The future of the largest marina located on the east coast of Scotland has been secured after being taken over by a private developer.

In a statement, the City of Edinburgh Council said it had agreed for Port Edgar Marina to be taken over by Port Edgar Holding Ltd.

The 30-year lease will begin in April 2014.

The firm has promised to spend £1.2m on improvements over the next five years.

In 2011, Edinburgh Leisure announced it would stop managing the marina at the end of March next year as it had become "too expensive" to run.

-- Advertisement --

Councillor Richard Lewis, Edinburgh's Culture and Sport Convener, said: "This is a welcome step forward for the Port Edgar Marina and secures the future of this important sailing facility.

"We're very much looking forward to working with Port Edgar Holding Ltd as the new lease holder and the Council will be working closely with them over the next few months to finalise the detail in advance of the handover."

Russell Aitken of Port Edgar Holding Ltd, added: "This is an exciting development for this much-loved marina and I'm delighted that we've been able to secure a lease which will ensure continued investment in this sailing facility.

"We're grateful to the Council for granting us this lease. Now the work really begins to finalise the detail and get ready to take on the management next Spring."

Port Edgar Holding said they were planning to undertake dredging work, which should make the marina less dependent on the tides and be able to accommodate larger vessels.

(JP/MH)