HAVING worked on two occasions at Edinburgh’s Meadowbank Stadium and Sports Centre, first as a callow trainee manager in the mid-70s and then as venue manager for the 1986 Commonwealth Games in 1986, it is with sadness and some dismay that I learned the original facility, once the leading venue of its kind in the UK, is to close this December.

The mix of indoor facilities in the proposed “New Meadowbank” look remarkably similar to the old, with several key differences, such as the loss of the velodrome that kick-started the careers of none other than Sir Chris Hoy.

Replacing those sacrificed sports facilities include almost two hectares of residential and nearly 2.2 hectares of “mixed use”, including “hotel / student housing / residential / commercial”.' Secondly, there will be the removal of the existing Concourse, the only meaningful indoor athletics training facility in a city once renowned for its world-class track and field stars like Allan Wells and Yvonne Murray and those major international events such as the Commonwealth Games – twice – which rival UK cities such as Birmingham are striving to host.

The third significant loss is the existing 7,500-seater grandstand, to be replaced with one accommodating 500, not to mention a further 9,000 admittedly-derelict ground seats along with the loss of any capacity for temporary seating if required, signalling the capital's capitulation as a city capable of attracting major stadium events.

In their stead, houses – presumably private with the usual nod to “affordable housing”, and that catch-all, mixed use, land earmarked for anything but amenity; the upshot, a shrunken, emasculated leisure complex dominated –and presumably partly-financed – by private sector investors.

The people of Edinburgh and their sporting clubs and institutions - the two most important stakeholders of all - Scotland as a nation and to a lesser extent the UK and beyond, are being sold a not just a pup, but a pig-in-a-poke too.

Mike Wilson,

Lochhill Farm, Longniddry, East Lothian.