An online petition has been launched against the construction of a bike park in Edinburgh. The petition is entitled Our Green Space Versus Bike Park Takeover and has received 350 signatures on 38degrees.

The Braidwood Bike Park was first propsed in 2012 by the cycling charity Skelf and hopes to bring a green trail, a skills area and pump track to a piece of land that is currently overgrown and reportedly beset with anti-social behaviour and rough sleepers.

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The two-acre-sized bike park aims to provide a “fun and accessible outdoor biking facility for the city as a whole, helping to make keeping fit fun,” and “a focus of positive activity for young people”. The bike park is supported by the council and construction is already underway.

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The petition was launched as residents felt they were not adequately consulted on the construction of the park. The petition says: “There is a bike park development happening without local people knowing anything about it. The trees have all been cut down and the grassy area is about to be covered in tarmac. The residents here have not asked for a bike park, nor want it.”

However, Angus Calder, of Skelf, told the Edinburgh Evening News: “An enormous amount of effort has been put into sharing information with the community through events, talks, information stalls and newsletters.

“Unfortunately, a small group of people objecting to the proposals have attempted to suggest that all local residents oppose the project. We know from the work done over the last four years this is not at all true.”

He also said that more than three times the number of tress that had been cut down would be replanted and the bike trails would be complemented with picnic benches and footpaths for residents as well as habitats for local wildlife.

The petition currently has 358 signatures, with 400 needed for it to be sent to Alex Neil the Cabinet Secretary in the Scottish Parliament for Social Justice, Communities and Pensioners’ Rights. You can view the petition here.