MSCC - Minutes for 24th April 2024

 

Marchmont and Sciennes Community Council

Minutes of Meeting held on April 24th, 2024 at St. Catherine’s Argyle Church Hall

 

Present: Brian Gilmore - Chair, Anne Laing - MSCC Secretary, Alison Service - MSCC Treasurer, Douglas Rogers - MSCC, Calum Bell - JR Builders, Susan  - local resident, Gordon Mulholland - resident, Ryan Gilmour - local resident, Margaret Coughtrie - local resident, Richard Robinson - local resident, Morag Macrae - local resident, Stephan Antram - local resident, Ruth Dolan - local resident

 

Apologies: Susie Agnew - MSCC, Lianne Phillips - MSCC Publicity, Kayleigh Gordon - MSCC Publicity

 

Attending: Nora Flynn-McIver - Minutes Secretary

 

Meeting began at 7:30pm

 

Draft Minutes of 27/03/24

Douglas Rogers corrected that the property on 27-31 Ratcliffe Terrace is currently being sold, it has not already been sold.

Cllr. Ross had a correction that Quenton Rd should be Clinton Rd.

A member of the public wanted concern noted about no mention in last month’s minutes on concerns on the behavior of the chair of the meeting. The concerns about the behavior of the chair at last month’s meeting are now recorded in this month’s minutes.

Alison moves to pass, Anne seconds.

 

Matters Arising

Cllr. Ross was asked to look into tree memorials - executive of the trust has given a response clarifying that homemade displays are inappropriate and will be reminding donors that these are not allowed and will be removed.

On the fallen stone outside of Margiotta’s - investigation showed that the stone was of completely different type than those on the building, Anne notes that CCTV footage showed someone placing the stone outside the building.

Douglas Rogers notes that Tim Pogson got in touch with someone with expertise in the historical preservation and Douglas is meeting with him tomorrow.

 

Police Report

None this month.

 

JR Builders update

Calum Bell attended the meeting to answer any questions. He also says that he is able to donate three new benches and a new table tennis table to FOMBL. Douglas asked about any time scales for completion, Calum says that they are looking at being finished in April 2025. Progress is going well and relatively quickly thus far.

 

City Councillor report on local issues

No councillors attended this meeting.

 

 

 

Publicity

Kayleigh is happy to produce material (flyers and maps) for the Meadows Festival if the MSCC can pay for it. Alison notes that new leaflets may not be needed but other material is helpful.

 

Planning applications

Grange Association report (circulated) has no updates.

On the Raja’s application, the response to concerns about the listed building consent says that investigations made the people who approved the application believe that the ducts would not have adverse affects on the building. Brian notes that there was an article in Edinburgh Live saying that Rajas is selling the building, it is unclear whether or not this is true.

 

FOMBL Report & Meadows Festival

FOMBL projects largely going quite well - many new trees are being planted, the new log house and wooden train were installed in the playground. Benches are being restored, birdboxes cleaned, and the wildflower Meadow coming along well with a bush perimeter.  Future projects include more bench restoration, another table tennis table for the South Links, new stores at the three toilet areas, and new exercise equipment - the tennis table and benches will now be provided by Calum Bell.

 

Alison is looking at getting an information point for community councils in the middle of the festival area, they will need volunteers. Festival is on 1st and 2nd of June.

 

Update on Sewer Flooding project

No updates.

 

Treasurer’s Report

£1445 in the account this month.

 

Meetings attended

Douglas attended meetings for NESTA, LHEES, CHEF, EdinBrick, Home Energy Group, and Edinburgh World Heritage. They are looking at ways to decarbonize houses in the next ten years. He also encourages the meeting to attend the Grange Association Home Energy Open Evening on April 30th.

Two local residents question the necessity of reaching net zero, Douglas notes that this is not the forum to address this and the MSCC is not a political group.

 

Bin Hub Situation

Cllr. Tim Pogson looked into the question of planning permission being needed for bin hubs - the response is that it is probably not due to how long the bin hub review was out, as this likely would have been brought up before. A local resident questioned why planning permission is not needed, the MSCC believes that this issue has been dealt with and the MSCC has taken this as far as we can.  Several local residents argued that this was not good enough and that the MSCC should be more a voice for the locals.  Alison, as an MSCC officer, said she would write to Cllr. Pogson to push for more clarification from the Council as to exactly why planning permission can't be sought retrospectively as it was felt that the 5-year limit had not been reached.

 

Cllr. Ross got answers about the questions that were brought up at the last meeting, these were circulated to Google Groups. The responses are as follows:

On glass bins: glass bins have always been on residential streets and are now just more spread out than before. Noise assessments are being done now and they hope to have a report on this soon.

On the 50 metre rule: review framework allows for this to be relaxed to 100 metres in certain circumstances. The bins also aren’t allowed to be too close to road junctions. Brian believes that this answer is not overly satisfactory but the problem is that this seems to be strictly enforced council rule. Anne notes that there seems to be a protest being organized somewhere in response to the bin hub issue. Anne suggests that the community council write a letter to Michael Richardson about the community’s feelings on the issue and to press for more flexibility. Douglas notes that it is probably a good idea for those who have concerns to make a map with suggestions for where the bin hubs can go, it is mentioned that this can likely be shut down by not according to the framework, which prevents people from appealing the situation.

On whether the bins need to be in groups of 6: the design follows standard layout and involves all residents having access to all of the bins that they need. The layout is also in line with future changes for how recycling is collected.

Alison recommends that the next step is likely to reach out to councillors directly as the MSCC has little power over the issue at hand.

 

AOCB

Anne mentions the Meadows to George Street Active Plan - there are meetings about this on May 2nd and May 9th. Douglas notes that there will be a bus gate at the top of the Mound.

 

Date of next meeting

Wednesday, May 22, 2024