Update on Midmar Paddock

Last night was the first meeting of the group that will eventually become the official Friends of Midmar Paddock, celebrating this lovely area of Edinburgh's Green Belt and protecting it from future development.

Midmar Paddock is privately owned and currently up for sale, advertised as a good place to build housing (rumour has it that an offer has been put in). 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'. We also formed subgroups to take action forward (I joined the Publicity group).

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.

The group needs yet to be formally constituted but a Friends of Midmar Paddock group has been set up and can be found on Facebook here and the group is now on Twitter here. We're hoping to hold some events in the near future, which may include a demonstration of support for the area to remain greenspace and a BioBlitz to find out what wildlife is currently found here.If you have good photos of any wildlife you've seen in or immediately next to the Paddock, then please email them to savemidmarpaddockATgmailDOTcom so that the group can build up a picture of the local wildlife.

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)

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.

November Sunshine

A lovely late autumn day today! We started at the exhibition for the proposed housing development on Cammo Fields held at Cramond Kirk, where we posted our comments of don't build on these fields as they are valuable habitat for various farmland birds that City of Edinburgh Council commits to protecting in the local biodiversity action plan.  You can read my previous blog posts about this proposed housing development here).

Then we went into Cramond village for coffee and cake outside overlooking the River Almond

We were delighted to see a flock of about 50 lapwings flying around above the river!

We then walked past Cramond Island 

and along the River Forth to Silverknowes. It's always worth stopping to admire the fish sculpture by Ronald Rae.

The wildflower meadows are still looking lovely

and the wild rosehips are decaying beautifully

Someone had laid out this row of shells

We finished our walk up the road between the sheep pasture 

and the golf course, where the trees were full of birds.

Though the birds (starlings, bullfinches, goldfinches, fieldfares and redwings) didn't want to be photographed!

Snowdrops

Every year, at about this time, we take a trip to Cammo Country Park to view the snowdrops in the walled garden.

The garden is full of these lovely flowers

They even grow around the airborne roots of this fallen tree

Cammo Country Park is a lovely place (though very muddy in places!). It has lovely views over to the iconic old water tower, these days used as a nest site for a colony of jackdaws

The many beautiful trees around the park have yet to come into leaf and looked dramatic against today's wonderful skies

The fields around the country park are beautiful too, and well known for their populations of declining birds species. We were totally delighted today to see a flock of around 20 tree sparrows in the hedges around one of the field, along with reed bunting and greenfinch. Thanks to Crafty Green Boyfriend for these photos:

(male reed bunting)

tree sparrow 

Sadly the threat of potential housing development still hangs over these fields (you can read more about this here).

Wrong headed road building

Roads are essential to connect communities and enable us to travel from place to place. However they need to be sited sensitively to avoid destroying wildlife rich areas. Here are just three road building plans that to me seem wrong headed:

A motorway across the Gwent levels in south Wales - read Julian Hoffman's beautiful article about the nature of the Gwent levels to understand exactly why this place should remain an area of natural beauty and not be destroyed for the sake of a motorway. After reading that article, please consider joining the campaign against the building of this unnecessary motorway.

The Goyt valley near Stockport in the north of England is threatened with the building of a bypass - this would destroy areas of historical interest as well as areas of greenbelt land. At the same time there would be no guarantee that it would reduce traffic congestion, in fact as is often the case it would likely increase traffic related problems.

One of the ways we could help save the last 100 remaining Sumatran rhinos is by ending all proposals to build roads in their remaining habitat.

Hermitage Golf Course

Hermitage Golf Course is a golf course with a difference. Run by Autism Ventures Scotland (part of Autism Initiatives) it offers training and support to adults with autism, who get involved in horticutural and other activities on the site. The cafe offers a range of delicious cakes and snacks.

Things are going to change however. Autism Ventures Scotland is three years into a forty year lease on the site so they're not going anywhere but they are looking at ways of developing the income generation potential of the site.

I went along to the public consultation of the site redevelopment today. 

One thing that's definitely going to change is the club house. The current building is supposed to be only temporary, is in poor condition and is only still standing pending a new one being built. The plans for the new building are very impressive, it will have a green roof and a south facing aspect and will be built using environmentally friendly materials wherever possible, though there are complicated reasons preventing them from using renewable energy in the building. The only actual problem anyone could see with this building was that if the overall redevelopment plan fails then the new building might act as a precedent for building a lot more new buildings on this site (which was saved from being turned into housing when Autism Ventures Scotland took on the lease).

More controversial is the plan to add a mountain biking track to the site. This would have potential impact on the wildlife of the area and also could cause conflict with other users of the site, walkers and birdwatchers as well as golfers - it seems to me that putting a mountain bike track round the perimeter of a gold course would be bizarre to say the least. People who work with the adults with autism who use the site are concerned that hundreds of mountain bikers dashing round the site would have a detrimental effect on the very people the site is supposed to help. I think the audience were probably mostly prepared to be open minded about the mountain biking until the presenter started talking about 'dead land' (ie open space) and looked totally blank when asked about the environmental impact of building 4km of asphalt track round the site. Also going against the proposal is the fact that people won't pay to use the mountain biking facilty and income generation will all be via the cafe, equipment hire and meeting room hire. (Plus charity fundraising).

Overall, I'm in favour of the site being developed for recreation if that can be done in a way that doesn't negatively impact on the wildlife or the existing amenity value of the area. However I'm not at all convinced that the mountain biking proposal fits the bill.

Read the Friends of Hermitage of Braid and Blackford Hill comments on the plans.

Show the Love - Save Midmar Paddock

#ShowtheLove is a Campaign to make Valentine's Day green and to share your love of nature and other things that are threatened by climate change. The campaign features a simple love poem, a video of celebrities reciting Shakespeare's Sonnet 18 'Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?'

People are being asked to share what they love on the website, in the form of Valentine's messages. People are also making and wearing green hearts to demonstrate their love of nature. World Wildlife Fund sent me this heart, which was made by Annette in Guildford, who loves 'the planet'.

I wore my heart to the official launch of the Save Midmar Paddock campaign hosted by the Friends of Blackford Hill and Hermitage of Braid. Midmar Paddock is an open green area that adjoins the Hermitage of Braid, that like many people, I had assumed was part of the nature reserve. However in fact it is privately owned and it's owners are wanting to sell the land for development.

It would be tragic though 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 a local nature reserve)

There was a demonstration last week (while we were up north) and today's was the official launch of the campaign, 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)

 You can keep up to date with the campaign on the Friends of Blackford Hill and Hermitage of Braid Facebook Page.

**
 I also took the opportunity to do a bit of birdwatching along the way. Blackford Pond, just near the Midmar Paddock, is quiet well known for unusual birds turning up every so often. Today it was three teal, two drakes and a duck! Teal turn up at Musselburgh in large numbers at this time of year, but unusual to see them on Blackford Pond. I took some photos, but the colour is poor in them for some reason, this one almost turned out though.

Then a bus ride later and after doing some shopping I found myself in the Meadows, where I was delighted to see about twenty redwings hopping round in the crocuses, which are just starting to show. The Meadows used to be a guaranteed place to see redwings in the winter, but over the last few years I've hardly seen an, so it's been lovely to see them a couple of times this year. It seems to be a good year for redwings (which come over here from Scandanavia to spend the winter in our warmer climate) - I've seen good numbers of them in various places. 

***

I still have more to say about our trip up north, so look out for those posts over the next few days! 

As ever, red text contains hyperlinks that take you to other webpages where you can find out more.

Cats against greenfield developments

We've just returned from a few days visiting my parents near Salford, Manchester. We had a lovely few days, but one of the negatives was seeing how much of the greenspace near my parents' house is threatened with development.

I know people need places to live and new houses need to be built but in the centre of the town where my parent's live is a shopping precinct with numerous empty shop units plus a large supermarket whose owners are thinking of selling half their floorspace they're so unsuccessful and what is happening next to this? They're building a huge new area of retail....... 

So it seems doubly sad that Hill Top Moss (the highest point in Salford and part of Blackleach Country Park) is threatened by plans to build 60 houses here. Local campaigners feel they are being bribed by promises of a local sports development that would be paid for by the sale of the land. (There's also a rumour that it might not actually be housing that's built there but another supermarket, but that is only a rumour) . 

Plus there should be a clue in the name, as a Moss, it's wet ground, prone to flooding and waterlogging, not an ideal place to build anyway..... It's good to see that there's a campaign to prevent this inappropriate development (though there doesn't seem to be a website for it).

Even the local cats have joined the protest. Fluffy told us that she is opposing the development because it would deprive her of a place to play and hunt voles and mice.

Cammo Fields Update

 This green field is now likely to become housing.....



It is a sad day when Edinburgh City Council allows developers to put in a planning application for the fields at Cammo.

Cramond and Harthill Estate have applied to build 670 houses on an agricultural field at Cammo. A field that is home to yellowhammers,  tree sparrows, linnets, all of which are both red listed in the UK (ie of special conservation concern) and mentioned specifically in the seed eating birds section of the Edinburgh Local Biodiversity Action Plan (LBAP)), reed buntings (which are amber listed in the UK, as being of moderate conservation concern and mentioned specifically in the seed eating birds section of the Edinburgh LBAP) skylarks (red listed in the UK, though not specifically mentioned in the Edinburgh LBAP and, in the winter fieldfares (which are red listed in the UK but not mentioned specifically in the Edinburgh LBAP).

Edinburgh City Council claims that it takes the LBAP into account when deciding which land to release for development. If that is the case, why are they even thinking of building on this field? Brownfield sites should be developed before greenbelt land is even considered for development. Also housing should be prioritised over for example new supermarkets and empty shops and commercial buildings could be redeveloped as housing in many instances.

In addition to the devastating impact on the local birdlife, any development of this field would:

lead to gridlock in the surrounding streets (where traffic is already at standstill for large parts of the day)
destroy the rural feel of the area
destroy the buffer zone between the built up area and Cammo Country Park, and
draw developers to thinking about developing the other fields in the area.

The application may be viewed at Planning and Building Standards, Waverley Court, 4 East Market Street, Edinburgh between 8.30am - 5pm Mondays - Thursdays, and 8.30 - 3.40 on Fridays. Or viewed electronically through the Planning online services .

Comments can be made on the application either:
a) in writing to the address above
b) online through the Planning online services using the application reference number 14/01776/PPP

Comments must be made by 29 May 2014. Please comment if you can, these fields should not be developed. If you already made comments at the pre-application stage, you will need to make comments to the council on this application if you wish them to take them into account.

Skylark Street

Imagine if these fields where skylarks sing and linnets and tree sparrows forage are replaced with housing, with streets being called Skylark Street, Tree Sparrow Lane and Linnet Place.
 

If you care about Edinburgh's Greenbelt, please take time to object to the plans (lower photo) to build 670 houses that Edinburgh Council are considering for the field (top photo) that is currently home to several important bird species.

The City of Edinburgh Council claims to consider the Local Biological Diversity Action Plan (LBAP) when making planning decisions. If that is really true then why are they even thinking about building houses on this field which is home to 4 species of birds specifically mentioned in the LBAP (tree sparrow, yellowhammer, reed bunting and linnet) and to two other species (skylark and, in winter, fieldfare) that are red listed as being of being priority conservation need in the UK ? 

A pre-planning application exhibition is currently showing at Cramond Kirk Halls today and this weekend. Please go along if you can and add your voice to the protest. Before we even think of building on biodiversity rich green spaces, we shold be looking at brownfield sites and bringing empty homes and other abandoned buildings back into use.  

If you can't attend the exhibition, you can contact the developers directly. You can also write to your Edinburgh councillor (whichever area of the city you live in) and write to the Edinburgh Evening News and to other relevant publications. If you live in the Cammo area, you can join Cammo Residents Association in their fight against this inappropriate development (they're on Facebook and Twitter too). .

I have written to the Edinburgh Evening News and to the members of City of Edinburgh's Planning Committee. You can read the text of my letter and a list I compiled of the committee members email addresses.

As ever, red text contains hyperlinks that take you to other webpages where you can find out more.

Cammo

We walked round Cammo Estate today, it was very damp, muddy underfoot and distinctly cold! Lots of interesting things to see though, including these fungi, which contrast so beautifully with the moss.

The Cammo Fields (the fields threatened with housing development) were full of greylag geese, with at least one pink footed goose. I think these greylag were truly wild, migratory geese rather than the feral race of greylag that is often found in parks - it's impossible to tell from appearance alone, but its generally the migratory, wild birds that flock on fields in the winter.

There was a group of very lively tree sparrows in the undergrowth at the corner of one of the fields. We were able to get very close to them.

How many supermarkets do we need?

When we visited my parents at the weekend, we went up to the local shopping centre. This has changed drastically since I was a child. Several years ago it was renovated and made into a pleasant indoor mall:

but in the last year or so, they've been extending it and extending it. There's a huge supermarket at one end, which seems to be much hated, and nowhere near as well used as other supermarkets of the same chain. There's lots of empty retail space in the extended mall:

But while these spaces all lie empty, what are they building next to the existing huge supermarket? Houses? Community services? NO, they're building, wait for it, another huge supermarket of a rival chain. Meanwhile green fields on the edge of town are being covered in houses.

People need houses of course, and they need somewhere to buy food, clothes and other essentials. However there seems to be absolutely no justification for building a huge new supermarket next door to an existing huge and underused supermarket. Why not build houses on this site and save the fields?

It's the same in another town near where my parents live, two huge supermarkets are being built next to each other, while houses are built on fields. It doesn't make sense to me. It surely doesn't even make commercial sense for the supermarkets involved.

Update on Cammo Fields

Crafty Green Boyfriend and I (and his Mum and his brother) went to the meeting last Thursday to oppose the building of houses on this arable field at Cammo.

The development company talked about their overviews for the site including traffic management and environmental mitigation. The new development if it goes ahead will create huge amounts of extra traffic, with detrimental effects on the health of local residents and on the wildlife as well as destroying habitat for important birds.

The site has been moved up from a possible site for development to a probable site for development, though it is not yet a done deal and the field can still be saved. The meeting however, talked about the development as if it were going to go ahead, and comments were only allowed if they related to the development. Essentially no-one was allowed to stand up and say the site couldn't be built on, which was a little dispiriting, though I think most people who did stand up to comment were able to work in their objections to any development as they made their points relating to the details of any development that might go ahead. (It sounds confusing, well, it was confusing).

I spoke up for the birds and detailed the birds that live on and around the field:

tree sparrow - red listed in UK (ie of major conservation concern)
linnet - red listed in UK
skylark - red listed in UK
yellowhammer - red listed in the UK
reed bunting - amber listed in UK (ie of moderate conservation concern)

all these birds are additionally specifically mentioned in the seed eating birds section of the Edinburgh Local Biodiversity Action Plan as being of specific conservation concern in the city. 

In addition, the field is important in winter for visiting birds such as the fieldfare.

The developers claim they will protect the hedgerow that currently bounds the field, but they can't make any guarantee to protect any of the birds who will be pushed off the field if the development goes ahead. The developers intend that around 600 houses will be built on the site (which will be pretty crowded and will certainly create a lot of extra traffic) yet they claim that there will be parkland areas incorporated into the development.

But remember, this is not yet a done deal, we can save this field! There is still time to tell the developers that you don't want this development to go ahead, by completing this survey.

To keep up to date with the campaign, you can:

follow Cammo Residents on Twitter,
like Cammo Residents on Facebook.

if you live in the area, you can write to your local councillor, get in touch with the local community council and go along to exhibitions and public meetings.

For Nature Notes

As ever, red text in this post contains hyperlinks that take you to other webpages where you can find out more. 

Counting Birds on Cammo Fields

I blogged recently about the proposed housing development for Cammo Fields and the public meeting that's happening on Thursday. I said in my previous blogposts that the area is rich in birdlife and today Crafty Green Boyfriend and I went along to the fields to record the birds we saw to feed into the meeting (though hopefully the local Wildlife Record Centre and Scottish Ornithologists Club will be adding in their records too).

 the field that may be lost to houses, photo taken by me

The birds were obviously aware of the importance of our task as they turned out in great number. Not only were there lots of goldfinches, several robins, blue tits and a buzzard (all common species) but there were also a range of rarer birds too. We saw: one or two yellowhammers, several tree sparrows and ten or more linnets, all of which are both red listed in the UK (ie of special conservation concern) and mentioned specifically in the seed eating birds section of the Edinburgh Local Biodiversity Action Plan (LBAP)). We also saw: about 15 fieldfares (which are red listed in the UK but not mentioned specifically in the Edinburgh LBAP) and at least three reed buntings (which are amber listed in the UK, as being of moderate conservation concern and mentioned specifically in the seed eating birds section of the Edinburgh LBAP).We didn't however see any of the (red-listed) skylarks that sing so beautifully above these fields in the spring.

yellowhammer, photo by Crafty Green Boyfriend

tree sparrowshiding in the shadows in the hedge, photo by Crafty Green Boyfriend

We continued our walk into Cammo Estate itself and the autumn colours and shadows were magnificent in the woodlands. 

A reminder that the public meeting will be held at Cramond Kirk, Cramond Glebe Road at 7.30pm, Thursday 28th November. If you can't get along to the exhibition or public meeting, but have a genuine interest in the development then you can respond on the Cammo Development website. 

For Shadow Shot Sunday

as ever, red text contains hyperlinks that take you to other webpages where you can find out more. 

Update on Cammo fields

I wrote recently about the proposals to build housing on arable fields near Cammo Estate. Today I went along to the exhibition about the proposed development. 

The plan is to build housing on most of one of the fields between Cammo Walk and Maybury Road. The development will be surrounded by new trees with a footpath running through them to create a new woodland walk. So the developers are at least trying to be sensitive to the environment and landscape of the area, though it will significantly impact on the semi-rural aspect of the area. 

However, there is no attempt to be sensitive to the specific wildlife found in the field. This field (with the adjoining one) is the only place where I have ever seen tree sparrows (and it's a very exciting birdwatching moment every time I do see them), a UK red listed species that is specifically mentioned in Edinburgh's Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) as needing conservation help. Skylarks also use these fields (their songs are a joy in the springtime) as do yellowhammers (both are red listed species and specifically mentioned in the Edinburgh BAP).

Additionally, development of this field would set a precedent for other nearby fields which would destroy the semi-rural aspect of the area and leave Cammo Estate isolated in a sea of housing.

The Local Development Plan to turn that part of Cammo from green belt into development land has not yet been passed, but developers are perfectly entitled to apply for planning consent and it would be a tragedy if this open green space is lost to housing. 

If you're concerned about this development, you may want to go along to the exhibition and /or the public meeting on the developments. The exhibition will be in Cramond Kirk church hall, Cramond Glebe Road. The public can view, discuss and comment on on the proposed developments until 5pm today and also on these dates:

·	16th November between 9.30am and 5.30pm  - staffed from 10am to 1pm

·	17th November 9.30am -12noon - unstaffed

The public meeting will be held at Cramond Kirk, Cramond Glebe Road at 7.30pm, Thursday 28th November. This is an important meeting for people to attend as this will be an opportunity to input into any resulting planning application and to hear the views of other residents.

If you can't get along to the exhibition or public meeting, but have a genuine interest in the development then you can respond on the Cammo Development website. 

As ever, red text contains hyperlinks that take you to other webpages where you can find out more.

Cammo fields - prime site for development?

I was very saddened to find out that City of Edinburgh Council is intending to designate some of the farm fields near Cammo Estate into development land with the intention of building hundreds of houses there. These fields form a lovely part of the rural-feeling setting around the Cammo Estate and I have regularly seen skylarks, yellowhammers and tree sparrows there - all species are known to be declining, are red listed in the Uk as being of highest conservation concern and are specifically mentioned in Edinburgh's Biodiversity Action Plan. 

The Local Development Plan to turn that part of Cammo from green belt into development land has not yet been passed, but developers are perfectly entitled to apply for planning consent and it would be a tragedy if this area of open green space is lost to housing. 


If you're concerned about this development and are in Edinburgh then you may want to go along to the exhibition and /or the public meeting on the developments.
The exhibition will be in Cramond Kirk church hall, Cramond Glebe Road. The public can view, discuss and comment upon on the proposed developments on the following days: 

·	14 November between 1pm and 8pm  - staffed by members of the project team

·	15th November 9.30am -5.30pm - unstaffed

·	16th November between 9.30am and 5.30pm  - staffed from 10am to 1pm

·	17th November 9.30am -12noon - unstaffed

The public meeting will be held at Cramond Kirk, Cramond Glebe Road at 7.30pm, Thursday 28th November. This is an important meeting for people to attend as this will be an opportunity to input into any resulting planning application and to hear the views of other residents.