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PERTH MP & MSP ANGRY AND DISAPPOINTED AT THREAT TO CHERRYBANK’S HEATHER GARDENS |
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Friday, 21 March 2008 |
Following a meeting this morning with Mr Peter Fairlie, Chief Executive of The Calyx, Perth parliamentarians, Ms Roseanna Cunningham MSP, Member of the Scottish Parliament for Perth, and Mr Pete Wishart MP, Member of the Westminster Parliament for Perth and North Perthshire, have expressed their anger and disappointment with the way in which the future of Perth’s Cherrybank Gardens has come under threat.
Speaking today (Friday) Roseanna said:
“The situation that has developed over the last week has been a great disappointment to us. There are no circumstances under which either of us will countenance closure of the famous heather gardens at Cherrybank.
“I am in no doubt that the garden was a gift to the people of Perth from Diageo and there is absolutely no way that their should be a question mark over their future just because the Calyx project did not get the lottery funding it was promised.
“I fear that this is now going to end up in a legal dispute and I will be getting hold of a copy of the agreement from 2003 under which Cherrybank came under the control of Scotland’s Gardens Trust to satisfy myself in terms of what it actually says.
Pete Wishart added:
“The situation at the Calyx has descended into an unseemly argument about who said what that now threatens to engulf Cherrybank.
“Many of us gave very strong support to the Calyx bid and while the eventual collapse of the project if it failed to get funding was always a possibility, this threat to the future of Cherrybank was not a situation we ever envisaged we would be in.
“I was extremely disappointed that The Calyx did not get the go ahead but I am especially disappointed that the approach from Scotland’s Gardens Trust this week has been unnecessarily provocative.
“Both Roseanna and I will be working flat out over the coming weeks to ensure that there is no closure of these wonderful gardens.”
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