Join the Friends of Midmar Paddock to protect this lovely greenspace

Last night's meeting to save Midmar Paddock was so full that we had to move from the Morningside Parish church hall into the church itself (a beautiful church!).

Midmar Paddock is privately owned and currently up for sale, advertised as a good place to build housing. Local residents and all of us who value Edinburgh's green spaces want this to remain a green space, part of the greenbelt and a continuation of the beautiful nature reserve that includes Blackford Hill and the Hermitage of Braid.

At last night's meeting we discussed how we can protect the land from development including surveying how people use the area to mark out rights of way (which can be protected and can make development very difficult) and to record the value of the area for recreation, and surveying the wildlife of the area. People are also looking into how to protect the land possibly as a 'Field in Trust'.

The City of Edinburgh Council is about to start discussions on its next local development plan and we want to make sure that Midmar Paddock remains designated open space in this plan.

A Friends of Midmar Paddock group has been set up and can be found on Facebook here.

It would be tragic to lose this beautiful patch of land to development (the paddock is the field in the foreground, the hill in the background is Blackford Hill, part of the local nature reserve)

It can sometimes feel as though history is repeating itself. Back in 2015, a campaign to protect Midmar Paddock was launched in the paddock attended by local politicians, including Green Party MSP (Member of the Scottish Parliament) Alison Johnstone.

 It was good to see so many people turn up, along with their dogs (it's a favourite dog walking area)

Last time the threat of development was stopped and hopefully this time we can find some way of permanently protecting the land, which is such a lovely green space in the heart of our city.