Crunch time at Suntrap Garden

Live too far away to help but wish you the very best of luck with it

Can you not find a great crested newt on the site and then they would have to stop immediately and would not be allowed to build houses on the site. Maybe a rare wild flower etc. or anything that can have a preservation order that can be slapped on it and that will stop them in their tracks. Good Luck with your efforts hope you are successful.

It will be a very sad day, the day they close this place down. So sorry Scot.g, sadly we are too far away to help, wish we could and I wish you all luck.

This is so sad, and a very poor reflection on the powers- that- be. All good wishes for the meeting.

I've sent as many pleas as possible to various MPs and Ministers - call me a cynic but is the timing just a teensy bit coincidental as Parliamentary recess now? If I could be there I would. Good luck!

As one television policeman was wont to say - "I don't believe in coincidences, Lewis!"

Thank you everybody. Its good to know you all wish us well. Thank you for all that work on our behalf Julie. It is much appreciated. It was holiday time for all the trades people in the Edinburgh area 1st fortnight in July and the west is the 2nd fortnight. The kids went on holiday at the same time so yes I'm afraid they have chosen their timing to coincide with people not being available to respond. I think George Boyd Anderson who left this for the nation must be turning in his grave. Its morally reprehensible that Oatridge College were able to claim the house, Millbuies, and garden ground around it as their own when they were allowed to use it for education purposes. In law they were entitled to do that but are they really so hard up that they have to take away a vital resource from the community.

Surely this is fraud ? There is a Fraud Act.

If the Garden is kept in good order by the Volunteers because no money was left to pay its staff, the developers have no case to answer. Oh the cheating that goes on !

Try Matt Albright at the BBC. He has done some excellent programmes on Scams, which may not be shown in Scotland just now.

He is a real fighter for people who need help. Your case would make an excellent BBC programme which would generate money to help you.

This caught my eye because near me in Epping Forest is a Field Study Centre called Suntrap, to which many schools go every year to learn about the forest and its environs.
Sorry I am too far away to help, but would local schools be interested and maybe buy in to its services on a yearly basis to help it keep going? Just a suggestion which I'm sure you have already thought of.
All the best though and I shall be looking out for how things are going.

Thanks Dianebulley, Oatridge are acting within the law in having taken legal possession of the House and Garden according to the solicitors who looked in to that side of the problem. The SOS committee asked that Millbuies the house on the Oatridge part of the garden be looked at as being of historic interest because of the innovative green design. It was listed at Grade B which is described on Historic Scotlands website as follows.
Category B
Buildings of regional or more than local importance, or major examples of some particular period, style or building type which may have been altered. (Approximately 51% of the total).

Pam I know about the Suntrap local to you and the added value it offers to the community. Our Suntrap was well used by several user groups including young people with disabilities, who were learning to grow their own food and how to use what they grew to make healthy meals. When Oatridge closed its doors to them they were offered swimming as an alternative. No more full days spent in the open air sharing their new skills with friends and family.
Schools who had disruptive pupils sent them on courses to Suntrap where they were able to learn about themselves and discover their own worth probably for the first time in their lives.
Younger people with a garden for the first time or older people like me who wanted to learn more were all able to come on courses to do just that. Some just needed advice on a problem they were having and came and found the answers. Families could come and spend the day with their children and have picnics in a safe and beautiful place. Since the staff were made redundant the SOS Committee have maintained the gardens, kept the sales area stocked and introduced art exhibitions etc. Their ability to make more of the garden has been curtailed because they do not have a lease on the premises which would allow them to do that. Grant aid is also dependant on their either owning or having a cast iron lease and neither of the owners has been prepared to give that.
If enough people in the community can turn out to show their support for the take over it offers some hope that this beautiful place can be saved.

Contact Matt Albright anyway. These greedy developers are absolutely viscious, as anyone who has been to a Public Inquiry knows. You need Matt now, not advice from other Schemes. Petitions do not work. Offer him and his team a week in Scotland free of charge staying with the Suntrap Committee private homes.
If there is a BBC programme in it he may work for you.

Woops sorry Scotsgran and all who are watching this with interest. Have just found him - he is
Matt Alwright and has a website. Did a lot on Rogue Traders.
(The joys of being deaf - thats me! I often get names or numbers wrong.)

I hope this works out for you and all these volunteers. It is such a shame to see lovely green spaces go. We need them.

I thought of something else. What is your M.P. doing about this ? What is the Chairman of your County Council doing about this ?
Solicitors are no good - just thinking about how much they can ask you for 'up front' to fill their own pockets.
Then they say if you go to Court and the clowns there rule against you the costs will be awarded to you and you will lose your house. Oldest trick in the book.
I went to a Public Inquiry, it was an awful shock. The developers paid a Q.C. to tell lies and shout at people.
I say again, try Matt Alwright, go to the experts in the Fraud game who get their fees from the BBC for making programmes . The Panorama Team could be another target for you. Both teams will pay your Committe for a programme. Go to the top and you will beat the land grabbers.
Its all about money darling.

Thank you for the good suggestions everybody. I've sent the SOS Committee chairwoman a link to get in touch with the BBC's One Show. Both Matt Allwright and Dom are reporters on it and it might be of interest to the show. Fingers crossed.

I hope Matt gets in touch with your Committee Chair.
Its a very serious matter. A gentleman leaves a property to the Community in perpetuity in his Will and the Community (who are the Beneficiaries) are told by Solicitors they have no power to stop developers trashing it.

Its all wrong, thats what annoys me. We dont live in the Wild West, we live in the United Kingdom, where the Law is kept - or should be.

Diane I went to a public enquiry once and had the same experience - in fact I berated the gentleman in question afterwards for being so horrible, I was so angry, - and guess what he said "Oh I was only acting!"

I hope he had an Equity Card Steragram. Sorry for making a joke but if I did not laugh I would cry.

Oh such a shame that it's come to this. I hope something will be done to save it. It would be an asset to the community. Pitty to loose it.

Thanks Hywel I think there is a pecking order in this world and there are people who like it that way, until it affects them. Where there is life there is hope and if all your good wishes extend to the people around Edinburgh and the Lothians then we might still save it.

Doing this on Goy is good, it brings you into contact with experienced people. Always go to the top I say. Have you informed the Scottish Parliament Leader Alex Salmond ? Your M.P. should have done this if he has been informed. What is he/she doing about it ?
The National Trust for Scotland probably didnt have the funding to restore the buildings, which is why they acted as they did. If there are any meetings about the property your Committee should be invited to attend as observers, and given the chance to speak. Too much is decided behind closed doors by people who dont care because it doesnt affect them.
I just pray Matt Alwright and his team get onto it, and give you the experienced support you obviously need.

Working on my allotment this a.m. I thought of something else Scotsgran. Your Committee can apply to the Probate Office for a copy of this Gentleman's Will.
This should give his instructions for the Suntrap Garden, and name his Executors.
If the Executors have disposed of the property without first ensuring that the Scottish National Trust had sufficient funds to maintain it, then they are in breach of their duties under the instructions contained in the Will.
They could have pursued other sources of help and finance to preserve the houses and the garden.
Therefore the Scottish National Trust have no right to dispose of a share of the property and the buildings to a developer. They are in the wrong for accepting the property when they had no capital to keep it in good order for the Community it was left to.
As you have no capital to pursue this issue, the first step would be to contact Matt Alwright.
If he cant help, or offer advice, the second step would be to contact the Citizens' Advice Bureau who are very good, and have people who will support you.

I dont watch The One Show. Just discovered the Matt on that one is Matt Baker.
Matt Alwright presents the ' You have been scammed' programme at 11.45 a.m. on BBC1 this week. This may be on a different schedule in Scotland. Best to check his website via Google.

Hi Scotsgran, I have just found a contact for Matt. whom I hope will help you. He must get a lot of queries, and is employing an agent to deal with them.
Send an email to this address with all the details you have posted on the Goy website. Petitions are no good.

It is agent@mattallwright.com

Hope this helps to save the garden for the Community, as the late owner intended.

Thank you Diane.

I can only add my hope that something will occur to prevent this takeover happening. I am late seeing this and wonder how things are now? It made me angry just reading it - so unjust when places like Suntrap are just what society needs.

There was a meeting on Wednesday evening at which local people and organisations who could use the garden for recreational purposes for their clients made it very clear that there is a desire to save the garden. I am hoping that the Chairwoman of the SOS Committee will issue minutes of the meeting which we can publish. There is a move to setting up a Suntrap Trust wholly owned by its members. To become a member and show the Charities Commission that there is local interest in this happening we were all asked to sign up to become members. It cost us £1. Up to now the SOS Committee have been working under the umbrella of the Friends of Suntrap. They were the first Friends Group in any National Trust property in Scotland and they applied for and have Charitable status. To access funds there needs to be a new organisation which can take up the many offers of help. It is frustrating that everything takes so long and the owners of the property will not consider offering the facility to the Trust for a peppercorn rent because they want to sell. An SNP MSP who attended the meeting has said the Scottish Government will try and delay the sale to any third party for 6 - 8 months to give the Trust time to establish itself and raise the necessary funds. It is heart breaking to hear that in spite of the recent listing of Millbuies, the Andersons family home, which in the light of the current interest in green and renewable energy sources, if owned by the Trust, would become a museum and education centre, the house can be demolished and replaced, if a case is made for that to happen. Developers can always make a case and have the resources available to them to do that.

Disgraceful. And all about money, money, money.