Dismay over plan to shut Inverness climbing wall

Climbers have criticised a decision to close an indoor climbing wall in Inverness after almost 25 years in use.

Highlife Highland - a charity set up by Highland Council to deliver leisure services - said the facility needed significant investment.

It also expects usage to decline once a new climbing centre in the city, The Ledge, opens for business.

A petition opposing the closure of the wall at the Inverness Leisure sports complex has more than 1,500 signatures.

Highlife Highland (HLH) said it did not make sense for two charity-run indoor climbing walls to compete against each other for funding.

However campaigners ague the sites offer different experiences - bouldering at The Ledge and lead climbing, involving ropes and ascents of a mock rockface, at Inverness Leisure.

A banner calling for consultation of the closure was unfurled at Inverness Leisure's wall last week.

Claire Sutherland, who helped to organise the petition to save the climbing wall, said there had been disappointment and upset over HLH's decision.

She said there was a waiting list of about two years to join classes at Inverness Leisure and two climbing walls would better meet demand.

"We want the wall to stay. There is a need for it," Mrs Sutherland said.

A banner opposing the closure and calling for consultation was unfurled at Inverness Leisure's wall last week

Highland-based climbing instructor Johnathan Richards said climbers were excited The Ledge was opening.

"But there is a bit of surprise Highlife Highland have decided to close their wall with just over a month's notice," he added. "Generations of climbers have gone through there."

A HLH spokesman said the decision to close its wall was difficult but the aging facility was already facing problems.

"This moment in time is an extremely challenging time for publicly-funded charities, and with our wall being almost 25 years old, it would continue to need significant investment in an area of the building that has been subsidised by other sections of the leisure centre for many years and is unaffordable in the current economic climate, especially when considered in conjunction with the reduced usage expected when The Ledge opens," he added.

"Despite the loss-making nature of the wall due to the relatively small community of climbers, the operational difficulties of the wall being in a multi-purpose area of Inverness Leisure, HLH maintained the wall to ensure that there was indoor climbing provision available to the city and the wider Highlands."

Owners of The Ledge have not commented on the situation.