Tag: Inverleith Park

Scott Hastings opens Inverleith fitness trail

Inverleith resident and former Scotland rugby star Scott Hastings officially opened Inverleith Park’s new fitness trail this morning. Scott was joined by members of the Friends of Inverleith Park group at a ribbon-cutting ceremony organised to mark the occasion.

Funded by the city council, wooden fitness equipment has been installed at ten stations around the park’s northern perimeter, and Scott was joined by his training companion Parker the dog as he demonstrated the delights of the exercise trail!

Inverleith Park is already a very popular location, used by a number of sports clubs, fitness groups and thousands of individuals, particularly joggers. The Council, along with the Friends of Inverleith Park and other user groups, decided that a fitness trail would improve the facilities and equipment for users of the park wanting to exercise.

Installation was completed at the end of March and fitness enthusiasts can now complete a circuit of the park whilst tackling bench sit-ups, a tyre run, wobble board and a number of other challenges along the way!

Scott said: “As a local resident and a regular jogger I am very impressed with the fitness trail. I am amazed at the number of people who have been using it to boost their exercise. I have had a bit of fun using the exercise stations as a break from my regular running route. Inverleith Park is a really fantastic space and this new fitness track enhances the amount of things that one can do whilst admiring the wonderful views across our great city”. 

Friends of Inverleith Park convener Tony Cook added: “Comments about the fitness trail have been overwhelmingly positive and the new facilities will mean that even more people will come to enjoy this wonderful park.”

Inverleith Park green flag success

Inverleith Park retained it’s prestigious Green Flag Award for 2011/2012, passing assessments on a number of national criteria, such as environment, cleanliness, safety and accessibility and a flag raising ceremony took place today.

The formal raising of the flag was conducted by ward Councillor Tim McKay and he was also delighted about the award. He said “The Flag gives the public a way of realizing their parks are something to be proud off, its an indicator of a local facility being appreciated by the wider community. All our parks are important to everyone in Edinburgh, its not just your neighborhood park its good to know there are parks all over the city.”

When asked about the potential sale of the depot site Councillor McKay said “I think the sale is without doubt kicked into the long grass if not killed off. There is a paper that is due to come to Policy and Strategy committee in the future, which will kick the issue into the long grass for just now, the agents that were involved are no longer involved they were involved in proposal for some housing but that proposal is getting dropped and I cant see anything happening for the next few years.

Ritchie Fraser from the City of Edinburgh Council said “The green flag means a great deal for Inverleith Park, the award is internationally recognised award which means that the park will generate a great deal of publicity. We had to create a management plan for the park and this included, safety of the park, cleanliness of the park and whether or not everything you achieve in the park is sustainable. We are always look at ways to improve the park and toilets are something that we are looking at but as they require to be cleaned its an additional cost. We have looked at semi automated toilets but its all budget dependent”

Councillor Tim McKay (second from left) prepares to raise the Green Flag

Members from the Friends of Inverleith park group came along on the day and were delighted that the park had achieved this award for the coming year. Tony Cook, convener of the groups said “This is excellent news for the park, there is lots of activities taking place in the park from football to rugby and many more. Our group are concerned about the potential selling off of the depot site for the purpose of creating 8 luxury houses. I would now like to see real progress made in creating a toilet facility as well as a café and something that could be a youth facility in the evening.”

Click here to listen to our interview with Councillor Tim McKay and Ritchie Fraser