Edinburgh football club win major political backing in bid for new ground ahead of crunch council talks
Secretary of State backing Edinburgh South’s Field of Dreams campaign
The biggest community football club in the East of Scotland finally hope to hear some good news over their Field of Dreams campaign for a new home ground today, as the Secretary of State for Scotland puts his personal backing behind Edinburgh South’s case with the City of Edinburgh Council.
Ian Murray MP, the local representative for a club with over 1000 players from soccer school to men’s and women’s senior teams, will be at a meeting with representatives from club and council tomorrow. After SEVEN years of haggling over a site, there is now serious hope that South – whose senior men’s team have been threatened with expulsion from the East of Scotland First Division because they don’t have a home ground of their own – will be granted permission to build at Inch Park.
South chief executive Joe Sneddon revealed the depth and strength of Murray’s support for the Field of Dreams campaign, saying: “He has assured us that he will do everything he can to make sure we get our pitch. He has pledged his support not only as our local MP but now as Secretary of State for Scotland – and he’s gone out of his way to ensure we get a proper home ground.
“Getting this meeting with the council so quickly shows that he follows through on his promises. He’s not just saying something to make himself look good and then dropping it – he’s actually throwing his weight behind us as an important institution in the community.
“To have Ian Murray 100 per cent behind us is a huge help. With him on our side, we’re hopeful that we’ll get the pitch the club really deserves.
“We don’t know exactly what to expect at this meeting. But it has been a long fight – and it hasn’t been acceptable, at all, for the council to keep stringing the community along.
“We’re in desperate need of this facility, and have been for a long time now. At the moment, our problems are being made worse by the fact that all of our grass pitches are so dry; they’re going to become mud baths as soon as the winter rains come.
“But we’ve been making our case for seven years or so. The council have, at various times, promised to help us, agreed to give us the land, even talked about funding at one point.
“At a meeting last year, it was even suggested that it was a formality. To then be sent a letter that is almost a straight no was a real shock. Hopefully they have a more productive approach at our meeting this week – and we finally see some progress.”
The plan is for South to build on existing council land in Inch Park, with mature trees all around the site shielding the new pitch from the view of houses nearby. The club have promised to keep everything about the all-weather facility low profile, with a small single-story changing block and floodlights unlikely to impact on householders.