NEWS: Parents locked out of park built in children's memory

MARK McLAUGHLIN
Evening News (Edinburgh)
July 1, 2010, Thursday

THE parents of two children who died in a horrific warehouse fire have been locked out of a playpark built in their memory.

Donna Hume and Catherine Craig campaigned for years to see a country park built over the site of a derelict warehouse in Penicuik where their boys Blair Easton, 11, and Craig Quinn, 12, died in 1998.

Midlothian Council, however, decided to award the site to private housebuilder Applecross Homes to create the new Eskbridge Estate, which was completed last year.

As a concession, the council insisted that a memorial be written into the plans and the families agreed on a playpark.

However, Craig's mother Catherine was horrified when she visited the park and was turned away by a sign warning that it was for "Eskbridge residents use only".

She said: "This was a memorial park for the boys so friends and family could visit but they have now put up sign up saying residents only.

"Although it's been over ten years it's still affecting us all."

Donna Hume, who is divorced from Blair's father Derek Easton and now lives in Tranent, added: "It's sickening that they've locked everyone out of the park except for the residents of these shiny new houses.

"Blair would have been 23 this year and getting to the age where he may have been thinking about having children himself.

"Some of his classmates have children of their own now and I'm sure they would have enjoyed taking their children down there."

The whole community was left in shock when the boys died in the fire which ripped through the former Borders Concrete warehouse in March 1998.

People visiting the memorial are now met with a grey metal fence built around the playpark, and the only publicly accessible area is a green bench on the edge of the park bearing the boys' names.

Two plaques on the bench read: "Full of fun and mischief and memories of Blair Easton (11) and Craig Quinn (12) who will live on through all those who knew and laughed with them."

A spokeswoman for the site's estate agents Strutt & Parker said the purpose of the park appeared to have been "lost in translation" when developer Applecross went into administration last year, and referred inquiries to the site's current factors, Charles White Limited.

Charles White property manager Sarah Wilson refused to comment.

Midlothian Provost Adam Montgomery, who has been a local councillor in the area since before the boys' deaths and supported the idea of a memorial park on the site, has now written to the council's chief executive to find a way to tear these signs down and open the park up to the public.

He said: "I have asked for an investigation into what has happened here and a look at the agreements we received when we permitted this development to go ahead.

"However, even if there wasn't any agreement to keep this park open to the public I will aim to get it reopened, because it's not right that relatives and friends of the youngsters are not allowed to gain access to it."