The Summerhall developers and a promise undelivered after 20 years

Residents feel "betrayed" by luxury housebuilder's failure to provide sports facilities at Cramond

Some of young players from Cramond FC

When one of the Capital’s most prestigious housebuilders bought Edinburgh University’s former Moray House campus at Cramond, there were high hopes for what might happen next.

The university’s sports facilities would be going to make way for high-end housing, but there was a rather enticing carrot for the local community.

In place of the university sports centre, AMA would build top class sports facilities for use by local sports clubs and residents. It was, in the words of one resident involved in the public consultations, a “utopian” vision.

More than twenty years later, that optimism has long gone. Initial dismay and disappointment have given way to a mixture of weary resignation and in some quarters a sense of “betrayal”.

Around 150 houses have been built on the land, in an upmarket development where a two-bed flat can today fetch more than half a million pounds.

But the southeast corner of the site is now a wasteland where once the community had access to some of the best sports pitches in Scotland.

Residents are still fighting the corner for sports and much-needed community facilities.

AMA insists it remains committed to delivering on its word.

But 22 years after permission was granted for housing development on the former university sports campus, along with a sports pavilion and pitches, progress remains firmly stuck in the mud.

And more than a year after a revised ‘route map’ was agreed in an effort to get the project moving again, the developer has missed a deadline for submitting an application for fresh plans for the Cramond Road North site.

After years of discussions, changed plans and ‘masterplans’, research, consultation and updates locals are fed up – they want to see spades in the ground.

‘People feel betrayed’

Just weeks ago, amid stalling attempts to find agreement on revised plans for delivering the promised sports facilities, representatives from the community resigned from a group working alongside the developer. They stated in no uncertain terms they had ‘lost confidence’ in AMA.

Local councillor Kevin Lang, who resigned from the group in August, says the community deserves accountability.

“I’ve been a councillor for eight years and in that time, this has been the hot topic. People feel betrayed. Regrettably, the community is so dismayed they doubt if anything will happen. There are residents here who grew up using the campus at Moray House whose kids now have no local sports facilities. That really puts this in perspective.

“More than twenty years since the original planning application we are at another impasse. The roadmap agreed is a year off-track and once again, AMA is in breach of their planning obligations. No work has started and there isn’t even a planning application in. It’s clear planning officials need to take decisive action.

“Over 150 homes have been built and sold. They have profited from the housing but singularly failed to deliver. The community feels let down. This is about fairness and trust. There is no question that the promised sports and other facilities are badly needed.”