Edinburgh Council stands accused of publishing further misleading information on the Meadowbank redevelopment after it claimed complexity, cost and safety were the reasons for an artificial pitch on the site not being reused.
The local authority’s claim was made in a document published on its website on 13 September 2018 which stated “The 3G pitch has not been recycled as would be a complex and expensive process with no certainty that the relocated pitch would be safe to use” (sic). This was in response to a news release, issued by the Save Meadowbank Campaign nine days previously, which criticised Edinburgh Council for not recycling the 3G pitch.
However Edinburgh Council now admits it has no documents to back-up its claim about complexity, cost and safety. No report was ever commissioned about possible reuse of the 3G sports pitch and Edinburgh Council holds no document in which the suggestion was ever made or discussed. Instead, according to Gabriella Trybalska of the Council’s Information Governance Unit, “Council staff used their own experience of managing 3G pitch projects to draw conclusions on the recycling of the pitch”.
It has also now emerged that the first document the Council holds about possible recycling of any part of the Meadowbank pitch was on 22 September 2018, eighteen days after the Council was criticised for destroying the pitch for a ‘staff treasure hunt’ and nine days after the Council published its claims about complexity, cost and safety.
“This demonstrates yet again why Edinburgh Council cannot be trusted with its claims about Meadowbank,” said Save Meadowbank spokesperson Heather Peacock.
“Edinburgh Council allowed its staff to destroy a perfectly good 3G sports pitch for the sake of a staff treasure hunt. When this campaign group complained about it Edinburgh Council responded by publishing a completely unsubstantiated claim on its website. Now it transpires the Council made no attempt to recycle an extremely expensive sports facility.
“Damaging the facility was bad enough but then attempting to cover it up by making claims which are not substantiated by any documentation is a blatant attempt to mislead the public.”
Attached:
FOI response documents provided by Edinburgh Council
News release issued by Save Meadowbank campaign on 4 September 2018: https://savemeadowbank.wordpress.com/2018/09/04/staff-treasure-hunt-takes-priority-and-ruins-100k-facility/
FAQ document published by Edinburgh Council on 13 September 2018
Save Meadowbank 