Marchmont
and Sciennes Community Council
Minutes of
Meeting held on 26th February 2025 at St. Catherine’s Argyle Church Hall
Present: Anne
Laing - MSCC Secretary, Alison Service - MSCC Treasurer, Susie Agnew - MSCC (interim Chair for the meeting),
Kayleigh Gordon - MSCC Publicity, Cllr. Neil Ross, Douglas Rogers - MSCC,
Alastair Dickie - local resident, Margaret Coughtrie - local resident
Apologies: Brian
Gilmore - MSCC Chair, Liane Phillips - MSCC Publicity, Cllr. Steve Burgess
Attending: Nora
Flynn-McIver - Minutes Secretary
Meeting began at 7:30pm
Draft Minutes of 22/01/25
Douglas moves to pass, Alison
seconds. The minutes pass.
Matters Arising
Earl of Marchmont defibrillator: we
are currently waiting for the grant application to go in, and this opens on
Monday the 3rd. The machine will now go to the optician’s shop.
Sunday parking on Melville Drive:
this issue is unlikely to progress. Susie reports that there are signs on the
east end of the Meadows until the end of the crossing, but nothing going west.
People probably assume that there are no issues with parking when there are no
signs. Susie explained that you can only park on the Meadows and Melville Drive
until 12:30pm on a Sunday, but most people don’t know this. Susie took this up
and Cllr. Ross is looking into it and will flag this at a Transport Committee meeting
in May. There is just enough signage that one probably could not dispute the
ticket, though the signage is difficult to find and is inconsistent.
Police Report
A newsletter gets circulated from
time to time by the police and Anne will continue to circulate.
Susie noted that a garage on
Palmerston Road was broken into on the 13th of February and that this happened
again last night (25th of February), bicycles have been stolen to the cost of
about £2000. Both break-ins have been reported to the police. Bicycle theft is
an ongoing issue.
Meadows & Bruntsfield
Links/FOMBL Report
The next FOMBL meeting is at the
beginning of April. Yesterday, work began on the public toilets.
Susie suggested that Alison bring up
the issue of the dangerous modified e-bikes in the Meadows. Douglas suggested
the idea of street bumps for bicycles.
City Councillor report on local
issues
Cllr. Ross: there has been a 3%
council tax rise since last April because of a lack of funding from the
Scottish government. This goes towards social care and homelessness provision.
There is a high level of homelessness in Edinburgh. The budget did not end up
cutting education funds. They also added to the Special Schools budget and
added to the road safety budget. There is also record spending on road repair
and Cllr. Ross notes that this is likely to need to be a long-term project.
The toilets on the Meadows and other
parks in Edinburgh have begun building and the council is looking to see where
other new toilets could go or be refurbished. Douglas asked if there would be
improved signage for the toilets and Cllr. Ross clarified that it will be made
obvious how to get to the public toilets from Middle Meadow Walk.
Anne raised the issue of the plan
for parking on Sylvan Place after the RHSC work is done, Cllr. Ross will send
this along to Cllr. Burgess, who represents that area. Douglas asked if there
was a chance of meeting with people to look at changing the roads in the area
and plan a strategy over time. Anne also noted the necessity for resurfacing of
Fingal Place. The school has been somewhat insular in talking about planning,
Douglas has gotten in touch with some people, but no response. Douglas
suggested that the MSCC look at creating a Local Place plan for the area with a
possible one-way system for Argyle Place (though it was noted that this would
likely be difficult to achieve), Cllr. Ross noted that the more direct route
would be to discuss with road planning and transport. Douglas may reach out to
Cllr. Munro on this.
Publicity
Kayleigh proposes broadcasting
monthly meetings on Zoom as well as in-person, as this could appeal to a
younger audience as well. Anne noted that Brian was wary about this because
there may be some dependency on having a laptop and a microphone, this likely
needs discussion of some sort once the new council comes in. Alison also noted
that there probably is not money for a Zoom Premium account, but this could be
solved with a two-part meeting. Susie also mentioned that we could look at
hybrid meetings. Douglas pointed out that this probably won’t work amazingly in
the current space, but the community space could be a good place for this. Nora
suggested that there be a specifically designated person to watch the online
chat and represent questions for them, Cllr. Ross backed this proposal up. He
also mentioned that some community councils have fully online meetings. Nora
pointed out that if a student remains attached to MSCC in any capacity, the
University of Edinburgh provides students with free Zoom Premium accounts.
Upcoming CC elections
There are 7 people signed up for the
community council, which is the required number. Many community councils have
ceased to exist. SMAG also tried to join as a representative, but it was
refused for a few reasons, including the fact that they have not been in
existence for more than 12 months. They have to wait until April to sort out
details, but SMAG representatives will continue to attend the meetings. Anne
suggested co-opting SMAG, though they may not get a vote. This will all be
sorted out in April and they will come back to report on the process then.
Update on bin hubs
SMAG is going to supply their
membership with a form for them to fill out to get bin hubs moved. This form
helps people to conform to Council regulations when they submit a form. This
would ideally be more than one applicant at a time so that the Council has a
solid idea of the whole area. The Council is being strict about adhering to the
new rules, so the residents have to ensure that they design a bin hub that
deals with what the Council wants.
Things have stalled with the noise
review on the glass bins. SMAG aims to have more of the glass bins moved so
that they are not in every hub, but Council is reviewing this later. They
formally reviewed the noise and came to the conclusion that the noise levels
were deemed to be unacceptable, though they are now reviewing what to do about
this. Cllr. Ross noted that it is at least a step forward that it has been
deemed unacceptable and that some action is being taken to figure out how to
manage the noise. Cllr. Ross added that the Council welcomes a more
standardized approach to identify the issues and acceptable alternatives. He
mentioned that 133 bin hubs have already been selected to be moved and are
currently in the TRO process, but the Council workers are not providing the
list of the approved bin hubs as of yet. SMAG is hoping to have harder
information about the effects of the bin hubs on residents in about 6 months.
Douglas suggested a Local Place plan for the bin hubs.
Planning applications
The report has been circulated.
Douglas noted the Grange Association planning report mentions a rejection of
uPVC windows, though these are on many different buildings, and it is unclear
if planning was ever sought out for that. He also noted the new electricity
cables, which goes through a very small part of the MSCC area. This will likely
be an upheaval but nothing too major.
Update on Sewer Flooding Project
A report has been circulated. They
are closing the entrance to Spottiswoode Street as of Monday.
Treasurer’s Report
£790.24 in the bank
Meetings attended
Anne, Douglas, and Brian attended
the 50 years of the Community Council celebration at the City Chambers at the
invitation of the Lord Provost Cllr. Aldridge.
AOCB
Douglas suggested a discussion at
the next meeting about the purpose of the community council with the new
council - Susie noted that there are always issues that bring in a lot of
people but that these people very rarely stick around, and that any discussion
on this might be of little consequence.
Date of next meeting
There will be no meeting in March.
The next meeting will be on April
23rd, 2025 with Cllr. Neil Ross chairing as Returning Officer.
