Edinburgh's sports facilities undergo vast improvements
Massive changes are ahead for your sports facilities as work progresses on plans for a new sports complex in Sighthill, a refurbishment of the Royal Commonwealth Pool and a new community sports centre in the east of the city.
These changes will affect a large number of people in the city in some way, and many may have questions about what the developments will mean…
In 2004, the Scottish Executive announced plans to establish a network of national and regional sports facilities across Scotland. This gave us an exciting opportunity to improve sporting provision across Edinburgh and will help to achieve our aim of making the city Europe’s most physically active by 2020.
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Guidelines for building a sports complex have changed a lot since Meadowbank was built in the 1960s. These include everything from the direction the track faces, to spectator areas and its overall size.
This means Meadowbank cannot be upgraded nor rebuilt on the existing site as it is not big enough.
We also need the money raised from its sale to pay for the refurbishment to the Royal Commonwealth Pool (RCP) and the new Sighthill sports complex.
Without these funds, neither will be able to go ahead.
After considering 19 sites, Sighthill Park was chosen as it best suited the requirements. Sighthill already has good transport links and will be on the tramline in future.
The complex will also form part of a wider regeneration of the area that includes redevelopments in housing and at Napier University and Stevenson College.
How about starting the day with a work-out in the new state-of-the-art 100 station gym? There are no worries about finding a babysitter as you can leave the little ones in the crèche while you enjoy some time to yourself. Then you can take them to the soft play area to let off some steam before enjoying lunch in the café. Once the older children are home from school, there’ll be plenty to occupy them – from martial arts to gymnastics and athletics. And if you have budding footballers on your hands, they will be able to play year-round and later into the evening on the third generation artificial floodlit pitches. |
Alongside a stadium that will host athletics, rugby, football and events, there will also be an indoor running track* and athletics hall*, all-weather pitches, 12-court and eight-court indoor sports halls, gymnastics training hall*, a youth zone, soft play, crèche and café, as well as office and club facilities. There will be a new community kick-pitch and the current skatepark and playpark will be replaced on-site. (*new to Edinburgh athletes)
A new community sports centre will be built in the east of the city.
This will provide a similar range of facilities to those at Meadowbank (except for the outdoor athletics stadium). The location of this is under consideration through the planning process, until 30 March.
Although well-used and much loved, the RCP is reaching the end of its useful life and requires a complete upgrade to continue serving both the local community and elite swimmers. This will mean a total refurbishment to create a state-of-the-art swim and diving centre, a 50m and two 25m pools, as well as an improved and extended gym.
We are working with Edinburgh Leisure to try to match current users with alternative facilities to reduce disruption as much as possible.
These will include schools, leisure centres, sports centres and swimming pools.
An ongoing programme of consultation with the public is in place through community groups and briefings, and regular updates will be available on the Council’s website and will feature in Outlook.
The new Dive Centre at the refurbished RCP will be one of the best in the UK. So much so, that it has been included in Glasgow’s bid for the 2014 Commonwealth Games. If the bid is successful, expect to see world-class diving in Edinburgh in the summer of 2014.