Police have launched a probe after a derelict Scots bowling club, earmarked for affordable housing, was set on fire.
Colinton Mains Bowling Club in Edinburgh, located inside a park, was set ablaze yesterday evening with emergency services being called just after 7pm.
Our sister title Edinburgh Live report how locals became concerned by the smell of smoke.
Officers had already been called to the derelict pavilion, located just inside Colinton Mains Park, last week amid complaints over youngsters trespassing on the site.
The site was transferred into local authority hands in 2019, with tentative plans to demolish the current pavilion, which has fallen into a state of disrepair, and build more than a dozen homes for social and mid-market rent.
A council document warns the site has become a magnet for “anti-social behaviour” but work on the housing development is yet to get underway.
Police are now treating the fire as deliberate, but said any investigation remained in the early stages.
A Police Scotland spokesperson said: "Around 7.15 pm on Sunday, 15 August, 2021, police were called to a report of a fire at a derelict, abandoned building next to a bowling club on Oxgangs Road North, Edinburgh.
"No one injured. Officers are treating the fire as wilful and enquiries are continuing."
