SPORT: Hillend: The End?

By MARK McLAUGHLIN
Edinburgh Evening News
19 March 2010

LOTHIANS MSPs have called on sports minister Shona Robison to "turn her words into action" as it emerged that Scotland's national sporting body won't stump up the cash to save the troubled Midlothian Ski Centre.

The Hillend snowsports centre is struggling with a projected deficit of over half a million pounds and may be facing closure unless it can eliminate its deficit or secure external funding.

Owner Midlothian Council is set to implement a raft of cost-saving measures - including job cuts and price rises. But these will only reduce the deficit by a third, suggesting the only viable option to save the centre will be external funding.

Donald S MacKay, Midlothian Council's director of education and communities, has warned that the centre is now at "significant risk" of closure.

A report to go before councillors on Tuesday states: "The council will no longer be able to keep the snowsports centre open unless the operating deficit is reduced to zero or there is significant external assistance and financial support available."

Stuart Harris, chief executive of national sporting agency Sportscotland, gave council chief executive Trevor Muir an assurance last month that the centre is "a facility of national importance" and pledged to work with the council to ensure it stayed open. However, this help will not extend to financial backing.

A Sportscotland spokeswoman said: "We are exploring ways we can use our expertise to support Midlothian Council in ensuring the centre operates on a more economically sustainable model."

Midlothian MSP Rhona Brankin is now seeking an urgent meeting with Ms Robison to convince the Scottish Government to shoulder some of the burden.

She said: "The minister regards the centre as being 'important to the future of snowsports in Scotland'. She needs now to turn those warm words into action to secure the future of the facility.

"There is no way that Midlothian Council can take an annual loss of GBP 500,000 from Hillend ski slope when only 20 per cent of its users come from Midlothian."

Lothians MSP Robin Harper has also requested a meeting with ministers to safeguard the centre's future.

Mr MacKay also confirmed that informal discussions have been held with private individuals and organisations. However, he warned that private partnerships would simply replace one set of problems with another, reducing the council's financial risk but exposing it to other risks associated with handing partial control to an outside party.

A council spokesman refused to disclose the names of the private parties involved but one local businessman, 25-year-old ski holiday entrepreneur Stuart Murphy, managing director of Colme Street-based Snowtraxx, revealed he has had a brief discussion with council officials.

He said: "I've yet to receive an official invitation to discuss my proposals in detail.

"Obviously I would want some say in the way the centre is run if they accept my proposal. But I think the council are still hoping Sportscotland will simply give them the money and leave them to it."

A Scottish Government spokeswoman declined to reveal whether Ms Robison would be taking up the MSP's calls for a meeting but said: "We are monitoring the situation closely and will be interested in the outcome of the package of efficiency measures."