Today the Scottish Ministers have delivered their verdict and backed the decision by the Reporter Mr Cunliffe that the planning housing application by New City Vision Ltd be refused. This is a huge decision and means this land is saved for this and future generations! Goodness that sounds good to hear!

The government Reporter Mr Cuncliffe highlighted that the land delivers a different type of green open space provision than what’s in the area currently. He stated the Council’s decision to sell it off for housing wouldn’t comply with policies that seek to protect open space and that selling it for housing would also be inconsistent with policy that’s there to protect trees and biodiversity.

Douglas Peacock, spokesperson for North Kelvin Meadow, said today ” Scottish Ministers have made the right decision, as it supports a heathlier community for young and old alike, it also backs a community having its say on what happens within their area. There are some good well worded planning policy out there, the problem’s been that when it comes to crunch time the decision often goes the way of the property developer and against green space that benefits communities. Not this time though! ”

It’s been officially 8 years of a long and hard fight getting to this decision. And so there needs to be a huge thanks given to all those that have stuck in there and helped the campaign ,plus people , animals and wildlife that use the land. Special thanks to all those people in The Children Wood putting on their events, the dog walkers being there and helping when it counts, plus the various individuals such as Jim Divers that have given their time over such along period.

This isn’t the end though. We’re here today from the support of the local community and our success going forward will be whether we can keep that going by maintaining the land and helping it benefit all in our community.

Merry Christmas everyone!