Marchmont
and Sciennes Community Council
Minutes
of Meeting held on January 24th, 2024 at St. Catherine’s Argyle
Church Hall
Present:
Brian Gilmore -
Chair, MSCC, Anne Laing - MSCC Secretary, Alison Service - MSCC
Treasurer, Douglas Rogers - MSCC, Kayleigh Gordon - MSCC Publicity,
Cllr. Pauline Flannery, Cllr. Marie-Clare Munro, PC Johnny Wong, PC
Brandon McKendrick, Edward Milligan - local resident, Patricia Cain -
local resident, Bob Gates - local resident, Ruth Dolan - local
resident
Apologies:
Susan Agnew -
MSCC, Lianne Phillips - MSCC Publicity, Anthony
Holmes Thirlestane Lane Assoc.
Attending:
Nora
Flynn-McIver - Minutes Secretary
Meeting
began at 19.32
Draft
Minutes of 22/11/23
Alison
moves to pass, Anne seconds. Minutes are passed.
Matters
Arising
Item
five on the agenda is moved to below item fourteen.
Police
Report
PC
Wong noted that there has been a change in the managing team and the
new community sergeants are Jennifer McGregor and Michael Dixon, who
are more likely to come to these meetings.
There
have been some break-ins recently and people have been knocking on
doors to find out who is at the house.
There
were some youth issues at a cemetery pre-Covid and though this has
died down mostly, there is a bit of an upswing now.
Patrols
are happening to try and stop any house-breakers.
Alison
asked if there are still police on bikes, which PC Wong confirms,
though it was impossible over the last few days due to the weather.
Police need to be trained on bikes, hence why there aren’t as many.
Edward
Milligan noted that he received a complaint about a Ring camera that
he had on his property, requiring that there should be some signage.
PC McKendrick notes that one could have a sign of any size anywhere
on the property. Cllr. Flannery noted that this can be an issue
relatively consistently about the consent to be filmed without your
knowledge and that someone could claim to be targeted.
Patricia
Cain asked about not receiving a response from the community police
email, PC Wong noted that this email is not always monitored,
especially during August and December. Cllr. Munro noted that
management does not have the resources to monitor this email
consistently. Alison questioned whether it is useful to have the
email at all if it cannot be monitored, PC McKendrick said that this
might be something that the higher-ups would consider. PC Wong noted
that in more urgent situations, the Contact Us form is consistently
monitored and one should get a response within a day. Alison also
suggested having an automatic response clarifying that the email is
not consistently monitored.
Meadows
and Bruntsfield Links incl. FOMBL
No
meeting has occurred. Anne asked why the public toilets have been
removed now when they are coming back in probably April. Cllr. Munro
notes that the removal happens on the contractor’s timeline, not
the Council’s.
City
Councillor report on local issues
Cllr.
Flannery:
There
is cross-party agreement to challenge school cuts within the budget,
this will go to full council.
Cllr.
Flannery and Burgess attended a parent-Councillor meeting at Sciennes
Primary recently, the big items of discussion were a TRO for motor
vehicles that will go into place hopefully early in the year and the
roadways on either side. This ties into the Sick Kids development and
Sylvan Place. The parents also noted inadequate road signage near the
school. The head of school has turned away 37 vehicles just in the
last week or so, there have been at least six near misses. This is a
mix of all sorts of motor vehicles. Douglas Rogers notes that the
signs are being moved relatively consistently. Any complaint about
this issue is being dealt with and logged. Cllrs. Flannery and
Burgess are going to do a school patrol to see what is going on for
themselves. Patricia Cain notes that this might be difficult to
adjust for GPS devices. Anne notes that the top end of Sylvan Place
is used by many vehicles for parking. Downing claim it is not their
staff. Douglas Rogers notes that it seems odd that the parking
attendants don’t seem to be enforcing restrictions on company cars.
There
will be phase 2 of a review of Council boundaries, the liaison for
this is Gavin King.
Southside-Newington
is oversubscribed for community grants but Morningside isn’t, there
are £40,000 to be used. Cllr. Flannery notes that FOMBL could use
some of this. The grants are open to the end of January.
There
are amber and red streets designated for pavement parking on the
29th. Cllr. Flannery notes that there will be zero tolerance for
parking on pavements.
There
was a briefing on emergency Council repairs for mixed tenure social
housing, the Council is trialing an app to track these emergency
repairs. There will be someone nominated to make sure that any
elderly residents are taken care of with this app. There is also a
Missing Share Scheme where the Council will pay upfront costs but
will charge a 10% fee in order to incentivize people to pay upfront.
In
the month of December, 19 out of 42 defects were monitored, which was
put down to a failure of stonework. There is a concern that some
stone is degrading. There is also a Tenant Hardship fund as a use of
maximizing income offices. Officers are going to help parents onsite.
Edinburgh
has declared a housing emergency, the costs are going to be
considered at a council in February.
Cllr.
Munro:
There
has been RAAC in schools across the city but none so far in the area.
Bin
hub locations are a huge problem throughout the entire area.
Residents have not been getting letters and there has not been
adequate signage. Officers have been onsite to see if bin hubs can be
moved to other locations, where they can be moved, they will be
moved. If they can’t be moved initially, it can be changed to a
Stage 2 Complaint. The rubbish outside of ScotMid has been very bad,
let Cllr. Munro know if you see issues. Area outside of Eddie’s
Fish Shop and other local shops are experiencing problems for
loading due to vehicles being double parked.
Potholes
are also quite bad, there is not enough money to fix them all. The
cause is heavy-load vehicles and buses.
Whitehouse
Loan quiet route discussion is coming up in March, this is a
controversial issue and there is likely to be a good deal of
pushback.
Low
emissions zones are being put into place, Cllr. Munro is concerned
that people are going to drive in as far as they can and dump their
cars around the Marchmont/Sciennes area.
There
are still claims that the holes on footpaths are not tripping hazards
despite them being tripping hazards, this area is a low priority.
Anti-social
behavior has been quite bad in Morningside, there have been arrests
and over 40 charges against people ages 13-18. There is a criminal
group under the name of Panda Delivery who are very aggressive and
violent as they rob different shops. There is a lack of CCTV in the
area.
Cycling
hubs on Warrender Park Terrace were in the wrong place, these have
now been moved.
Anne
noted that Sylvan Place seems to have been forgotten in the
collecting of Christmas trees, Cllr. Flannery said she will chase
this up.
Douglas
Rogers notes that the bin hubs on Marchmont Crescent are surrounded
by steel bars and asked if these are likely to be put around other
bins, as Sylvan Lane was blocked by bins when the wind moved them.
Douglas
Rogers also asks what the requirement is for people to put in
ramps/dropped kerbs on pavement corners when they are no longer
accessible, there is a requirement for this but it has not been done.
Historic
Scotland and the Council are looking to close Holyrood Park to
through-traffic 24/7, which would make getting through the city quite
difficult. Cllr. Munro is against the park being shut. If you have
strong feelings on this, please make your feelings known to the
Council, this should be accessible on the Council website. The next
transport committee meeting is on February 1st. There is also the
potential possibility of objecting as the community council, but
Brian would be reluctant to do this in case it isn’t something that
the community agrees on. Cllr. Munro suggested putting out a survey
to the area if MSCC would want to weigh in. Cllr. Munro also
suggested getting organizations based in Bruntsfield and the Meadows
involved. Ruth Dolan notes that it is possibly a good idea to set up
an information table somewhere in the area but this requires
manpower.
Publicity
MSCC
is steering away from Instagram in favour of Facebook and Twitter/X
as these are reaching a wider audience.
Sick
Kids site
Reports
were circulated prior to the meeting. Anne notes that the JR Group is
doing a good job keeping to schedule and they have been helpful
overall. The road closure seems to be making life easier for them.
Downing says they will hopefully be finished by March.
Planning
applications
Report
from the Grange Association has been circulated. The short-term let
on St Catherine’s Place was turned down, but the Scottish
government has overturned this.
Update
on Sewer Flooding project
None.
Treasurer’s
Report
£1800
in the account.
Meetings
attended
None.
Xmas
tree event
Brian
expresses his thanks to all the people who helped on the day, special
thanks to Alison and Anne for the amount of work that they put in.
The event raised £202 for Children First Scotland.
AOCB
The
Royal Mail delivery office in the area is possibly to close and be
moved to Roseburn. Kayleigh suggested that MSCC object to this, as
people would be unable to access the new location easily.
Cllr.
Flannery notes that Grange is trying to find someone to fill the
planning position, if anyone is interested then please contact them.
There
might be some benefit to different community councils getting
together and chatting about issues.
Edward
Milligan notes that Rajah on Marchmont Road has put in a vent without
putting in a planning application and has now retrospectively put in
an application. Cllr. Flannery is going to monitor the issue. Alison
will object on behalf of MSCC to the two planning applications
Douglas
Rogers’ Presentation on home heating
Slides
will be circulated with the minutes.
Date
of next meeting
Wednesday
28th February 2024
archmont
& Sciennes
archmont
& Sciennes 