The future of Gorgie City Farm will be debated by councillors on 8 August at a meeting of the Culture and Communities Committee.
It is now 16 months since the farm closed its gates after the charity running it handed back the keys, but Edinburgh Voluntary Organisations’ Council (EVOC) which has been caretaking the site and looking into ways to make it sustainable in future says that four options – which are fully costed – will be laid before councillors later this summer.
Some delays have been caused by the condition of the farm buildings, frozen pipes and flooding, and damage to the barn roof which was partially blown off. The site remains closed to the public for safety reasons.
The farm site manager, Suzanne Campbell said she is pleased to see ideas for the future of the farm taking shape. She said: “The Farm has a very special place in the hearts of the people of Gorgie, Dalry and the wider city, and the input of local people to what the site might look like in the future has been outstanding. It’s taken longer than we hoped to start to put together options for its future, but we are now in the process of preparing a report which will be presented to the Council in August.”
A consultation was conducted asking locals for their views led by project partner Edinburgh Health and Social Care Partnership which attracted hundreds of responses.
In February this year Green councillor Dan Heap asked for progress saying to the Local Democracy Reporting Service: ““Gorgie Farm is a much-loved institution both in Gorgie and across the city and considerable public funds have been used so far to develop a new vision.
“The public rightly expect that new vision to include a plan to re-open the farm as soon as possible. £141,000 has been spent and it’s stil closed – we can’t spend the best part of 150 grand and still have the doors closed.”
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