The Council is seeking views from local people about the future management and ownership of Easter Craiglockhart Hill Local Nature Reserve and the adjacent lands of Easter Craiglockhart Hill, and is holding the next consultation event on Thursday 21 March 2013 from 7pm – 9pm at the Church Hall, Morningside United Church, 15 Chamberlain Road, EH10 4DJ.
There will be a presentation on the various options and an opportunity to ask questions. There is also an online survey here which you can use to make your views known.
The Local Nature Reserve (LNR) is in joint ownership between The City of Edinburgh Council and Craighouse Partnership, which has taken over ownership and management from Edinburgh Napier University. Current management of the LNR is through a management plan and management agreement. Responsibility for the management of Council land lies with its Parks & Greenspace Service.
Due in part to the proposed development of the Craighouse Campus by the Craighouse Partnership, an opportunity has arisen to potentially transfer ownership and management of their woodland and open space to the Council or appropriate community body. This would create a single woodland and open space, increasing the size of the area of public land to approximately 16.7 hectares.
The Edinburgh Reporter was at the first consultation event at Meggetland and we filmed the views of some of those attending:-
The most important message is that the consultation ends soon on 31 March 2013 and you must therefore act quickly if you would like to make your views known.
The various options to be discussed are as follows:
Option 1 – Take no action. The likely consequence would be that a new residents association (of the potential new housing development) would become the owners and managers of the Craighouse Partnership owned section of the Local Nature Reserve as well as the other open space areas.
Option 2 – The Council to take ownership of all the open space from the Craighouse Partnership and manage it on behalf of the city, community and users.
Option 3 – Joint ownership, with the community taking ownership of and management responsibility for the Craighouse Partnership owned land, and the Council retaining the part of Local Nature Reserve it already owns and manages.
Option 4 – Community ownership and management of all areas.
Option 4a – A transition period of joint ownership and management between the Council and the community, moving towards full community ownership and management over a period of time (e.g. 5 years) and as the community was able to raise funds and evidence its ability to manage the land.
Further information about these options is available in a set of “Frequently Asked Questions” produced after the first consultation event which we reproduce here
You can give your views by completing an online survey at http://ow.ly/htxyy or by emailing naturalheritageservice@edinburgh.gov.uk marking Easter Craiglockhart Hill Consultation in the subject heading. Any comments should be submitted no later than Sunday 31st March 2013.
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