SRU should think about local residents and park plans for new rugby stadium
In a circle of less than a mile in diameter centred on the British Telecom’s rugby stadium at Edinburgh’s Murrayfield lie the quiet residential areas of Saughtonhall, Glendevon, Riversdale and Roseburn, with narrow streets and a high car ownership; on-street parking outside residences is the norm.
These areas have remained virtually unblemished since being laid out in the 1920s. Until 1994, when the new rugby stadium at Murrayfield was completed, car parking for the venue was achieved by using the SRU back pitches which accommodated upwards of 500 vehicles accessed by bridges over the Water of Leith at Baird Drive and Saughtonhall Avenue.
In planning the modernised stadium, both the SRU and the planning authorities deemed it unnecessary to perpetuate car parking facilities, thus transferring the problem to nearby streets, to the detriment of the environment and local residents, all leading to severe parking restrictions, road closures, congestion and often illegal parking. Now there are plans to erect yet another “mini” floodlit stadium for Edinburgh Rugby on those same back pitches with a capacity which started at 6,000 but which seems to have crept up to 7,500. With BT Murrayfield, capacity 67,000, and the SRU continuing to spread its wings and sphere of disruption, there will be an increase in the number of rock concerts, with high disturbance levels plus American football, rugby league and football matches etc.
There is even talk of using the main stadium as a football replacement for Hampden Park in Glasgow. This could lead to full-scale international matches, cup finals involving, say, Rangers v Celtic, major European matches, all without any parking being available.
Add to this mix a rebranded ice hockey side playing in the local ice rink, capacity 3,800, and Hearts at Tynecastle, capacity 20,000 , for which both home and visiting fans already park cars and minibuses in Baird Drive and Baird Grove on match days.
The current situation is bad enough and can only deteriorate further on match days with car-owning residents of Saughtonall Avenue and other streets banned from roadside parking and often having to drive some distance to park. Another stadium with an influx of further cars is the last thing the area needs – it is already being suffocated to meet the needs of the sporting fraternity.
It is to be hoped that those involved in promoting the new stadium and the possible “change of use” at the BT stadium from rugby to “anything goes” will be subject, as with any planning application, to a rigorous and all-encompassing investigation into the effects this could have on the local environment, such as noise, light and air pollution, road safety, traffic congestion and policing.
Local councillors and politicians of all persuasions should not turn a blind eye to the Machiavellian ploys of those behind such ideas but instead think carefully about the needs of council tax payers.
BRIAN A FARISH Baird Grove, Edinburgh