Edinburgh Council has said it has appointed a multi-disciplinary project team to begin drawing up options for Meadowbank.

The options are expected to be put out to public consultation later this year.

According to the local authority, Deloitte will work alongside Edinburgh-based architects Reiach & Hall and The Sports Consultancy to draft up a variety of different options for the facility.

As part of the process, Edinburgh Council will work with sportscotland, Edinburgh Leisure and Scottish governing bodies of sport to get their feedback on the proposals. These will then be subject to an extensive public consultation that will aim to hear all views on the future of Meadowbank Sports Centre and Stadium. This will then form a future report to the Council.

The options appraisal follows a £60,000 commitment in the Capital Coalition budget to provide an assessment of the future of Meadowbank Sports Centre and Stadium.

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Councillor Richard Lewis, Culture and Sport Convener, said: "We understand the important role that Meadowbank plays in the lives of thousands of people in the city and the significance of the venue in providing sports facilities in the east of Scotland.

"The project team has been instructed to look at all options and they will be doing this in a detailed and impartial way. The public will then have the chance to look at the proposals and give us their views.

"We are determined to involve as many people as possible in the assessment of Meadowbank's future and together hopefully we can come to a solution that will provide top sporting facilities in Edinburgh while delivering best value for the taxpayer."

Meadowbank Sports Centre and Stadium is a multi-purpose sports facility. It boasts an eight-lane, 400m athletics track and a velodrome adjacent to the site. It also has indoor facilities including squash courts, two sports halls, dance studios, an indoor football hall and gym facilities.

Louise Martin CBE, Chair of sportscotland, added: "sportscotland is developing a world-class sporting system at all levels and working with our partners in local government is key to achieving this. So we're delighted to be collaborating with the City of Edinburgh Council to help examine the options for enhancing sporting facilities in Edinburgh.

"Such collaboration helped deliver the refurbishment of the Royal Commonwealth Pool, in which sportscotland invested five million pounds, and provided a tremendous venue for the diving competition in next year's Commonwealth Games, and Edinburgh has also benefitted from the new 3G synthetic pitch at Meadowbank, in which we invested £300,000 through the Scottish Government's CashBack for Communities initiative."

(JP/CD)