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
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