project plan at least £4 million to create state of the art community sports facility with pitches, sports halls, a gym and other facilities and in my view it should be on the Meadowbank site and I will continue to argue for that.
We’ve got the money for a new sports facility for this side of Edinburgh. We need to agree the site. I will be arguing for that to be the case as strongly as possible. It will still mean many trips up the hill for me and my boy, but it will be worth it and our community deserves it.
I was remembering recently that when I went to Meadowbank Stadium as a lad of his age it was to watch first Ian Stewart and then Lachie Stewart win gold medals in the 1970 games. What a joy that was and what a boost for Scottish Sport.
Sadly, Meadowbank stadium could no longer host such a prestigious event. Even with refurbishment it could not reach such great heights. Yet Edinburgh, as Scotland’s capital, needs an international class stadium. But that needs the cash to pay for it.
The Council has managed to get some cash from sports Scotland to both build a new, international class stadium on a site in the west of the city and to fully refurbish the Commonwealth pool, which, as an A listed building, can’t be knocked down. But to fund the rest we are going to need to sell the Meadowbank site.
So here does that leave my boy and the thousands of other local people who use Meadowbank as their local sports centre. The answer is that I have had built in to the project plan at least £4 million to create state of the art community sports facility with pitches, sports halls, a gym and other facilities and in my view it should be on the Meadowbank site and I will continue to argue for that.
We’ve got the money for a new sports facility for this side of Edinburgh. We need to agree the site. I will be arguing for that to be the case as strongly as possible. It will still mean many trips up the hill for me and my boy, but it will be worth it and our community deserves it.
posted by Councillor Ewan Aitken at
4:09 pm
