Thursday October 2nd 2025
The pétanque piste after the removal of planters
Written by Midlothian View Reporter, Liam Eunson
A dispute over a patanque piste between the Rosslyn Rhinos Pétanque team and the Glencorse Centre ended with police involvement and a loss of a community facility.
After Wellbeing Essentials (WBE), a small community-led group, funded and built a petanque piste back in 2022 using charitable donations and volunteer time at the Glencorse Centre, a written agreement was reached with the centre that in return for Wellbeing Essentials and Rossyln Rhinos investment and ongoing maintenance the facility would be free for community use.
This agreement has recently changed after the Glencorse Centre sent the Rosslyn Rhinos an unexpected £150 per month invoice for the use of the piste, resulting in a dispute leading to the Rosslyn Rhinos deconstructing the piste which caused police involvement with accusations of vandalism and a £15,000 request to the Glencorse Centre for the construction cost, despite being built around 3 years prior.
The Glencorse Centre explained that their relationship with WBE broke down years prior with the piste still being used as per usual despite no communication.
The recent £150 invoice came after issues with parking after a petanque competition was organised at the same time as the centre’s popular farmers market, causing problems with availability in the car park.
A member of the Rosslyn Rhino’s explained:
“Recently, the centre unexpectedly sent an invoice to us for £150 per month. This came without consultation, and without any suggestion of changed arrangements. No community pétanque facility in Midlothian charges its users, these terrains are always freely accessible.
“The Centre’s demand was either a sign of serious financial pressure or a retaliatory move against our opposition at last year’s AGM. ”
This unexpected invoice was ‘to cover rent’ despite the piste being free to use, with the centre attempting to ‘get a reaction’ following the parking issue.
The Chair of the Glencorse Assoctaition Board, Dr Martin Reekie, explained:
“All this was fine until WBE organised a pétanque competition at exactly the same time as GA ran one of its very popular community Farmer’s Markets. The resulting traffic and parking chaos was quite unacceptable. We attempted to contact WBE to discuss this but with no success.
“Eventually the board thought that sending them an invoice for £150 to cover their rent of the piste would get a reaction, and at that point we could cancel the invoice and have a discussion about avoiding clashing events.
“We certainly got a reaction. We received an email and letter from WBE breaking off all contact with GA, and asking us to pay WBE £15,000 for the construction of the piste.”
The Glencorse board did not accept the £15,000 change for the piste’s construction, they claimed that there was no agreement ever in place that the WBE could regulate the use of the piste, leading to the WBE expressing that they wished to cut off any contact with the centre, confirming that they were leaving the site.
With communication ending and the dispute surrounding fines and charges causing tension, the situation escalated on Saturday the 13th of September, the day of the following farmers market that previously sparked the dispute, when Martin Reekie discovered that the piste had been ‘vandalised’.
This discovery led to the centre reporting the WBE and Rosslyn Rhinos to the police for vandalism after they removed the planters that they had built in 2022.
The Rosslyn Rhinos explained:
“The Centre then reported us to the police for “vandalism” after we removed our own planters and placed them in our on-site shed. These were not fixed to the land, so legally remain our property, and were removed carefully. The police confirmed to us that no crime had been committed. Reporting us at that stage was clearly a desperate attempt to claim ownership of our few remaining assets out of spite, when we had already confirmed we were leaving.”
Martin Reekie suggested that the ‘vandalism’ was more severe than just the removal of planters, explaining:
“I was there and wandered down to see how things were going. Glancing through the fence I saw that the piste had been vandalised. Down both long sides the land had been disturbed and dug up and the planters, the main job of which was to support the sides of the piste had been removed, though some had been destroyed.
“My obvious reaction was to call the police.”
After the call to the police, the vandalism was deemed to be important with the matter being passed to the next stage with Martin receiving a call from the police the following Wednesday.
“If the planters were truly temporary and loose, why did WBE see the need to dig up the piste edges when removing them? In fact the planters were a structural part of the piste and had therefore “subsumed” to the ground. Hence the accusation of vandalism, which is defined as the wilful destruction of public or private property”, Martin explained.
The police involvement was dropped after Martin contacted them again offering to mediate in the dispute rather than taking it forward formally. Prior to this mediation, the police recognsied the removal as a crime of vandalism, issuing a crime reference number.
“Our aim would be simply to have the sides of the piste reinforced again and then make it available to anyone, free of charge, as before. Of course any users would have to perform basic maintenance, like sweeping up leaves, but that should not be a big deal.
“The latest communication from WBE casts doubt on their willingness to accept the police’s offer of mediation and at this point have not heard anything further from WBE or the police.
“The Board has not reached a decision on what should happen to the piste.”
With the dispute being dropped by the police and the issue being mediated between the parties, the Rosslyn Rhinos have cut ties with the centre and are currently removing their shed which they explained that ‘the chair tried to claim was the centre’s’.
The Rossyln Rhinos added:
“To use a Farmers Market and a car park as a reason to send an invoice is frankly incredulous. A competition is no different from a normal Club Day in terms of numbers.”
They explained the resolution as ‘a sad but necessary outcome’, with the dispute causing a popular facility to be stripped from the Midlothian community.
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