Time running out for Calton Centre?

I was informed earlier today by the Labour councillor for Leith Walk Ward, Angela Blacklock, that the ruling LibDem/SNP administration which runs Edinburgh City Council had rejected her motion asking for an investigation into the possibility of the Council buying the Calton Centre. The Centre has served as a community centre for the Calton/Hillside area for many years, but has recently been closed and put up for sale by the church group which owns it.

This is very bad news, and runs completely against the strong community feeling in the area that the centre should be saved as a community facility. A recent survey of the local community showed that 57% of those who responded felt that the reopening of the Calton Centre was "really important issue."

According to Angela, her motion was rejected because it was felt it would cost the council £500,000 to buy the centre. If that's so, then it seems to me that this is pretty good value for the money - surely this money could be found to save a community facility like this which serves an area of more than 10,000 local people.

In fact, I've noticed today on a property website that the selling agents for the property expect it will go for only £300,000 - see this link (scroll down to the bottom of the page to see the information about the Calton Centre). Surely the council could find this type of money? What is also concerning is that according to the website the sale of the centre is now fairly well advanced - if the Council doesn't move quickly, it is clear the Calton Centre will be sold off. In fact, according to this property website, the closing date for 'offers' appears to be tomorrow (Wednesday 27 August) - but hopefully, in today's property market, there might still be an opportunity for the Council to make an approach to the existing or perhaps the new owners.

I am contacting the Council to urge them to reconsider their refusal even to think about purchasing the Calton Centre - I hope other local residents and residents' groups will do so as well.

Sunshine on Leith!

At least, a little bit of sunshine on Montgomery Street Park today, and I'm glad for the organisers of the community event in the park today. That's the first event (other than my regular MP advice surgeries) that I've attended since I came back from holiday, and it was very encouraging to see this initiative aimed at promoting the campaign for an upgraded park and play area for this area.

I've been fortunate this year to have been able to get away for just over two and a half weeks - eleven days on the Continent, and then a week in Scotland - so I'm now trying to catch up with the backlog of emails and letters. Apologies to anyone waiting a reply - hopefully I will have cleared this by the middle of the week!

A lot of political developments, of course, which I will be saying something about on my blog over the next few days - and the sad news of the death of my Parliamentary colleague John McDougall, whose funeral I expect to go to on Monday.