A7 underpass from village, North Middleton Village

By: Middleton Youth Club

Why this place is important to me

North Middleton is a small village with limited amenities for young people. The village lies beside the main A7 trunk road. To access public transport and school buses everyone in the village has to use the A7 underpass.

This was built many years ago and was almost immediately covered in graffiti. It is very dark and dirty and can be a very scary place to walk.

It is also the first point of access for many visitors to the village and is by far the most unattractive part of the village and gives a very bad first impression.

My plan to improve this place

The youth club wants to clean up the area in and around the underpass then paint bright and attractive murals on the walls of the underpass to make it a more welcoming place.
We got the idea after seeing the ‘Scotland in Focus’ information and the youth club decided that it would be a great thing to do for the whole community and a way of us expressing our thanks to everyone in the village who helped fundraise to set up the youth club earlier this year.

We have already written and met with our local councillor to seek permission and assistance to this work. He has got approval from Midlothian Council for us to carry out the work, he also put us in touch with Midlothian Council Creative Links officer and Community Worker. We have now met with these people to develop our plans. At the last meeting an artist came along to help us begin designing the mural and start working out the costs involved.

Ultimately we want to clean up an ugly part of the village and produce a fantastic piece of our own art that we and the wider community can be proud of.

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