Roaring argument over curling centre

Feb 13 2009 by Jenny Wood, Perthshire Advertiser Friday

SWEEPING celebrations when Kinross won the prestigious bid to become Scotland’s new home of curling have been dampened by locals fighting over the site picked for the high profile facility.

And the landowner at the centre of the wrangle has warned the fight could jeopardise the project’s future – a venture expected to bring at least 17 jobs to the area.

A grassy field in the centre of Kinross, known locally as the Market Park, had been earmarked for the site of the National Curling Academy. The intention had been for owners’ Kinross Estate Company to lease the land for a nominal amount to a trust which would own the new rink.

But some locals, lamenting the loss of the field as a community asset, are objecting to the proposal.

Jamie Montgomery of Kinross Estate Company – and the driving force behind Kinross’s success in the bid for the academy – admits to being disappointed by the opposition and tried to put the record straight.

“It does sadden me that many people seem prepared to risk jeopardising this project because of a perceived loss of valuable local amenity land.

“The amenity value of the Market Park is being dramatically overstated,” he said.

“I have become aware of a fairly vociferous campaign against the new facility being built in the Market Park as is currently proposed,” he explained.

“The main plank of their opposition is that the Market Park is owned by the community for the common good. It is fanciful nonsense.

“The Market Park is, and has been for hundreds of years, owned by Kinross Estate Company. The fact that a number of local fairs were held in the Market Park was down to permission being generously granted by my forebears.”

Jamie Montgomery went on to explain the vision had been to landscape the new car parking area of the curling academy so that occasional local events could still be held on the site.

And, responding to those who hailed the Market Park as desirable green space, Mr Montgomery continued: “Up until a couple of years or so ago, the Market Park was a scruffy paddock which was occasionally grazed by a small flock of sheep.

“Whilst this paints a rather quaint scene, the reality is that it was previously a bit of an eyesore, unkempt and covered in litter and general detritus.

“For the last two or three years, at our own cost, we have tidied it up and kept it mown and looking relatively nice and neat.”

But he warned: “In the current economic climate, I can make no promises going forward.”

The current ice rink in Kinross is on borrowed time, with just a few years’ life left in it.

The National Curling Academy – which has already received high-level backing – looked set to save the future of the winter sport in the town by providing a larger, state-of-the-art ice rink for local curlers, an academy for top athletes to train, offices for the sports’ governing body, a museum, spectators’ bar and catering facilities.

Sportscotland has given approval to the project, the Sports Minister for Scotland has added support, grant bids are already in the pipeline and fund raising initiatives are being developed to help bankroll the academy.

The target had been for building work to start on site in summer and be complete by next August.