Ratho is set to be bought by Edinburgh City Council in a £5 million rescue package. A news story on Scotsman.com suggests that a further £3 million may be spent of developing the area with a bistro, swimming pool and scuba training centre being part of the plans but also with the climbing facilities being maintained in any future developments.
The roof was already leaking. I think Rid was suggesting that the council has bought the place from Halifax Bank of Scotland. I can't see anything on the Scotsman web site about it. I suspect that the bank has a value in mind for the place based on its use as a conference facility, whereas most of the interested parties are looking to take it on mainly as a leisure complex. If a business plan based around leisure has a significantly lower revenue forecast than that for a conference facility, leisure-based bidders aren't going to be able to offer what the bank think they can get. In the mean time, of course, the bank is getting nothing, and nor are they providing the money requested by the new management team to fix the problems. How long ago were we promised a resurfaced car park? As far as I can see the potholes just get deeper and deeper. Admittedly they did get rid of the stupid eye-level lighting but I suspect that could easily have been justified on safety grounds. And, as previously pointed out, the roof still leaks. The bank is unlikely simply to walk away and leave the place to rot. The least worst outcome at the moment would probably be for a buyer to come forward with the money to fix/finish the place and the commercial nouse to run the climbing arena and the other leisure facilities at a profit. The worst outcome would be that it gets bought as a conference centre, and the climbing arena and the rest of the quarry are closed to climbers or built on. Although I do wish the bank would make their minds up what they do actually want to do with the place, I think Edinburgh Council are just about the last body I would want to see owning it. The words "Edinburgh Council" and "commercial nouse" are rarely seen in such close conjunction as here, and for good reason IMO.
Thank you - it wasn't there when I looked before, honest! Still not sure this is entirely good news, though I'm sure the money will be helpful (so long as it is actually forthcoming).
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