COLIN CAMPBELL: Inverness athletics venue Queens Park in need of upgrade amid the ‘get active’ splashout
I've rarely set foot on it but I can vouch for the near constant level of activity at the Queens Park athletics arena virtually every month of the year.
The exercise bikes at Inverness Leisure are positioned directly overlooking it, and I get a bird's eye view. Every day I’m there I see runners on the track, ranging from individuals or small groups gliding or grinding their way round it in training, to large events involving scores and sometimes hundreds of athletes of all ages. Apart from deepest, darkest winter, it’s always in use.
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Now after years of being pounded by a billion leathery footprints the running track is worn and fraying, and is in need of replacement. The cost of that will be several hundred thousand pounds. And where's the money to come from?
The Queens Park cause is being championed by an athlete whose talent has been honed to an exceptional degree by a great deal of time and effort spent on it.
Olympian Megan Keith’s recent achievements in the 10,000m event in Paris made for compelling viewing and were a source of pride and inspiration. The local girl made good at the very highest global level in a way never seen by Invernessians or indeed Highlanders before.
A great deal of money has been spent on different schemes aimed at promoting health and fitness within a mile of Queens Park. The major upgrade of the Bught Park and refurbishment of the rickety grandstand there seems money well spent. The same can't be said of the "active travel" related roadwork and cycle track installation – the surfaced track is wholly unnecessary - which has taken months to carry out along the riverside. And the E-bikes pick-up point at the leisure centre is a reminder of how that project has fared.
There was a splashout on 56 E-bikes at a cost of no less than £4000 each - over £200,000 thrown at the scheme - and these have since been partly wrecked by vandals who no doubt considered them an easy target. Repair costs for that have been reported as being over £50,000.
A huge amount of money has been spent on trying to encourage people to be active.
So the needs of those like the many Queens Park enthusiasts who don't need to be encouraged should not be neglected.
They don't need subsidised E-bikes, pointless cycle lanes or any other would-be municipal brainwaves to get moving, they do it of their own accord. But they do need a new track at Queens Park.
Megan Keith’s very welcome role in pushing the case for this should not obscure the fact that it's not only for the benefit of elite athletes like her and others dedicated to the sport but for enthusiasts of all ages and abilities. Our Olympian is championing a cause which is well worth her sterling efforts, and one which deserves the level of public support she herself has received.
