Legal fight over strip of land just 2ft wide

A HISTORIC sports club is set to sue Edinburgh City Council over a 2ft-wide strip of land.

The Grange Club, based in Stockbridge, has launched legal action to try to force city council bosses to rebuild a demolished wall along Comely Bank Road.

Grange and nearby Edinburgh Accies rugby club are in the midst of an ongoing dispute.

The Accies want to build a new rugby pitch and 2,500seat stand at Raeburn Place, with bars, shops and other facilities.

But the size of the £16 million plans has caused anger among some of the surrounding community.

And it was revealed earlier this year that the entire scheme could be held to ransom for as much as £1m, due to a thin slice of land.

The land used to lie beneath the demolished wall and forms a key access point to the Accies development, but is owned by the Grange.

The cricket and sports club want Accies to buy the land if they wish to go forward with the development.

In a complex strategy they are taking the council to court and suing it over its failure to maintain the wall, which was under the local authority’s care.

Gordon Tolland, secretary of Grange, said: “The issue of the wall and the strip of land along Comely Bank Road has been going on for quite some time now, and so the Grange Club has decided to clarify the legal position by having an action raised in the Court of Session.”

Grange bosses say their intention is not to halt the development, but to maximise the financial gain for the club.

But lawyers acting for the Raeburn Place Foundation Ltd (RPF), which is leading the Edinburgh Accies development, insist Grange’s ownership is “irrelevant” as the 2ft strip is part of the road, allowing developers and the public a right of access over it.

Edinburgh City Council declined to comment.