Golfers bunkered

You reported on Saturday on the proposal to effectively close the nine-hole golf course at Portobello.

This appears to amount to a 50 per cent reduction in the nine-hole courses publicly available on a pay-as-you-go basis in Edinburgh, with Wee Braids being the other one.

Replacing part of the Portobello course with family games to encourage golf participation may or may not be a good idea, but the way in which Edinburgh Leisure conducts consultations leaves a lot to be desired.

On Edinburgh Leisure’s website there is minimal information. There is no easily available public evidence of the strategy to increase public golf course usage and how the decision to reduce provision at Portobello will help.

And maybe some of those who favour the nine-hole courses are older people and an inter-generational approach could be developed?

Not so long ago we saw Edinburgh Leisure close the pay-as-you-go indoor public bowling facility at Portobello. Again, there was scant attention paid to any city-wide impact on the sport of bowling, nor was there a full consultation.

It is time for a wider discus- sion about accountability in consultations and decisionmaking at Edinburgh Leisure, and how that relates to other decisions across the city.

ANN HENDERSON Dorset Place, Edinburgh