Published: Friday, 11th July, 2008 12:35
Council not belle of the ball
By David Knox
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INNERLEITHEN will go to the ball – despite the council erecting a playpark in the middle of their dancefloor.
But a children’s charity wasn’t so lucky as it was forced to cancel its day of fun because of the unscheduled construction work.
Workmen arrived on the fields behind St Ronan’s School on Monday morning to erect an assault-course type playpark.
But nobody had told the town’s festival committee, who were preparing to pitch a massive marquee on the field for its annual ball.
Or staff at the adjacent community centre, who were hosting a charity party.
Organisers of the tomorrow’s Standard Bearer’s Ball had to swing into action by sliding their giant tent onto a neighbouring area of the site.
And they used around three tones of sand to create a new flattened area for the dancefloor.
Alan Patterson, chairman of the Games Week Committee, told the Peeblesshire News: “Someone at Scottish Borders Council must have known the ball was on this week.
“The first we knew about this playpark was when the workmen turned up and started digging.
“The playpark is not an insurmountable obstacle but there will be slight problems with access to the new area we’re using.”
Scottish Borders Council offered to stop work on the park when complaints were made – but it would have cost tax-payers around £1,000 per day for the hold-up.
Barriers will be used to section off the play equipment during tomorrow’s celebrations and special walkways are being constructed from the marquee to the community centre.
Mr Patterson added: “It hasn’t been an ideal situation but the ball will go and I’m sure everyone will have a good time.”
But a charity’s day of fun in Innerleithen didn’t have such a good time with the unscheduled arrival of the diggers.
Local community leaders believe some form of notice should have been given.
And are asking why a consultation process didn’t take place.
Community council chairman Ross McGinn said: “Nobody knew anything about the playpark being built and a charity, which had hired the community centre, wasn’t able to go outside because of the work that was going on.
“For me this is the worst possible place you could put a playpark in Innerleithen. There are no houses overlooking the area and there are thick woods nearby where anyone could be lurking. The people of Innerleithen should have been consulted before this went ahead.”
Scottish Borders Council admitted that work on the site wasn’t supposed to start for at least another fortnight.
And they have apologised for the upheaval caused to the ball organizers.
A Scottish Borders Council Spokesperson said: " We did not expect the works to start early without advanced warning.
"Since being alerted to works starting early and this having a detrimental effect on the location of the Community Ball marquee – we have been working continuously with the Games Committee to resolve the situation.
"As a solution, we did offer to pay the required sum of money for the works to be stopped and the marquee to be built on the usual area, however the Games Committee were very understanding and suggested re-locating the marquee to a different area in the school grounds.
“We have apologised to the Games Committee and the local community for any concern caused and we hope that the ball goes really well."
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