MIDMAR PADDOCK TRUST
The Midmar Paddock Trust aims to protect, enhance, gift and strengthen community ties for the Midmar Paddock area, an important greenspace linking the Braids with Blackford Hill in south Edinburgh.
The trust intends to protect the area from over development and keep it in local hands to ensure it is accessible to all members of the community. We also plan to enhance the area through a local self-funded place plan, which includes improving access footpaths and greenways, providing new allotments for home growing, and biodiversity improvements.
The trust is willing to gift 70% of the 10-acre land back to the council or constituted community group in exchange for a small proportion of development. Additionally, the trust plans to integrate community uses, sensitively and discretely into the site, with the development of a Care Home, Assisted Living Apartments, and traditionally styled villas.
The aim is to provide social, economic and community benefits to all generations while maintaining the aesthetic quality of the conservation area. The trust seeks feedback to shape their vision and aspirations.
PROTECT
Midmar Paddock is recognised as an important greenspace linking the Braids with Blackford Hill. We understand how important it is to the people of south Edinburgh and the City who have used the area for seasonal activities over generations. As its owners and guardians, it is our intention to continue to protect the area from the development pressures it currently faces.
Whilst the area is currently not designated for development, green spaces across the city are being developed due to increasing growth and affordable housing need. In order to protect the Green Belt, the city is becoming denser and more compact. We believe that protection of the Midmar area should therefore be kept in local hands rather than subject to vagrancies of planning policy.
Social change means that our open green spaces need to be equally used by all sections of the community rather than the preserve of particular social groups. Doing nothing is no longer a sustainable option and will lead to further deterioration of one of the city’s primary assets. Protection of the area will meet that it can contribute more effectively to the social outcomes desired by the Council.
ENHANCE
Due to a lack of available resources and appropriate funding streams, Midmar has been starved of resources to maintain and manage the area so that it best meets the needs of a wide cross section of the population. This financial situation is unlikely to improve in the next 5-10 years. Our proposals would put an end to years of neglect and will enable a programme of enhancement to take place enabling access for all into this unique area.
The physical infrastructure of the area will be enhanced and improved to serve the needs of residents and visitors alike through a local self-funded place plan. We intend to improve access footpaths and greenways as well as ensuring that all members of the community can access the area for healthy recreation at all times in complete safety.
An ambitious package of proposals from additional allotments for home growing to biodiversity improvements and new planting will provide increased leisure interest. The landscape setting of the city will be enriched, and important landmark views maintained through sensitive and sympathetic development.
We will bring forward a fully funded maintenance and enhancement package as part of or landscape strategy.
GIFT
Midmar Paddock is in private control and in the hands of local owners who fully understand its value and function as a public asset. Nonetheless they are prepared to gift much of the land to the city in exchange for a small proportion of development and have resisted proposals for more intensive development.
We want to engage with local groups especially young people to understand what their aspirations for the area are and what this endowment could deliver.
Most importantly we will gift most of the land which is in private ownership back to the Council a constituted community group or the Midmar Paddock Trust. A total of 70% of the 10 acres will be gifted back to protect the land for existing uses in perpetuity.
Furthermore, the new assets created by the proposals will also be gifted to the community in terms of new integrated public facilities allowing people to engage in inter-generational recreational and social pursuits. The potential of the area will be realised at no cost to the public purse.
This endowment to the city can only be achieved if there is compromise on the investment that is proposed in a balanced way so that a ‘win win’ situation is created for all stakeholders.
community
Community is at the heart of our plans for Midmar and we believe that the future for this area lies in integrating essential community uses sensitively and discretely into the site. Development for the area comprises of a much-needed Care Home and Assisted Living Apartments in response to the Healthcare Crisis.
Enabling investment in this community facility, is the development of two new plots for traditionally styled villas which would integrate with the aesthetic quality of the conservation area as traditional dwellinghouses.
This package of development provides a wide range of social economic and community benefits to all generations and allows the area to meet the core objectives of equality diversity and inclusivity. It allows all sections of the population to enjoy Midmar Paddock for future generations.
We would appreciate your views and comments using the form below in order that our vision and aspirations can be appropriately shaped.