Marchmont and Sciennes Community Council
Minutes of Meeting held on May 27th, 2026 at Sciennes Art Hub, 13 Rillbank Terrace
Present
Alison Service - MSCC Treasurer Chairing
Geoff Parsons – MSCC
Anne Laing MSCC
Kate McNairney SMAG
Douglas Roger MSCC
Anthony Holmes MSCC
Peter Olech MSCC
Richard Shilcock MSCC
Cllr Steve Burgess
Cllr Mandy Watt
Becky Marsland Local resident
Norah Rogers Local Resident
Apologies
Brian Gilmore – MSCC Chair
Suizie Agnew
Cllr Marie Claire Munro
Ian Murray MP
Attending
Hannah Walsh - Minutes Secretary
Meeting began at 19:32 pm.
Sederunt and apologies
Alison welcomes everyone to the meeting. Sederunt and apologies as above.
Draft Minutes of last meeting April 2026
Geoff moves to approve the minutes. Peter seconds.
Actions and matters arising (not otherwise on Agenda)
Matters arising
Suzie wrote regarding the Grange cemetery closing time of 5 pm suggested the MSCC ask that it stay open until 7pm in summer – ALISON TO ACTION.
Suzie also wrote to Ian Murray MP about ROYAL MAIL collections from the Falcon Road delivery office opening times but has not heard back yet. Cllr Mandy Watt for Morningside will follow up on this matter.
Suggested donation to SMAG for expenses: SMAG currently pay for hiring of halls for public meetings, printing and photography among other expenses. The agreed donation by the MSCC is £150. Kate will provide Alison with the invoices and information necessary to process this request.
Meadows & Bruntsfield Links:
The Hamish Henderson walkway has been approved by Edinburgh Council who have emailed all locals in case of objections but otherwise it will go ahead.
The AGM for Friends of the Meadows is on June the 19th at 6.30 the German Church Hall.
The Meadow’s Festival: is to be held on the 6th and 7th of June. There will be an information stand for FOMBL and CCs at the festival, contact Alison if you can help man this with a 2hour slot. Information for MSCC and Friends of the Meadows will be at the booth.
Volunteering for FOMBL: every Saturday meeting at the Pavilion at 10 o’clock if anyone wants to volunteer, council resources are limited so volunteers are vital, contact Alison if interested.
The Marchmont Hardware Shop is undergoing repair works till end May and should be re-opening soon.
Publicity : No report.
City Councillor report on topical local issues
Cllr Mandy Watt : Update on participatory budgeting
Visitor levy: originally to be spread equally as £20,000 per ward but this has been revised and now is variable depending on need so currently unsure what the Marchmont Sciennes area will receive. It was expressed that with the Meadows the hope is that the area will receive the full £20,000. Alison said that FOMBL will lobby for more to be given to the Meadows.
Community grants have just reopened. White House Loan safe to school route will be made permanent, Council going to apply to put one in Clinton Road also and reapply for the one in Caanan lane. It is also expected that the street lighting in White House Loan be improved to help with safety and improve visibility.
Cllr Steve Burgess - Political landscape of Marchmont and Sciennes post the election
Prior to the election the MSCC was in the Edinburgh southern constituency after the election the boundary changed, and the Edinburgh central constituency was extended to now include Marchmont and Sciennes.
The new constituency MSP is Lorna Slater of the Green Party, defeating incumbent Angus Roberston’s SNP. Lorna has asked to come meet with the MSCC. It was uniformly agreed to invite Ms Slater to come when she can. Cllr Burgess will contact to invite her to the June or September onwards meeting.
There are 7 regional MSPs elected who represent the area, residents can contact any of them for matters affecting the area that are decided at Parliament level. They are:
Irshad Ahmed, Miles Briggs, Kayleigh Kinross, Q. Manivannan, Kate Nevens and Angela Ross
There are changes at City Council as four Councillors were elected to MSP including Samita Kumar. Initially Councillors said they would continue in both roles, but Samita may step down as she is a Minister and trigger a by election in the area.
Council members express dissatisfaction about double jobbing. Cllr Watt will confirm if they take their MSP salary plus Councillor remuneration – but thinks this is unlikely.
There was a suggestion made for more public toilets on the Meadows; the new ones have been damaged with the back wall broken. Council should review design, as poor decision made not to install a gent's urinal causing big queues. More urinals would make everything cheaper and more efficient. The project spent £350,000 for 4 individual cubicles with one for disabled only available with special request call. MSCC members dissatisfied with the cost of this and that there was not aggressive enough purchasing or transparent procurement process. The same issue is seen in Inverleith park regarding public toilets. Alison to put this this to FoMBL.
Inclusion Officer’s report (attached)
Douglas reported that he completed the response for MSCC to the questionnaire for community level democracy - most people preferred option B marginally over option C (See report).
ApartHotel planning: For more detail see report. Great number of residents expressed dissatisfaction to the planning being granted. It is important for community to develop a policy on tourism in the area to help campaigns and lobbying going forward. In the planning committee meeting that granted the planning for the aparthotel the Council also threw out 43 applications for short term lets. Geoff expresses that the Council's objective should always be affordable housing, while Douglas states that the issue in this case was the land is owned by a private company. There are certain stipulations in planning to protect and provide community spaces, example including the meeting venue Sciennes arts hub; that is only available due to planning rules for private developers.
There was discussion on the number of objections need to meaningfully block a planning application as this case received over 130 from residents. Cllr Burgess explains that objections only force the development and management subcommittee to review the application in more depth but its ultimately up to their discretion and even if not granted can be appealed at parliament.
Alison asks about feasibility for MSCC and other community councils to be able to change the legislation. Geoff states if we want affordable housing we should have more compulsory purchase orders on development land. This would need governmental intervention. An example is the Irish system that allows third party appeal after applications granted. The Scottish government recently voted against this change of legislation. Leith community council have been lobbying against aparthotels. MSCC agree to review how to move forward to make things better in the future. An agreement was reached that it is easier to argue an alternative plan than a complete blockage of planning applications in this category, this will help with lobbying. Alison suggests bringing it forward and liaising with Leith.
BANZAI group: Group ask MSCC to support them for applying for green light funding that provides grants for sustainability projects. One of their main goals is to look at environmental issues that affect the area and ask MSCC along with Merchiston CC if they will support the application for the funding. They are not requesting money from MSCC. The group are going to apply for £15,000 for their projects. It was unanimously agreed that the MSCC support their application.
The heat networks in building adjacent to the Sciennes Arts Hub current price is 27ppKW and Douglas is currently evaluating local heat networks to determine why they are so expensive. Other Council heat networks that have been shown to have efficiency of 25%. Douglas is conducting this research as part of Lothian heat.
Items for discussion
Planning: There are lots of short term lets applications being turned down.
Treasurer’s report (attached) : The end April balance is £1238.06. MSCC donated £100 to FoMBL for the Hamish Henderson Walkway signage.
SMAG report : SMAG put in 16 submissions from the community after meeting with Cllr Steven Jenkinson. His reply can be seen in their newsletter, nothing was changed. Group going to continue to work to get support, develop website and social media. 2,000 people have engaged. SMAG would appreciate in being more involved in the process with the City Council going forward even if they decide not to change things.
Meetings attended: No meetings attended
AOCB: None arising
The date of the next meeting is Wednesday 24th of June 2026 – AGM and general meeting .
All who live or work locally are welcome to attend.
archmont
& Sciennes