Education, Culture and Sport Committee, 17 Nov 1999
Meeting date: Wednesday, November 17, 1999
Official Report
278KB pdf
Petition
Is Brian Monteith able to bring us up to date on the petition?
Certainly. Last Monday I was able to visit the site with Gillian Baxendine, the committee clerk, and Mr Guild. We walked around the site—Mr Guild gave us a guided tour—and we discussed the problems that he felt merited his petition.
Following that, I had discussions with the clerk and decided that the appropriate action is to write to a number of bodies that are interested parties, partly to establish what development plans there are in the area that the schedule of the historic site covers, and partly to try to identify exactly what the schedule covers and who those interested parties are. A great deal of evidence must still be gathered before we can speak to everyone.
We are in the process of sending letters to East of Scotland Water, which is establishing a pumping site on the foreshore; Historic Scotland, which has a great deal of information on the schedule, the layout and those who have an interest; and City of Edinburgh Council, which is the planning authority and has an interest in the planning of the campus site, formerly occupied by Dunfermline College of Physical Education. We are also writing to the University of Edinburgh to establish the status of the development plans and the preferred bidder, and to the Council for Scottish Archaeology for its information on the importance of the site. Once I have received responses from them, I will have to follow them up. I hope that I will be able to make available at least a draft report before Christmas.
Thank you. Do members have any questions for Brian?
That work is admirable. I know that there is a lot of interest in the site. I received a fax yesterday from representatives of the Antonine Guard—
Sorry?
It still exists. It is a society that performs historical re-enactments in Roman uniform. It is excited that somebody is taking the issue of the Roman port at Cramond seriously. Brian will probably get an honorary commission in the Antonine Guard as a result of his work, which is going very well.
I am already a member of the praetorian guard in the Conservative party.
And in other matters, which we do not want to embarrass you by talking about.
Thank you for that, Brian. Do you feel that you have sufficient assistance to proceed with that?
For the moment, yes.
Good. We look forward to hearing your next report on that issue.