We need to demonstrate the support of the community when we say that we want the green space preserved for the public, and that free access should continue. We did that with our photo for the press when several hundred people turned up to be counted, and now we are doing it through a petition. The first day of the petition, we got over 580 signatures. That was a great start, and now we need your help.

If you want to join us going out an collecting signatures, please let us know when you are available by emailing: petition@friendsofcraighouse.com. Alternatively, you can download the petition from our website here and collect signatures yourselves. If you do collect signatures, please make sure to tell us about where you are collecting (so we don’t double up) and send us the signed pages afterwards (again, email: petition@friendsofcraighouse.com). Don’t worry if you don’t get loads of signatures, it all adds up in the end!

Collecting signatures might just mean leaving the petition in a friendly local shop or pub for people to sign. The Save Inverleith Park campaign found that they got huge numbers of signatures from local pubs and shops. The combination of a poster and the petition may work quite well in some places, so people can read what the plans are and then sign the petition if they don’t like them. You might even want to print out a page or 2 of the developers’ own information, so people can verify our reading of their proposals.

Why is the petition useful? Because we need to demonstrate to politicians, planners and the press that we have a lot of local support. We need to show that a lot of people use the hill to play, walk their dogs, enjoy the views, watch the fireworks, and catch a glimpse of some of the local wildlife.

You can download a pdf file of the petition here. There are 2 pages to the petition: the first has a nice picture and explanation. The second has more space for people to sign. You can print either or both pages. I like to have the pretty, colourful page on top, so people know what they are signing in a little more detail, and then have lots of the other sheets which allow more signatures to fit on them.

Please make sure no-one signs more than once! And please make sure people who sign are real! Children can sign, it’s a site used extensively by children. It would be helpful to get email addresses of signers so we can notify people later (but promise people we won’t use their email address for anything more than the occasional notification of important future opportunities to register their views). The statement on the petition is worded to be reasonable and still applicable if the developers’ plans change (which they well might).

To publicize the campaign, and to show the community the extent of the development, we have produced a poster. We can give a poster to you, or you can print one out and display it yourselves. The map is based on the maps given at the developer’s consultation exhibition, but we have explained some of the proposed new build.

Please download the attached pdf file and print it and display it where you can. You can also use it to help explain the issues to people when asking people to sign the petition.

You can download the pdf file of landscape the poster here.

Or, the portrait-format poster is here.

We have a small number of posters printed to high quality, so if you want one of them, please email: admin@friendsofcraighouse.com.