Season greetings from the Leith Links Activity Park team!
2023 has been an important year for our campaign.
Back in May, we were introduced to the Thriving Greenspaces team at the City of Edinburgh Council who we subsequently supported as they developed proposals for an ‘activity hub’ on the bowling green area of Leith Links.
September saw the launch of a six-week consultation on those proposals. We took part in a launch event on the bowling greens, followed up by a social media campaign to spread the word about the consultation to make sure as much of the local community had the chance to share their feedback.
Over 1,000 people responded to the consultation and the results, which were published at the beginning of November, showed 84% supported the proposed designs.
At the end of November, we attended a workshop run by the Thriving Greenspaces team in collaboration with landscape architects Atkins and skatepark design company Betongpark to contribute our ideas and opinions to the next phase of design work for the activity hub. This ongoing phase will see Betongpark develop a detailed design for the skatepark, pump track and rollerskating facilities.
We continue to be in regular contact with the Thriving Greenspaces team and hope to be able to share an updated plan early in the New Year. We’ll also share any updates about the Betongpark design process when we can.
In other news, our team has grown over the past 12 months with the new additions of James, Cara and Akiko. 🙌
Elsewhere in Leith, 2023 sadly saw the closure of the only existing local skate facilities at Transgression Park in Ocean Terminal and Leith DIY’s Shanty Town ramp at the Meanwhile Project, along with Edinburgh’s only dedicated rollerskating facility, The Boardwalk.
On a positive note, plans for ‘The Dock – Hangout and Skate Area’, part of the Coalie Park project, continue to be developed by the Edinburgh Wheels Project with involvement from Leith Diy.
Hopefully the next year will bring positive news for the communities that have been impacted by the closures.
Huge thanks for all the support over 2023 and we look forward to an active 2024!
The LLAP team 🎄
Leith Links Activity Park 