Marchmont and Sciennes Community Council
Minutes of Meeting held on February 28th, 2024 at St. Catherine’s Argyle Church
Hall
Present: Brian Gilmore - Chair, MSCC, Anne Laing - MSCC Secretary, Alison Service - MSCC
Treasurer, Douglas Rogers - MSCC, Anthony Holmes - Thirlestane Lane Association, Cllr. Ben Parker,
Cllr. Steve Burgess, Sarah Sandow - local resident, Natalie Fergie - local resident, Beverly Frison - local
resident, Patrick Frison - local resident, Mr. Gilmour - local resident, Mr. Mulholland - local resident,
Annette Carranthers - local resident, Kate McNeirney - local resident
Apologies: Susan Agnew - MSCC, Calum Bell - JR Builders, Lianne Phillips - MSCC Publicity,
Kayleigh Gordon - MSCC Publicity
Attending: Nora Flynn-McIver - Minutes Secretary
Meeting began at 19.32
Draft Minutes of 24/01/23
Anne moves to pass, Alison seconds. Minutes pass.
Matters Arising
Ian Murray has sent out a letter about a petition to keep the local post office open, the petition is online on
his newsletter and are on paper at the Hardware shop. We will await future news on that issue.
Police Report
None this month.
JR Builders update
Apologies from Calum, but update that they are on top of their timeline. If people have questions, he is
happy to meet with them.
Meadows and Bruntsfield Links incl. FOMBL
Report has been circulated. Playhouse on the Bruntsfield Links is complete. There will be permanent
toilets put in on the Meadows, hopefully will be completed by the summer, but if they are not, there will
still be temporary toilets for the summer. The toilets will be placed near Middle Meadow Walk and the
Pavilion. Annette Carranthers asked about whether there is a plan for the Jawbones to return, Alison
explained that it is unlikely that they will return to their original placement, Cllr. Parker said that there
will be a report coming out on the Jawbones and will send it around.
City Councillor report on local issues
Cllr. Parker:
The main issue to be discussed is the Council budget. It is noted that this was a particularly difficult
budget to set and there were a lot of cuts being faced, more focus on how to save money versus how to
spend it. There was some reevaluation of the pension fund for the Council that meant that there was
slightly more money to work with. There were no cuts to education services. There were agreements to
additional investment in roads and pavements that will be further discussed, there was investment in street
cleansing and forestry service. The Council has some budget to help with nature, climate conservation
and energy efficiency in the area. A council-tax freeze has been implemented. On the housing revenue
account budget, this has a rent rise of 7% to go into infrastructure for this housing. There were no
proposals with service reductions or cuts, some grant funding has ended but there are no massive cuts to
services. There was no public consultation, Cllr. Parker acknowledges that this should likely be rectified
in the future. Idea moving forward is having continuous budgeting discussions over the course of the
year. Cllr. Burgess notes that cuts are more likely next year.
Cllr. Burgess:
There was a meeting with the Sciennes Parent Council about the road closure outside of Sciennes Primary
School. The parents raised concerns that motor vehicles can approach the boundaries quite closely and
would like to seek further improvements like another TRO, but would like to speak to the Community
Council about the issue to see if there is any support that MSCC could offer. Douglas Rogers notes that
he has attempted to contact the school to no avail and would like to have some communication with the
groups involved. Brian notes that the representative from the Sciennes Parent Council is invited to any
meetings that they would like to come to, including on a regular basis.
Anne asked about the changes to the roads in Edinburgh and the suggested road closure in Holyrood Park,
Alison noted that she received an email from the involved parties clarifying that the points against the
road closure are well represented. Cllr. Burgess explained that whilst there is discussion from Historic
Environment Scotland, they are not talking about doing anything imminently. The Transport and
Environment committee is considering many different transport reports at the moment, which include
some proposals to close roads in the city centre and the future of the tram system, but no decisions have
been made. These reports are available on the Council website and Cllr. Burgess will send them to Anne
to circulate. On the trams, there is a proposal to put the tram from Granton to the Royal Infirmary, which
would use the Roaseburn cycle path which is a popular cycling and walking site. This was somewhat
favored because it is more simplistic, but Greens put an amendment to the report that both options be
presented equally, which was agreed upon. Anne notes that the current through Morningside and
Newington railway line could be reinstated instead of a tram. Cllr. Burgess said that it has been looked at
but there is not enough capacity at Haymarket Station. This has been raised again in light of the tram
proposal. Alison asked if the tram is definite, Cllr. Burgess clarifies that it is likely that the third line is
going to be put in as the next phase of the project, but people are welcome to state their views during the
consultation. The tram projects have been learning from past projects and it is cheaper at this point than it
was in the beginning. Cllr. Parker noted that this is not done in one consultation because of how large of a
project it is, there are a lot of steps to go through over time.
Kate McNairney and others bring up issues about bin hubs: there are too many, the placement makes it
too loud and the food bins being close to front doors is an inconvenience. There was little opportunity to
discuss issues with the Council despite reaching out several times. There is a group of people from across
Edinburgh who are challenging the decision on the bins. The main issue is that the bins are very noisy
especially when collecting glass, the majority of people who have the bin outside of their residence are
upset and are concerned that the property value has gone down. There are concerns that the Council has
taken transport into account but not the impact on people on lower floors with the bin hubs outside of
their doors. The noise can be detrimental to peoples’ health in the long-term. It is noted that the bins do
have to go somewhere. The bins are also difficult to open, especially for people with disabilities. Sarah
Sandow notes that collecting rubbish has seemed to take precedence over the people in the community.
There has also been a bad effect on behavior, as people have taken to fly tipping. Anne notes that a
consultation for the placement of the bins went out a year ago, but not everyone received infromation and
the consultation was somewhat erratic. Natalie Fergie notes that the Council is aware of where disabled
people live based on Blue Badges, and still put bins directly outside of disabled peoples’ doors. Mr.
Gilmour notes that it is unclear why the reasoning of needing to cross the street to reach the bin is
important. Mr. Mulholland notes that the consultation seemed to do very little. Some people have garbage
blowing into their gardens and bin doors causing damage. Some bins seem to be overfilled. Brian noted
that this has been an issue for a long time. Cllr. Burgess said that the consultation on this started about a
year ago and it is being rolled out now, the number of bins is a reflection on the amount of waste that
needs to be collected. Changes have been made to bin hub locations based on residents’ concerns, Cllr.
Burgess advises to get in touch with Ward Councillors if people are unhappy with the placement of the
bins. There is very little chance of the entire project being stopped because of the amount of planning that
is necessary and how large of a project this is. It is possible to get changes in a locality, Mr. Gilmour
notes that it seems as though the appeals tend to not have any success - Cllr. Burgess said that if residents
are coming up against Officers not wanting to move bins, they should contact Councillors. There have
been some examples of bin hubs being moved based on concerns. Kate McNairney notes that this is
divisive within the community because no one wants the bin hubs outside of their house and that she has a
petition to look specifically at the glass collection noise issue. Cllr. Parker notes that there is a motion
coming up about noise mitigation, which includes the glass collection issue. Beverly Frison notes that it is
unclear why there are as many bins as there are in the locations that they are in. Sarah Sandow asks if the
process of reviewing this decision on a regular basis should be a part of the system, Cllr. Parker notes that
sometimes bins can be reconfigured within the hub rather than relocating the entire thing, though the TRO
system complicates this issue and these are quite inflexible. Moving bin hubs requires a new TRO to be
written. Mr. Mulholland asked about TROs being used in a conservation area and wants to clarify why a
full planning process wasn’t done, Cllr. Burgess offers to find out the answer for this. Brian notes that it
would be reasonable to have a review after the bins have been in place for a while to see if everything is
in the correct place. Cllr. Burgess said that this is something that could be explored. Brian also notes that
the guidelines on where the bins must be are quite inflexible and there are places where bins are going
into unreasonable places. Cllr. Burgess notes that this criteria did likely go through a committee, Mr.
Gilmour notes that things probably got more complex over time.
Publicity
No updates.
Downing Updates
Report was circulated. Everything seems to be going well. Douglas mentioned that Downing should be
asked to remove their rubbish from the street and wash the street down, issues will be passed from Anne
to Downing. Annette Carranthers asked about the Mortuary Chapel, Douglas said that there have been no
updates on that front despite reaching out about it.
Planning applications
Report from the Grange Association on 10 Chalmers Crescent has been circulated. Other planning
application reports have been circulated.
Update on Sewer Flooding project
Report from Scottish Water has been circulated. The work on Marchmont Rd will hopefully come to an
end in April and then they will begin work on Marchmont Crescent for several months in May or June.
The buses will have to reroute, but it is unclear where - probably Marchmont Rd. Annette asked about the
restoration of the junction between Marchmont Rd and Marchmont Crescent, Anne will ask about this.
Meadows Festival: collaboration with other CCs
There is usually a tent in the middle of the festival for the CCs though there are not enough volunteers for
all of the CCs to be represented. Anne will talk to Kayleigh about having a map of the area.
Treasurer’s Report
£1500 in the bank, nothing outstanding.
Meetings attended
None.
AOCB
Alison asked about booking the German church for the Christmas event, the church has suggested
Saturday Nov 23rd or Dec 7th or a Sunday, Council agrees to book for Dec 7th.
Anthony Holmes asked the Councillors about people who block the opening of Thirlestane Lane selling
trees every year, they do not have permission from the Thirlestane Lane Association and Anthony wants
to know who can deal with this because it is a private lane. Cllr. Burgess notes that this is a Police matter,
because this is trespassing. Anthony notes that based on past experience the Police will not do anything.
Cllr. Parker asked that he be sent an email on the issue to try and figure out how to deal with this - there
may be a way to deal with this via licensing.
Beverly Frison notes that the litter on the bottom of Arden Street is quite bad, asks that Cllr. Parker raise
this issue.
Date of next meeting
Wednesday, March 27th, 2024
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