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Road circuit dropped from Meadowbank replacement plans after objectionsThe chosen option for Hunter's Hall Park has no road circuit

Road circuit dropped from Meadowbank replacement plans after objections

Edinburgh to get outdoor velodrome plus BMX and speedway tracks
by John Stevenson
Thu, Dec 11, 2014 10:54
7

Edinburgh City Council is set to approve plans for a cyclesport hub on the former Meadowbank velodrome with a new outdoor velodrome, speedway course and BMX track, but without the road cycling circuit that was part of some proposed options.

In October, the council asked for comments on four possible options for Hunter's Hall Park, to the south-east of the city centre. Cyclesport elements of the plans included an outdoor velodrome, cycle speedway track, BMX track and a road circuit.

After public consultation, the council has chosen an option without the road circuit because of concerns about loss of green space.

Alastair Maclean, the council’s head of corporate governance, told The Scotsman's Nash Riggins: “A mix of opinions was registered, including some specific concerns about the project. These included the potential loss of green space for the park.”

The chosen option will retain six outdoor sports pitches in the park, and two new 3G all-weather pitches will be created.

Richard Lewis, the city’s culture and sport leader, said he believed the cycling community would back the plans.

He said: “We’ve had overwhelming support for a cycling hub in Hunter’s Hall, with more than 90 per cent of people telling us new cycling facilities in the park would be welcome.

“We also know that cycling in Edinburgh is on the up, and that the overwhelming preference from the local community is for a cycling hub that encourages young people to enjoy learning cycling skills in a safe environment. Some local residents told us that they had concerns over the impact a cycling hub development might have on green space in the area. The proposed option that will be put to the council’s culture and sport committee for a decision aims to minimise that.”

Although the council had already ruled out an indoor velodrome on grounds of cost, European kilo champion Callum Skinner recently urged the council to reconsider, saying that an outdoor velodrome would be "unusable for at least a third of the year".

The unreliability of an outdoor velodrome disrupted both training and racing, Skiner said. He added: "Many of Edinburgh's track cycling community now seek cover 50 miles away at the indoor Chris Hoy Velodrome in Glasgow.”

Edinburgh
Meadowbank
City of Edinburgh Council
Hunter's Hall Park
John Stevenson

John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.

He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.

Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.

John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.

He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.

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7 comments

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FlatericFan | 9 years ago
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Its a real shame the Road Circuit has been dropped, as it becomes more and more difficult to use Public Road Race Circuits these Closed Road Circuits will be our last bastion.

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electricmud | 9 years ago
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I'm surprised they've dropped the road circuit, yet refuse to even contemplate, or look at the possibilities of having a track with a roof. The velodrome in Cali is classed as an outdoor track, but has roof over it. Why don't they look at something similar?

I know if there is no security in place once all this get's built, the tracks are going to get destroyed by the neds.

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kcr | 9 years ago
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Just to correct the first paragraph, the proposed hub will not be on the Meadowbank site, it is at Hunters Hall as stated later in the article.

For "loss of green space", I think you can read "loss of football pitches" in this case.

I'm very disappointed that they have dropped the road circuit. There is a lot of demand for a closed road circuit in Edinburgh. The circuit currently used at Ingliston is unavailable for a lot of the year because of other events, and is very expensive to hire. A road circuit would have been relatively cheap to run and could have been used year round for competition, coaching and training.

Having said that, the basic 1km road circuit proposed in the original Council options would not have been very effective.

I'm sure the proposed outdoor track will be used (Meadowbank velodrome has run successfully for years, even without a roof) but I think a road circuit would have been much more practical and would have been used by many more people.

On a positive note, Fife is proposing a dedicated road circuit, and there is also a plan for a road circuit in Linlithgow. If these are developed successfully, I think they will be very successful. It's just a pity that Edinburgh Council don't have the same vision.

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mikem22 | 9 years ago
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It's a shame that the two options which included the road circuit for the Jack Kane Sports Centre at Hunters Hall have been dropped but I kind of understand why.

I live just down the road and already this year there have been fights between residents and the council over plans to build a school on existing green space in the area. So the sensitivity is heightened.

Though having said that I'm not sure anyone in their right mind would ever go walking in this park currently as it is well known as a place you don't want to hang about as it always seems to be full of local neds from the neighbouring estate either tearing around on motorbikes, smashing stuff or attempting to break into the cars parked at the current sports centre.

It is a shame that the Velodrome will be outdoor, apart from the weather aspect, I wonder how often riders will be presented with glass, rubbish, people or motorbikes on the track.

The East side of Edinburgh is poor in terms of quality sporting venues and could do with a few high quality venues like this. But they nee to be secure so that kids and adults that genuinely want to benefit from them can do so.

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OldRidgeback replied to mikem22 | 9 years ago
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mikem22 wrote:

It's a shame that the two options which included the road circuit for the Jack Kane Sports Centre at Hunters Hall have been dropped but I kind of understand why.

I live just down the road and already this year there have been fights between residents and the council over plans to build a school on existing green space in the area. So the sensitivity is heightened.

Though having said that I'm not sure anyone in their right mind would ever go walking in this park currently as it is well known as a place you don't want to hang about as it always seems to be full of local neds from the neighbouring estate either tearing around on motorbikes, smashing stuff or attempting to break into the cars parked at the current sports centre.

It is a shame that the Velodrome will be outdoor, apart from the weather aspect, I wonder how often riders will be presented with glass, rubbish, people or motorbikes on the track.

The East side of Edinburgh is poor in terms of quality sporting venues and could do with a few high quality venues like this. But they nee to be secure so that kids and adults that genuinely want to benefit from them can do so.

+1

There are plenty of other green spaces in Edinburgh that could have been used instead and where the ned count is lower.

Mind you, a lot of BMX tracks tend to be built in pretty tough areas. As a sport BMX can attract people from council estates, and that's no bad thing either. Two of the UK's current world class riders, Tre White and Quillan Isidore, are from South London estates for instance.

Not having a covered track does seem like a poor idea. It wouldn't be so hard (or expensive) to construct a semi-permanent building using pre-fab components for the outer structure and this would also get round some of the planning issues.

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230548 | 9 years ago
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So let's get this right track racing ( now primarily an indoor sport) is going to have an outdoor track in one of the worst places weather wise in this country, but the road circuit(primarily an outdoor sport) has been dropped. That makes perfect sense 102

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Oldscotspro | 9 years ago
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Once again the Council of the City of my Birth has proved to be a bunch of short-sighted Scrooges..... 41 An outdoor track in Edinburgh, even with an "All Weather" surface, will be unusable many times during the cycling season. And the lack of a Road Circuit at Hunter's Hall is inexcusable. There is precious little "Green space" on the plans shown, but I notice plenty of football pitches, of which there are already a plethora in Edinburgh. One has to question whether or not the Council has any interest in Cycling at all -did they spend all the money on that stupid tram system?

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