AMBITIOUS plans to build a new outdoor activities park near Innerleithen have the potential to transform Tweeddale, Scottish Borders Council leader David Parker admitted this week.

And he revealed the local authority would support it - if the business case adds up.

Councillor Parker has met with Scottish Enterprise Chief Executive Dr Lena Wilson to discuss the AIMUp - Action for the Innerleithen Mechanical Uplift - project.

It is hoped the proposals for a mountain bike chairlift, toboggan run and visitor centre could create a thriving outdoor sports community in the Tweed Valley supporting more than 100 jobs.

The equipment, which resembles a fairground rollercoaster, can take up to 1,200 people an hour up the steep wooded slopes near Traquair to the courses, which are acknowledged as among the most challenging in Europe.

Speaking to the Border Telegraph this week, Councillor Parker said: “The Council are very positive about the AIMUp project. We’re so positive about it that Stuart Bell (the local authority’s Executive Member for Economic Development) and I met with Leena Wilson, the head of Scottish Enterprise in October to talk about the AIMUp project and to try to get government support for it.

“There is a piece of work going on involving the council, those behind AIMUp and the enterprise network at the moment.

“What we’re trying to do is get the business plan into a position where everyone supports it and is willing to see it funded and we’re trying to get a development plan for the project and a funding plan.” Planning permission for a mountain bike chairlift in was approved in December 2012.

But the developers - who comprise local businesses, mountain bikers and residents of Innerleithen, Traquair, Walkerburn and Cardrona - need to raise upwards of £5 million to get it off the ground.

Councillor Parker, whose council has come in for criticism for agreeing to spend £3.5 million on a new home for the Great Tapestry of Scotland in Tweedbank, said: “I believe that AIMUp will have a big transformational impact on Tweeddale. It’s a good project but, at the moment, it’s not at a stage where we’ve got all the funders on board and where we could fund it.” Nevertheless he added: “Working over the next few months, I hope to be in a position whereby at the end of this calendar year we could make a big decision about AIMUp - whether we could go ahead with it or not.

“And, certainly, if there is a positive business case and sound funding plan I see no reason why the council wouldn’t be involved in it. It’s a great project and we could have AIMUp along with the tapestry.” Earlier this month a petition was launched by community councillor Brian McCrow, secretary of AIMUp, urging the local authority to rethink its plans to spend taxpayers’ money on a new home for the tapestry in the Borders while being while being forced to make cuts to public services.

But, speaking at this month’s meeting of Tweedbank Community Council, Councillor Parker revealed work on the site, opposite the new rail terminus, would continue.

“As far as we are concerned it has been approved and we are progressing with it,” he said.

“The project team are now planning the tapestry centre to turn it into reality. Shortly there will be people on site carrying out investigations and then a planning application.

“We are aiming for planning consent before Christmas, with consultation in 2016, and a 2017 opening. That may change.” But he added: “We are very much planning to deliver it.” Councillor Parker pointed out that the tapestry was part of the council’s Blueprint for the Borders, which aimed to capitalise on the region’s new rail link.

He explained that the local authority looked at alternative sites including the former NGT building in Selkirk and Post Office in Galashiels - but neither were fit for purpose and, in the case of the Post Office, could end up costing almost twice as much to convert.

Councillor Parker, who also hit back at unfavourable comparisons between the Great Tapestry of Scotland with the Quaker Tapestry Exhibition Museum in Kendal and the Knutsford Heritage Centre, which hosts the Millennium Tapestry, said: “Some of the things that are being said (about the business case) are just utter nonsense.

“It is true to say a Mini Metro and a Ferrari are both cars but one is more exciting than the other.”