IAN MURRAY MP took time out this week (13 September) to meet the family owners of a major holiday park in his Edinburgh South constituency.
He was welcomed to Mortonhall Holiday Park by Henry and Catherine Trotter of Meadowhead Parks, and members of Mortonhall’s management team.
Mr Murray had been invited to inspect a range of new facilities at the park which had received the thumbs-up from its thousands of visitors this year.
He also saw recent moves by the Trotter family to further protect the natural world across the 200-acre country estate on which the park is based.
These include a plantation of Italian Alders to mark the Diamond Jubilee of the late Queen Elizabeth II.
Despite being just four miles from the centre of Scotland’s capital, the MP heard, Mortonhall has been described as a “wildlife wonderland” for its raft of plant and animal species.
Also present was Sarah Allanson, Scottish director of the British Holiday & Home Parks Association (BH&HPA), plus Debbie Walker who is the organisation’s UK director general.
Mortonhall park manager Andy Wallis told Mr Murray that the park had gained popularity as an idyllic rural base for exploring both the surrounding countryside and the city of Edinburgh.
He said that Mortonhall had also this year once again proved a hit with visitors and performers attending the Edinburgh International Festival.
Accommodation options at the park include luxury holiday caravans, including those for people with impaired mobility, plus fully equipped glamping wigwams and shepherd huts.
There are also pitches for touring caravans, motorhomes and tents – and Mr Murray was shown the new world-class shower and amenities centre opened this year.
Like all new developments on the park, explained operations manager Alex Benson, the facilities are created with the accent on sustainability as Mortonhall continues its quest towards Net Zero.
The building he said, has extremely high levels of insulation and is clad with locally-sourced larch, whilst heating and hot water is delivered by the latest energy-efficient technology.
These policies, plus the park’s successful initiatives to protect its flora and fauna, have resulted in Mortonhall being a longstanding winner of David Bellamy Conservation Award.
Mr Trotter explained plans for a solar energy development to provide electricity for the holiday park and its bar and restaurant with any surplus energy being exported to the National Grid.
Elsewhere on the estate, plans are underway for a 49MW battery storage renewable energy development, expected to be the single biggest generation source in the City of Edinburgh.
Mr Murray heard that Meadowhead puts the same emphasis on green issues across all of the three other top-rated parks it operates: Belhaven Bay in Dunbar, Tantallon Park in North Berwick, and Waren Park in Bamburgh on the North Northumberland coast.
Sarah Allanson told the MP that the Association would be holding its UK national conference in Edinburgh next February where many of Britain’s 3,000 parks will be represented.
She said that she hoped that Mr Murray would be able to attend part of the event as a guest, and to meet some of other 200 Scottish parks in membership of BH&HPA.