Minutes of Marchmont & Sciennes Community Council
Meeting of Wed 28th November 2018 at St Catherine’s Argyle
Church Hall
Present: Shane Voss
(MSCC, chairing in Brian’s absence), Alison Service (Treasurer), Elinor
O’Donovan (Minute secretary), Cllr Melanie Main, Anthony Holmes (Thirlestane
Lane Assoc), Douglas Rogers (MSCC), Mike Shields (Edinburgh Council), Anne Laing
(MSCC), Stephen Couley (resident), Alastair McInnes (resident), Nigel Ayton
(Grange Assoc), Nick Hepworth (resident), PC David Cuthbert, Stewart Irvine
(St. Catherine’s Argyle).
Apologies Brian Gilmore, Susie Agnew, Ian Murray MP
Minutes of the October meeting had
been pre-circulated and were approved, having been proposed for adoption by
Alison, seconded by Anthony.
Matters arising: None.
Police report:
PC David Cuthbert:
Fireworks and bonfires: It
has been a busy month in terms of fireworks and bonfires, though there has been
less activity in this area than previous years. The police presence in the North
and East areas of Edinburgh served its purpose and fireworks calls fell by 11%,
in comparison with last year. Bonfires did not cause a lot of trouble, and the
Council did a lot of work to dismantle them before any got too big. The fire
brigade visited schools in the weeks building up to bonfire night to reinforce the
safety message, as children accessing fireworks is a concern. There has been an
overall improvement since last year.
Antisocial behaviour fell
from last year by 26% in the city. The Meadows at night is often patrolled as
there are ongoing youth-related issues, such as anti-social behaviour, violence
etc. These youth-related issues peaked a few months ago but, since then, the
perpetrators have been identified and are being dealt with.
A Meadows event held last
month was well-attended. This was organised by the Police, Fire Brigade,
Environmental Wardens, Edinburgh Council, the University of Edinburgh, and the
Bike Station.
Christmas festival in City
Centre: As SE Edinburgh encompasses
city centre, police officers who are not tied to specific wards now patrol the
city centre due to the increase in visitors. This means that ward officers are
not as well supported compared with other times of year.
Drugs warrant: The police
made a recovery from an address in the Tollcross area. This case had been a
problem for the police for some time.
Graffiti: Discussion about
graffiti around bins, bus shelters, etc. in this area. PC Cuthbert says that
the police find it difficult to tackle and they do not have any positive lines
of enquiry for those responsible for graffiti tags. Cllr Main mentions that the
Council gives funding to clean graffiti from private property, with the owner’s
permission. If there are specific sites that you would like to see cleaned,
email Cllr Main (melanie.main@edinburgh.gov.uk).
Speeding/Double-parking near
James Gillespie’s school: Nick raised the issue of double-parking and
speeding in 20mphs around the school, as a child was recently hospitalised (but
thankfully, is now well). PC Cuthbert says that the police, resources
permitting, can make an effort to be at the school with speed guns if the
specific problem times are highlighted to them.
The school also sends out regular
messages to parents about double-parking. Discussion about applying for a road
closure during school-hours: if there has been an accident involving a child,
there would be more grounds to close the road.
Meadows & BL:
Mike Shields:
Lovers Loan: In June’s walkabout
with MSCC, the dead trees on Lovers Loan were highlighted. The issue was passed
on to Forestry, who wish to replant the majority of Lovers Loan. The MSCC is in
support of this plan. Mike doesn’t think that this will cause any antisocial
behaviour, but believes it is important to raise the idea of replanting Lovers
Loan with MSCC. If anyone has any feedback about this plan, to let Mike know (mike.shields@edinburgh.gov.uk).
There was also a discussion about
planting wildflowers which the Council have done in roundabouts in the city. It
was agreed that this would be a nice addition.
Streetlights: Broken
streetlights can be reported online and are usually fixed quickly. If the
streetlights don’t show up on the online map, email Mike.
A draft of the management plan
has been made. This will be readdressed following consultation with FOMBL,
hoping to be approved by January.
Discussion about the community
garden on the Meadows beside the tennis courts. This garden is looked after
by community volunteers and schoolkids, who received a grant to set it up and the
garden was approved by FOMBL. The garden is tended to on Saturday mornings.
They recently had a harvest event, where they cooked food and shared produce.
Basketball court: Cllr Main
mentions that, at the SE Localities meeting, there was a petition to put a
basketball court on the Meadows. The petition, started by young people, had
gathered over 100 signatures and was supported by local schools. It was agreed
that a report would be made, to find out if the project could be done, where it
could go, and if the main stakeholders would use it and think it’s a good idea.
The report is expected in March or April 2019.
Leaf-clearing: Nigel
expresses his thanks to the Council in their help with a community effort to
clear leaves in the Grange area. In the last 3 weekends, volunteers have gone
out with brooms, shovels and black bags provided by the Council. Altogether,
they filled 600 bags which were cleared by the Council in a few days. A lot of
the roads where drains often get clogged with leaves have been targeted before
frost. Discussion about the issue of using black plastic bags, which have been
sent to landfill: Nigel mentions that a number of volunteers were unhappy with
this and agrees that there is room to improve in future. Overall, however, he
believes this has been a great success.
Cllrs report:
Cllr Main:
Localities meeting: The main
point of discussion is funding available to projects in the Meadows area. There
are two funds, with £62,5000 already given away to local projects within
Edinburgh, in small amounts. There is also a £20,000 SE Localities Local Events
fund. Cllr Main noticed that there have not been many projects from this area
and Morningside, as not many applications were put in. When it comes around to
next year, she is hoping for more applications. £5000 can be awarded for
Meadows events, in order to stop antisocial behaviour for example. Community
councils are asked to nominate someone to sit on the panel that decides where
the money goes. It is likely that this money will be available again. There is
also £20,000 for arts projects which has to be spent by March next year.
Midmar Paddock rights of way:
There is need for people to give evidence of using Midmar Paddock in order to
secure rights of way. The community buy-out of the land which had previously
been proposed is not going ahead as it is unlikely to succeed. FMP (Friends of
Midmar Paddock) sent out an email asking for volunteers to run a right of way
survey. They are looking to interview people who are familiar with the area.
The construction timeline for the South
Edinburgh primary school on Canaan Lane has been delayed a year. The delay
to the new completion date of August 2021 is to ensure it will be ready on time.
Sick Kids Hospital:
Douglas: There are now more updates
on the online portal about the site. One significant change to the design
is the car-parking in front of the main hospital block. This has been reduced
from 20 to 16 cars which means the garden space has been able to grow a bit. We
haven’t yet seen any reversal of the intent to build car-parking in front of
hospital rather than the underground car park proposed by Downing during its
community consultations.
Edinburgh Design Panel had a look
at the design, which is disappointing as we were not able to give input.
There are also reports on the
online Portal about heritage- tree information and bat surveys, as well as
access routes through site. Douglas will summarise these and send out to MSCC
mailing list.
There will be an open planning
meeting late January which MSCC will be asked to make a presentation. Douglas has
volunteered to do the presentation.
In some of the plans, there is
included a “community space”- but this hasn’t been formally included. The
Marchmont Sciennes Development Trust wanted a community facility, the issue was
trying to persuade the school that it should be a combined school/community
environment. The Marchmont Sciennes Development Trust wanted a more general
community space- similar to Marchmont St Giles facilities or Summerhall. Douglas
believes that a sports hall convertible to an assembly hall would be a better
suggestion.
Discussion about closing part of
the road: some people do not want the road to be closed, others think it
could be a fenced-off area that is part of the school’s play space, or perhaps
it could be a play street (an open space where people can play). The community
and residents will be involved in the decision process.
Discussion about the surrounding
terraces being given to school during their refurbishment. This is unlikely as
they are being turned into (quite expensive) housing. The school was looking
for a nursery in previous years but now, it would require some campaigning in
order to achieve this.
Overall, the school is more concerned
about day to day income rather than creating more spaces. Spaces cost money and
primary schools are already short-staffed and cash-strapped.
Astley Ainslie
Nigel: There will be a meeting on
the 5th December with the Council, NHS Lothian and the Community
Engagement Group. MSP Daniel Johnson will be at this meeting, which suggests
that this project is gaining a higher profile.
What had previously been referred
to as the ‘Master Plan’ is now being referred to as the ‘Place Brief’- the
difficulty here being that there is no contents list for a Place Brief, as
opposed to the Master Plan which had been well-defined. There is a push to get a
contents list for the Place Brief produced, which might include, for example, surveys,
ecology of site etc. The question at the moment, is what of the Master Plan
will survive in becoming a Place Brief and what will its status be? What will
the Place Brief mean for a developer putting in a planning application?
Overall though, things remain
positive, with engagement happening with the right parties. The Council is now
taking a more proactive role in meetings with the Community Engagement Group
and NHS Lothian.
The Astley Ainslie Hospital
Community Engagement group has a website, and updates will be included after
December’s meeting. https://astleyainslie.wordpress.com/
List of
roads with their grading
Discussion about the state of roads
within Marchmont Sciennes area. Between Sylvan Place and Millerfield Row, the
roads are particularly bad. Oswald Road towards Blackford pond is also in poor
repair (although it is not in our area, our commenting is valuable to its
grading).
Cllr Main will pass feedback to
relevant councillors.
Planning matters:
Nothing much to report. There is an
application for the construction of a single storey extension to the side and
back of the building at 19 Hope Terrace- comments due by 21 December. Alison
circulated the application, but there has been no feedback from anyone and she
didn’t think the plan seemed to affect anyone else.
Nigel: There have been a series of
applications for 13 Lauder Road on which Grange Association members have
commented, and Nigel believes applicants have been disingenuous in putting in a
series of applications instead of one. They received permission for an extension
to the north and then permission to fell a lime tree at the front of the
building because they claimed it was putting the front wall at risk and hence a
danger to pedestrians. Immediately after that application was agreed, they then
put in an application for a double garage with access where the lime tree was. The
Grange Association will object to this on the grounds of it occupying too much
of the site and being contrary to the Conservation Area Character Appraisal in
damaging the rhythm of the buildings on the street. http://gaedin.co.uk/wp/forum-test?mingleforumaction=viewtopic&t=331
Xmas Tree Ceremony:
This was a great success and Alison
thanks Cllr Main for being MC. Due to the weather, the event was held in the
German-speaking church hall and this worked out well. There was feedback from some
parents, saying that they prefer having the event outside, only having it
inside when the weather is particularly bad. £143 was raised for Crisis at Christmas
charity.
Treasurer’s report:
Has been circulated, balance is
unchanged from last month, £976.71. There is one cheque not yet paid to FOMBL,
to the amount of £10.
Meetings attended:
Alison went to a FOMBL meeting
last night. They discussed a successful walkabout of the area and among other
things to be done, have planned to get cages put around trees. Neil put in a costed
list of projects to the Council for funding. They received £17,000 last year
and hope for the same this year.
A lot of planting has been done and
this spring wildflowers will be seen on John Muir walk, Muriel Spark walk and
by the Meadows Pavilion. Over 1000 buttercups have been planted in the area.
They had a work party of 34 people helping to plant, including 24 children and
10 parents. Heriot’s school has also started a FO-FOMBL (Friends of FOMBL) club!
Nick: James Gillespie’s school has set
up an Eco Committee- with aims of improving environmental performance,
links and collaboration between pupils/parents/community and educating kids.
120 pupils have signed up as “eco warriors”, with 34 parent volunteers. The pupils
have planned an environmental review focusing on biodiversity, which has
included planting flowers with FOMBL. The pupils have been doing litter pickups
around the school and will also be looking at air quality- they will be able to
get an air quality monitor from the University (Cllr Main will send Nick a contact
for this). Cllr Main also suggests contacting Parks, as there is a lot within
their Community Plan about environmental action.
Anne suggests that perhaps the Eco
Committee could look after the planters in the area, such as those at the foot
of Marchmont Crescent (outside the Scotmid Coop) and those outside Café
Artista. Mike Shields did improve ones at Marchmont Crescent last year. Nick
mentions that the school also has a Gardening Club which he is sure would be
interested.
AOB:
Jo Cox Get-Together: This is
a street party held in locations around the UK following the death of MP Jo
Cox. The aim is to build stronger communities. Last year, it was held around
James Gillespie’s school and next year it is planned to be from 21-23 June. Damian
Hayes emailed Alison asking if MSCC would be supportive of it and perhaps
publicise it in our newsletters and allow their posters on our noticeboards.
MSCC agrees to provide publicity for the Get-Together.
Responding to the 20mph bill.
Discussion about whether or not anyone has responded to this on behalf of the
MSCC. Shane believes Susie Agnew has responded but was not sure if she
responded as an individual or on behalf of MSCC. After some discussion, it
was agreed that the MSCC will not take a position on this, but individuals are
encouraged to submit their own responses to the bill.
MSCC meetings: Stewart
mentions briefly that on Wednesday evenings there is now another group which
meet in the church hall which means we will no longer be the last ones out- there
is, therefore, no need to lock up after meetings.
Date of next meeting:
23rd January 2019.
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