Edinburgh Ocean Terminal: Petition to find new home for indoor skate park forced to close for new bingo hall

Edinburgh’s only indoor skate park due to close at end of month

A petition has been launched calling for a new home for an indoor skate park which is being forced to leave its current location at Leith’s Ocean Terminal.

Transgression Park and its offshoot Boardwalk Roller Rinkare to close at the end of July after Ocean Terminal agreed a long-term lease with Club 3000 Bingo, currently in Manderston Street, which is set to take over the 27,500 sq ft ground floor unit – previously the BHS store – for a “state-of-the-art bingo club” due to open next year. It means local skateboarders, BMX riders and roller bladers will be left with no indoor facilities in the Capital.

Announcing the impending closure in June 2023, skate park founder Ken Smith struck an optimistic note, writing on the company website: “This may be an end but it is not the end. Transgression Park and Boardwalk will be back with a fresh project and we look forward to seeing you all there in the near future.”

Ken Smith has run the Edinburgh skate park with his partner since 2017. (Photo: Neil Johnstone)

Now an online petition has been launched in a bid to make that pledge come true. It says: “We are collecting signatures to ask for support for Transgression to find an affordable, easily accessible, indoor space for a skatepark, and support for skate sports in Scotland. We believe that the closure of Edinburgh’s only indoor skate park is a hard blow to the skating community and contradictory to the Scottish Government’s current agenda of promoting health and exercise and reducing the negative impact of gambling.”

The petition was initiated by Dr Johanna Jokio, senior information analyst at Public Health Scotland. Her explanatory remarks online continue: “Indoor skateparks provide a safe environment for skaters of all ages, capabilities and backgrounds. Skating facilities provide spaces for not only skateboarding and roller skating, but also inline skating, scooting, and BMX.

“They are places for young children or novices to discover a new sport under the supervision of paid members of staff who can teach, assist and aid where needed. They offer a sense of community and an inclusive environment, and consequently have a large positive impact on mental health. They are constructed with soft wooden surfaces designed and maintained by professionals, which reduce the risk of injury in comparison to the hard concrete surfaces used in outdoor skateparks. Bathroom facilities make skating more accessible to people with a wide range of needs.

“With skateboarding now included in the Olympics, skating has proven its status as a form of athleticism. Skate sports improve strength, endurance, coordination, balance as well as reflexes. They provide an extremely inviting alternative to those who want to start exercising but dread going to the gym or doing standard forms of exercises. We believe that it is unacceptable that Scotland loses another safe indoor skate park, and demand support for Transgression or other independent businesses to find affordable and accessible spaces in Edinburgh and Scotland.”

Skate park owner Ken Smith said his customers were 'devastated' about the closure. He said: "At the moment we don’t have anywhere to go, so it’s a bit of a downer for everyone and a blow to everyone who uses the place.”

Several shops in Ocean Terminal have closed recently, including Marks & Spencer’s Simply Food store. And the shopping centre is set to undergo a major £100 million redevelopment with the demolition of the vacant Debenhams store to make way for a hotel, shops, restaurants and a mix of leisure, retail and business uses.