Council to look into Meadows use after shows damage park

A MANAGEMENT plan is to be drawn up to govern the use of the Meadows.

The move comes after a summer of heavy rain and a busy festival season left sections of the park rutted and covered in mud.

During this year's festival the park was used by the Chinese State Circus, the Lady Boys of Bangkok, and the Evans funfair.

Edinburgh City Council takes a bond from organisers of between £2000 and £7000, which is used to repair the damage after they have left, but members of local group Friends of the Meadows say no amount of money can encourage the grass to grow over the winter months.

Now a management plan is to be put out to consultation after some groups called for events to be banned for up to two years

Friends chairman Peng Lee Yap said: "This whole area after the events have left is unusable for the rest of the year. The grass will not grow now until next spring.

"We feel we're fighting a losing battle, no matter what remedial work is done."

Hilary McDowell, a member of the Friends and environmental spokeswoman for Southside Community Council, said: "It's the most awful mess. We've been told it has been an exceptionally wet August but we were told we had an exceptional week in May last year for the Moonwalk, so we always have exceptional weekends.

"We want to see a ban on events for at least a year, if not two, to give the place a chance to recover and then look at whether the events should be coming here anyway."

She said the organisation welcomed free, lower impact events: "We don't have a problem with community events that are on and off. We had Make Poverty History here with 250,000 people and it did no damage, but things like that are free. For two months of the year you have to pay to get into what is a public park." Meadows/Morningside councillor Paul Godzik said he was keen to see the consultation launched, but would not be drawn on whether a complete ban on events should be put in place.

"I think events in the Meadows do add a vibrancy to the area but we have to look at redressing the balance," he said. "For instance, things like the Taste of Edinburgh and weekend events have been really popular, but there has to be a balance and the council has to look at it carefully."

Cllr Ian Perry, who represents Southside/Newington, added: "My understanding is that a paper will go to the council on the management plan.

"My view is that the paper should then go out to consultation before a decision is taken on adopting it.

"Hopefully that paper will be ready for the September council meeting in order to give us the maximum time for consultation and future planning, well ahead of next summer."

A council spokesman could not comment on the management plan, but said damage to the site would be repaired using the bond money paid by events organisers.