Bush Estate fitness trail given the green light by officers

The 430-metre-long Trim Trail will include six fitness stations to challenge those taking part. It will be created on a paddock on the Bush Estate within the Midlothian Science Zone, near Penicuik.

The trail will go round the edge of a paddock with timber equipment, including bunny hops, parallel bars, horizontal ladders and chin-up bars. Plans for the new trail were lodged by Edinburgh Technopole, which has the adjoining science park to the land it will be built on.

Approving the plans, planning officers said “the scale and nature of the works will ensure that they will not have a detrimental impact on the woodland in the area or on local biodiversity”.

They said: “The appearance of the track will be in keeping with the character of the adjoining science park.

“The allocated site is a large site of 50 hectares and development is expected to maintain the parkland setting of the Bush Estate.

“The proposal will provide ancillary facilities for the Science Zone and its size will ensure that it will not prejudice future development of the allocated site.”