A meeting was held in the Burdiehouse Community center regarding a new
skatepark which will be situated in the dip in the Burdiehouse area of
Edinburgh. The Council have £107,000 to spend within the current
tax year on a skate park for the area. The meeting consisted of the
potential suppliers of the park (Rampwerx/Record) and some council
officials including Alan Bell from the local area. Rampwerx/Record did a
small presentation about what skateparks are, what they are used for and
how to do an ollie (very useful for the locals). Rampwerx/Record are the
usual Playground company who have moved onto supplying skateparks too. They
do seem to know what they are talking about and their product seems to be
of an acceptable standard. They also weld all of their ramps instead of
riveting them which is good news (remember how long the rivets lasted at
Sighthill).
The council representatives then did a small presentation on what the plans
are for the park. Due to time and money constraints they feel that they are
going to have to build metal structures on tarmac (Similar to the current
Sighthill park in the Edinburgh area). Basically they have to have this
money spent before April next year or they lose it! This is not going to
allow time to get planning to build a concrete park. This is unfortunate as
the skaters who showed up and members from the local community felt that a
concrete park would be better as it would not be left unused and open to
vandalism. There are also no plans for lights to be put in as the budget
does not allow for this. The lighting issue raised a lot of concerns.
Where they plan to stick the park in the dip is beside a couple of unlit
football pitches and is hidden by trees from the road and nearby houses.
The lack of lights would result in the park not getting used very much
during the winter months. This could attract local teenagers into using it
as a hang out instead of its intended purpose. This would further deter
potential users as groups of teenagers can be intimidating.
The locals seem really up for the park for their youngsters. The only thing
that was said against the park plan was that the local community were
worried that they might waste the money on something that would not get
used (i.e. an unlit park). Lets hope that they manage to get some lights
organised! I know that we were all looking for Edinburgh’s first concrete
park but this is not to be it unfortunately. On a plus note, the local MP
for Burdiehouse is Donald Anderson and he apparently told the local
community that this will be a satellite park to the big professional
standard park that is going to get built in Inverleith park!! So it looks
like the council are still trying to get this through planning.