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24 March 2004 Mr Frank McAveety MSP Ratho Quarry Company Limited (In Receivership) As you may know, Ratho Quarry Company - the operators of the Adventure Centre and the National Rock Climbing Centre of Scotland went into receivership 17 days ago. We the MCof S are writing to you in the hope that you can help us to keep the “ethos” of the Adventure Centre alive and to retain the National Centre status which was afforded by ourselves and backed up by substantial grant-aid from Sportscotland Sports Lottery Fund. It is our worry that the project under a new owner, although ostensibly operated as a climbing centre with linked conference facilities, would not reflect the core ethos and values that we and Sportscotland as key contributors have supported over the development period of the project. It is our concern that an unsympathetic new owner would not fulfill all of its obligations to Sportscotland and ourselves to operate the project as the National Climbing Centre for Scotland. It is imperative that any new owner is aware of how this centre is the lynch pin of Scottish climbings future. The various facilities at this centre dovetail into each other to provide coaches with all the facilities and equipment needed to develop and train our talented atheletes. Youth coaching schemes and competitions, some of which would be international events, will not be provided for unless we can convince the receivers that maintaining the original ethos and keeping the project as the National Climbing Centre for Scotland must be conditions that any potential new owner has to accept. We are doing our utmost to arrange a meeting with both Sportscotland and the receivers to try and impress upon them the importance of this project being kept as a whole, as originally conceived, and not allowing the £1.2 million of Lottery Funding to support a possible asset stripping operation which would deprive Scotland of it's National Climbing Centre. Any assistance or advice you can provide in this matter would be greatly appreciated. Yours
Fred Belcher
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