Lothian farmer, Billy Innes, of East Hermiston Farm to resow 7 acres!

This, unfortunately, was a reality for Billy Innes of East Hermiston Farm on the outskirts of Edinburgh. On Saturday over 1000 motorists decided to use his 23 acre arable field as a car park for the tram so they could attend a rugby match at Murrayfield.

As a result the Lothian farmer has had to resow seven acres of the damaged field again and spent Saturday night dealing with revellers and the police over the incident.

The oilseed rape field had to be resown

Mr Innes explained: “I received a phone call from a neighbouring farmer who asked if I was now growing cars in my fields? But when I turned up it wasn’t so funny, I counted the rows and worked out there were over 1000 cars over seven acres. We had just finished sowing the rape in the field on Thursday.

“People were heading to Scotland v Georgia rugby match and clearly panicked when there was nowhere to park for the tram so went into my field. In their defence some may have been ignorant that the field was newly sown, but it still wasn’t designated as a car park.

“From what people have said it appears that the first car broke the law and the rest all followed. There were even some farmer’s vehicles I recognised in the field who should have known better. There were rumours some people were organising the parking but that is a lot of nonsense.

It took 24 hours for the cars to all go

“As soon as I arrived I phoned the police at 5.30pm and they turned up at the field at 10.45pm. The two officers were pleasant and helpful. Clearly with the rugby, the Edinburgh festival and a music concert at Ingliston their resources were stretched. We all need the emergency services and I won’t say a bad word about the officers who attended the scene but they didn’t take any action beyond taking a statement and offering an incident number. I think the issue lies further up so Police know how to handle these situations.

“I took a bit of a stance and tried to stop the cars getting out but I wasn’t going to get into any confrontations. Later in the evening, every time a tram arrived another 30 cars would leave the field. But clearly some had decided to abandon their car for the night as there were 300 left in the morning. I even met a guy happily having a coffee sat outside his campervan in the sunshine. The last car left at teatime on Sunday so they were in there for 24 hours.”

Mr Innes is keen to work with all involved to ensure incidents like this do not happen again and educate motorists about where they can and can not park.

1000 cars were parked over seven acres of ground

The cars have meant that he is out of pocket as he took the decision to resow the damaged area. He said: “I have now redrilled the seven acres. It is just not worth the gamble, at this time of year you can not afford to wait to see if the crop comes through the ground.

"Even if it comes up thick like cabbages, at least we know how to deal with it, much better than having no crop at all. If you get to mid September and nothing is growing you have a real problem."

The 23 acre field can yield two tons an acre last time it grew oilseed rape which puts the income of the seven acres of damaged ground at nearly £6000.

Mr Innes farms 600 acres in the Wester corridor from Edinburgh and is willing to rent the field as an overspill carpark to the council.

He said: “Clearly there is a need for more parking at this side of the city, but we need a better plan than this.”

A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “Around 6pm on Saturday, August 26, 2023, police received a report of a large number of cars parking within the grounds of a private farm in the Eastfield Road area of Edinburgh. Enquiries are ongoing.”