Earlier this month the CEO of Edinburgh Leisure wrote an opinion piece about the new Meadowbank. June Peebles suggested that people should stop knocking the new stadium and get behind it instead. Plans for the £45 million development were approved in June 2018.

She suggested that rather than harking back to the apparent halcyon days, those in opposition to the rebuild might understand that Edinburgh Leisure very much welcomes the new space which will be ‘an inclusive, accessible venue with a fantastic range of state-of-the-art facilities, serving its community’. She also pointed out that the body’s offices are not being created to the detriment of the sports facilities, but rather to use up what would otherwise be dead space.

New Meadowbank
New Meadowbank

The Save Meadowbank campaign have been vocal in their opposition to the new development at every stage, even now when the old stadium has been demolished. They asked us for the right to comment too and this is what they say :

“Save Meadowbank Campaign’s (SMC) position isn’t about looking back. It’s about ensuring that Meadowbank is a sports centre fit for purpose and isn’t downsized for a plan that benefits Edinburgh Leisure. Meadowbank Stadium was a public asset, a legacy left to the citizens of Edinburgh and Scotland from two Commonwealth Games. It was hugely popular and often over-subscribed with multi use facilities that allowed it to host both sporting and non-sporting events of all sizes, many of them simultaneously. It was specifically built with access in mind especially for those with mobility issues.

“Most of its problems were due to mismanagement and a lack of investment by both Edinburgh Council and Edinburgh Leisure who ran it between 1996 and its premature closure in December 2017. This was prior to a limited and flawed public consultation in February 2018 which was designed to fit in with a hidden agenda by Edinburgh Council officials to downsize the facility and build housing on the site. Edinburgh Council even transferred much of the site to its housing department in March 2016 which was well before any consultation took place.

“The public has consistently formally and vocally objected to what is planned which will no longer even qualify as a stadium: it will be a cut-down sports facility tacked on to Edinburgh Leisure’s desire to benefit from new headquarter facilities – instead of using office space it already has at the Commonwealth Pool. By Edinburgh Council’s own admission facilities at Meadowbank are being reduced by over 40% with a loss of over 90% in spectator capacity.

“Many clubs have repeatedly advised SMC that they are not happy with what is planned, including Edinburgh City football club, who were ignored during the consultation and who now find themselves homeless and without a credible future, just at the very time the club is moving up the football ladder. Meadowbank’s destruction marks the beginning of the end for Edinburgh’s third football club.

“Edinburgh Council has simply disregarded its citizens’ views and completely lost the trust of the Edinburgh public when it comes to Meadowbank. Instead of trying to regain that trust it has continued to plough on with a flawed plan, even although Councillors agreed last June that nothing would happen on any part of the site until a masterplan had been agreed. That masterplan and funding is still not in place yet the Council signed a multi-million pound contract which has allowed contractors to fell dozens of trees and start construction work.

“It’s getting later and later for Edinburgh Council to turn back. If they don’t then we will all be worse off in the long run.

“SMC has consistently engaged constructively with Edinburgh Council in good faith and presented other options. However at this point we can only conclude that consultation was more of a cosmetic exercise more focused on ticking boxes. SMC’s honesty and transparency has not been reciprocated.

“Time is rapidly running out. As CS Lewis wrote: “We all want progress, but if you’re on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.” Have June Peebles and Edinburgh Council the guts to change tack?”

Meadowbank Stadium being demolished in February 2019
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Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.