Our Vision: The Astley Ainslie will be a thriving greenspace managed by the local community, providing health, housing, jobs, and enjoyment to the people of Edinburgh
Our Mission
We are campaigning for community ownership of the Astley Ainslie site. We are providing a forum for all those who wish to engage, and we are actively encouraging local community involvement. We are building an inclusive and sustainable model of community ownership for the benefit of the people of Edinburgh.
More details on our vision, mission and strategy can be found here.
AACT aims to build on the intention of David Ainslie’s original bequest, which recognised that healthy communities need intimate connections with land and nature. Whilst the hospital services will move, health and wellbeing will be central to the uses we propose, which include the following: greenspace for productive and therapeutic uses, education, recreation, and access; an active and open community hub; and affordable housing.
An extensive community visioning exercise, funded by the Scottish Government Making Places Initiative, was carried out in 2019, the results of which can be downloaded here.
We envision a site whose landscape and uses interconnect to form a complementary, dynamic whole. Any particular use of the site will not stand alone; each will support the others, compounding benefits for the community and the city. We will briefly address the various community needs/benefits as they relate to particular uses before stepping back to look at the site and uses all together.