Our heartfelt thanks to the 3,500 of you who signed this original petition 2-3 years ago - it got the Meadow on the map - a beacon in Glasgow and Scotland of community empowerment, community building, caring for our children's wellbeing and the natural environment, in the face of continuous Council opposition and enthusiasm for destroying inner city green space. We now need your help again, hopefully one last time. The Scottish Government will, in the next week or two, decide whether to "call in" the proposal to build on the Meadow that Glasgow City Council has approved in principle, to scrutinise the Council's processes, and possibly reject the building plan entirely. To help us with a 1 minute action: - sign the new petition at http://bit.ly/callinmeadow directing First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and other Scottish ministers to intervene and reject the housing proposal. The petition outlines the technical argument against building. The Herald On Sunday published a great article about this issue more generally - linked at the bottom of this update. And - if you haven't been in touch with activities on the Meadow and Children's Wood for a while, then here's a summary: - 23 schools and nurseries now use the land on a regular basis as part of their statutory requirement laid down for outdoor learning in Curriculum for Excellence, as well as outdoor learning and play strategies at a local and national level. - 10s of local volunteers have been professionally-trained to lead outdoor learning activities. - Outdoor playgroups and forest school clubs meet weekly on the land. - The Meadow is a popular West End Festival venue with readings, art installations and outdoor cinema. - The Children's Wood group is now a registered charity with a long term vision and plan for the land, which will of course continue to be flexible to meet the changing needs of the community. - As part of this plan, the CW has worked to create funded positions associated with maintaining the land and the activities on it. - There is a Growing Group, aided by asylum seekers associated with the Maryhill Integration Network, and food is grown for the Maryhill food bank. - We are working with the elderly to encourage them to make more use of the land. - Finally, the Childrens Wood also applied for outline planning permission, to demonstrate their concept of how to take forward this highly-valued community green space - and it was accepted by the planning committee last week. We are now drawing up the more detailed plan, in consultation. Many folk wonder how two plans can be approved. Well - anyone can apply for planning permission on a piece of land, irrespective of ownership. However, what actually happens, once permission is granted, is up to the owner - in this case Glasgow City Council. Read the hundreds of comments attached to the new petition to get a sense of how highly valued this land is to the community, and how strongly people both nationally and internationally believe it must be saved.