Duncan Campbell, who died on Tuesday, 18 April 2023, was a name often found in C&B News in recent years, occasionally as a byline but more modestly within the body of the latest article reporting on cultural projects happening in or around Colinton. His influence as a “green belt and cultural conservation champion”, however, went significantly beyond the boundaries of the Edinburgh village which he called home.
“I think my first contact with him arose because of a planning appeal for a major housing proposal that Currie and Balerno Community Councils felt they had to respond to,” explains C&B News planning expert Archie Clarke. “Duncan was approached as one of the ‘Friends of the Edinburgh Green Belt’, as well as planning convenor of Colinton Amenity Association—which he later chaired. His thorough analysis of the amount of land being ‘lost’ from the Green Belt was something that peripheral communities could relate to. Gradually, I found he was involved in a whole raft of organisations, including advising the Cockburn Association on planning and environmental matters.”
Those other organisations included the Association for the Protection of Rural Scotland, Edinburgh Green Belt Trust, Scottish Council for National Parks and Mavisbank Trust. He was also a significant inspiration behind APRS – Scotland’s countryside charity – launching its Green Belts Alliance, “a loose assemblage of local groups across Scotland active in protecting their local green belts,” according to the charity’s then-director, John Mayhew. “Duncan joined APRS Council to give him a formal role in its governance, then shortly afterwards joined its Executive Committee, becoming ever more involved in other aspects of its work.”
“His heart was undoubtedly in the right place—the landscapes of Scotland, particularly those around its towns and cities.
Duncan studied at Merchiston Castle School from 1949 to 1954, a strong foundation for subsequent study and working life that included senior posts with the Forestry Commission, the Countryside Commission for Scotland, and Scottish Natural Heritage. This gave his numerous contributions to local conservation campaigns additional value—as they “rested on his rare status as both a forester and a landscape architect,” says John Mayhew. “His heart was undoubtedly in the right place—the landscapes of Scotland, particularly those around its towns and cities. Also, despite being unbendingly opposed to some developments, he was always keen to stress that, if they did go ahead, they should strive for the highest quality of landscape design.”
Duncan first joined the Colinton Amenity Association (CAA) committee in 1998, serving as vice-chairman, chairman and environmental convenor up to 2005 and then staying on for another five years responding to the City of Edinburgh Council’s various development plans. He also served on the sub-committee that worked on CAA’s 1998 Character Appraisal of Colinton—a document subsequently referenced by CEC’s planning and city development plans.
“He was a founder member of Colinton Community Conservation Trust (CCCT) in 2000 and served on the Trust’s board as a director from then right up to his death,” adds CAA’s Andrew Paterson. “He led all of the projects undertaken by the Trust: re-planting of Colinton Triangle Garden and establishment of the Drovers Path; the restoration of the Phoebe Traquair Railings in Bridge Road; re-planting of the Long Steps Garden; the Robert Louis Stevenson Statue outside Colinton Parish Church; the RLS Poetry Trail and Arch in Colinton and the Timeline Railings on Woodhall Road. He gave talks to many groups on behalf of the Trust. He leaves big shoes to be filled by his fellow directors.”
“People in many parts of Scotland owe him sincere gratitude for his advice and support for the landscapes of their precious local green belts which, partly thanks to his efforts, now benefit from stronger protection in national planning policy,”
Aptly, in our February 2014 issue (number 393), it was Duncan who announced CCCT becoming one of the first groups in the UK to receive a Heritage Lottery Fund Sharing Heritage grant, with the £10,000 earmarked “to demonstrate and interpret aspects of the literary heritage of Robert Louis Stevenson’s close association with Colinton”. The poetry trail, starting at the top of the Long Steps in the heart of the village, would eventually be joined by the statue of Stevenson as a boy, informing CEC’s planning committee that the project was about “demonstrating aspects of Colinton’s history in a visual and artistic way”. As Cllr Scott Arthur pointed out after Duncan’s death, that was an apt description for most of his work with CCCT.
According to Archie, Duncan was “a good listener and communicator as well as a sleeves-up, hands-on person”. He undoubtedly leaves behind him a formidable legacy, both in his professional life and his “retirement” with the Cockburn Association and APRS. “People in many parts of Scotland owe him sincere gratitude for his advice and support for the landscapes of their precious local green belts which, partly thanks to his efforts, now benefit from stronger protection in national planning policy,” says Andrew Paterson.
Yet Duncan was also very much a family man. Sadly his wife, Morny, pre-deceased him, but Duncan is survived by their sons Ewan and Neil, daughter-in-law Mary, and grandchildren Charlotte and Cameron.
