Community Beat Police Newsletters for Tollcross, Marchmont and Meadows - Jan 10

Yocksan Bell, the community beat officer for Tollcross, Marchmont and Meadows has circulated his newsletter for Jan 2010.

Should Public Information Notices be published electronically? Let the Scottish Government know your view...

Comments on the Local Authority Public Information Notices (Electronic Publication) (Scotland) Order 2010 are sought by February 12, 2010. 

This order will enable electronic publication as an alternative to the duty to advertise in printed media.


Local authorities will be released to make informed decisions about providing the most efficient and effective service for their locality whether digital or printed media.

Public information notices are announcements that local authorities are legally required to publish. There are two types of PIN:

• Statutory Notices give required notice of an intended action, such as road closures, construction, licensing and planning/property developments.
• Public Notices inform people of changes to services, such as refuse collection.

8 Feb 2010 Deadline for Waste Action Grants

The City of Edinburgh Council is offering grants to community groups for projects that will encourage local residents to reduce, reuse and recycle their waste. You can apply for smaller grants of £50-£200 or larger grants of £500- £2500. Examples of projects that have already successfully applied for a grant include a local ‘Bag for Life’ scheme, a ‘toy library’ for infants and a community compost scheme.
If you have access to an internet you can download the necessary documents:


The next deadline for the larger grants is the 8th of February. Further applications will be entertained before 24th May 2010, and before 25th October 2010. Please note there is no deadline for the smaller grants.  


If you are interested in applying for an Edinburgh Waste Action Grant you should first make contact with Anita Duffy, the Waste Aware Education Officer.

Automatic planning alerts

You may be interested to subscribe to a new service from planningalerts.com (featured in BBC coverage of new access to UK government (and local government) data).

Edinburgh Equalities Network Events Programme January - March 2010

The Edinburgh Equalities Network Events Programme for January - March 2010 (PDF) is now available. The programme is developed on the theme of working together and creating good community relations.


Forum Interactive will lead the main workshop event, “Many threads woven together make a strong tartan” which will explore in an interesting but also fun way the benefits of communities working together. Forum Interactive is a learning and development consultancy who use drama and active learning techniques to engage, challenge and inspire and address serious issues, challenge assumptions and generate new ideas. The programme is for Network members but the events are also open to other community and equalities groups (staff, volunteers and service users).


The programme also includes a session on Equality Impact Assessments (from a Council perspective); a Discussion on the Hate Crime Strategy (of particular interest to LGBT and Disabled communities); and a Health and Carers Seminar.  For more details contact Anne Elliot.

What do you think? Living and dying well in lothian: a palliative care strategy

NHS Lothian are holding a consultation event on a Lothian-wide Palliative Care Strategy for 2010 – 2015. It will take place on Tuesday 2nd February from 10:30am – 1.00pm in the Business Centre at the Edinburgh City Chambers, High Street, Edinburgh, EH1 1YJ.


If you would like to attend this event please contact Veronica Wishart. Please note that places are limited and will be allocated on a first come first served basis. If you have any access requirements please specify when booking.


If you are unable to attend this meeting you may still respond to NHS Lothian direct either as an individual or organisation. The full version of the Strategy and supplementary reports and a response form are published on the NHS Lothian website. The deadline for consultation responses is Friday 5th February 2010. 

Please write to your councillor about budget cuts affecting schools

The local primary and secondary schools parent councils are asking all parents and carers to write to their councillors about cuts to the City of Edinburgh Council - Children and Families Budget 2010 - 2013. See below for how to contact your councillor.

School Council Chairs attended a briefing from the City Council Children and Families Department officials, on 16th December 2009 and were very concerned at the proposals that were presented to the Parent Councils.  

In the short term, the proposals from the Council officials for the City of Edinburgh include: significant reductions in learning assistants; withdrawal of visiting specialists in early Primary (i.e. PE, music, drama); centralising librarian resources which would remove dedicated school staff members; and withdrawal of all foreign language assistants.

For each school's own budget, there will be a requirement to find a 2.5% cut on top of the 1.5% imposed last year. This 2.5% will be year on year, and the Edinburgh Secondary Head Teachers have indicated to the local authority that this is impossible. They have made clear that education will suffer in Edinburgh's schools if this is followed through.   'We only have a short time to influence the politicians as they consider the budget options for 2010/11.  Please take the time to express your concerns and views to your elected councillors (JGHS Council Chair)

 

The Gillespie's High School Council website contains further details and explanations and a suggested draft of a letter.

Sciennes Primary are  asking parents and carers to sign an online petition or to join a Facebook group and to write to all of our councillors and to the Director of Children and Families Gillian Tee, and the Convenor of the Education Department, Marilyn McLaren (also a local councillor), opposing the cuts.

Councillors for  Meadows and Morningside (Marchmont) are:

Marilyn MacLaren	529 5566	marilyn.maclaren@edinburgh.gov.uk
Alison Johnstone	529 3191	alison.johnstone@edinburgh.gov.uk
Paul Godzig	529 3273	paul.godzik@edinburgh.gov.uk
Mark McInnes	529 4958	mark.mcInnes@edinburgh.gov.uk

and for  Newington and Sciennes:

Steve Burgess	529 3274	steve.burgess@edinburgh.gov.uk
Ian Perry	529 3288	ian.perry@edinburgh.gov.uk
Cameron Rose	529 4078	cameron.rose@edinburgh.gov.uk
Gordon Mackenzie	529 3175	gordon.mackenzie@edinburgh.gov.uk

Alternatively you can write to any of the above at:

City of Edinburgh Council,

Waverley Court,

4 East Market Street,

Edinburgh, EH8 8BG

Note of an Edinburgh Assoc Comm Councils Question Time on Enforcement 9 Jan 10

A note of an Edinburgh Association of Community Councils' Question Time on Enforcement held on 9 Jan 10 is now available.

The panel at the session comprised:

Graham Drummond – Acting Community Protection, Manager for Services for Communities

Charlie Holt -- Community Safety Manager, East NP

Tom Stirling -- Environmental Protection Manager, Services for Communities.

Alistair Somerville – Head of Section, HMO Licensing and Inspection.

Derek Henderson, Group Leader Development Monitoring for the Planning Department.

MSCC meeting on 13 Jan cancelled because of weather

Given that the bad weather, and icy pavements and roads are set to continue through next week, we have decided it would be sensible to cancel next week's meeting.

For the same reasons the meeting with community members will also be rescheduled to the end of February.

However, there are some matters of business that require a decision or that may be of interest, so we will email an agenda with notes and papers to members (hopefully later today or tomorrow).

Be safe!

South Central Neighbourhood Partnership Meeting - 11 Jan 10 at 7pm

The South Central Neighbourhood Partnership will meet in public on Monday 11 January 2010 at 7pm (till 9pm) in the Business Centre, City Chambers, High Street, Edinburgh. There will be a public discussion of the proposals from the sub-group established to consider regulation of Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs).

For more information please contact: Donald Burgess (Partnership Development Officer). The MSCC rep on the neighbourhood partnership is Alastair Philp.

Papers now available

· Go to Council Papers online.

· Click on "go to committee search"

· Pick "South Central Neighbourhood Partnership" as committee name and "11 January 2010" as date.

· Click "search"

Proposed changes to controlled parking

Amendments have been proposed that affect the Edinburgh Controlled Parking scheme.

Formal objections are not invited at this stage, since a further period will be allowed for the submission of any objections when the proposals are formally advertised.

However comments to a.mackay@edinburgh.gov.uk before 22 January 2010 will be considered at this stage. Any questions to same address.

The amendments include proposals to:

• Simplify the structure and wording of Controlled Parking Zone (CPZ) Orders which regulate waiting and parking etc in the city centre (to bring 1-8 in line with newer zones)

• Change a proportion of public parking bays and permit parking bays in zones 1 to 8 to shared use parking bays

• Remove lengths of waiting restrictions in zones 1 to 8 in order to create additional parking spaces

• Allow Zone 8 residents to buy permits to allow visitors to park

• Limit the issue of residents’ permits in Zones 1 to 8 to a maximum of two per household

• Introduce residents’ permits charges that relate to vehicle emissions / engine sizes, with a surcharge for the second permit in a household

• Allow loading and unloading in permit and shared use bays for a maximum of 30 minutes

• Allow motorcycles to park free of charge in all shared use parking places and in all public parking places. But reduce incidence of allocated solo m/c parking

• Introduce an administration charge of 10% (minimum £10) to replace a lost or damaged permit

• Introduce a £5 administration charge on all 3 or 6 month resident permits

• Make changes to the issue of Healthcare Workers’ Permits

• Require vehicles claiming certain exemptions for loading/unloading (eg vehicles engaged in postal deliveries, road works etc) to be liveried

• Require taxis waiting on stances to be occupied by the driver at all times and to be available for immediate hire.

Plans showing the on-street changes proposed for  Zone 7  &  Zone 8 (zipped files) are available. If anyone has problems with the files the MSCC secretary has electronic copies (large files) which he could e-mail.


Updated (21:50 on Th 7 Jan 2010) to include links to Zone 7 files