Marchmont
and Sciennes Community Council
Minutes
of Meeting held on September
24th,
2024 at St. Catherine’s Argyle Church Hall
Present:
Brian Gilmore -
Chair, Anne Laing - MSCC Secretary, Alison Service - MSCC Treasurer,
Douglas Rogers - MSCC, Susie Agnew - MSCC, Cllr. Pauline Flannery,
Anthony Holmes - Thirlestane Lane Association, Alexa Hale - local
resident, Kate McNairney - SMAG, (South
Meadows Action
Group)Evelyn
Dickie - SMAG, Margaret Coughtrie - local resident
Apologies:
Lianne Phillips
- MSCC Publicity, Kayleigh Gordon - MSCC Publicity
Attending:
Nora
Flynn-McIver - Minutes Secretary
Meeting
began at 7:36pm
Draft
Minutes of 26/06/24
Alison
moves to pass, Anne seconds. No corrections, passes unanimously.
Matters
Arising
Earl
of Marchmont defibrillator: Anne spoke to Liane, who has spoken to
the new pub owner. There is a defibrillator inside, but they don’t
seem to be looking to have it be outside. Alison volunteers to go and
see them about moving one outside.
Police
Report
None.
Meadows
& Bruntsfield Links/FOMBL Report
Report
has been circulated. Susie Agnew asked about whether there will be
any action about the plaques on the trees and whether this can be
pushed more, Alison will check at the next meeting.
City
Councillor report on local issues
Full
Council
is tomorrow, there are many motions being brought. Discussion on
whether or not there should be a rent control is coming up. The
majority seem to be in favor of rent control, but there are concerns
about the wording and dealing with short-term let legislation.
Short-term lets are a different thing, they deal with different
legislation. Douglas Rogers asked about whether rent control would
apply to student accommodation blocks - this is different legislation
and won’t be covered by this exact legislation. Cllr. Flannery is
working on a report on this separately from the aforementioned
legislation. Susie Agnew asked where the students are meant to go,
people flag that many flats do house students, but lots of students
can’t afford flats now. It is flagged that most student
accommodation is not owned by the university. Susie raised a question
about how many short-term lets are generally refused, it seems as
though some are refused but not a lot. In the Grange area, many SLT
applications seem to be refused.
People
can watch or follow the meeting tomorrow. All 63 Councillors
will be there, and you can watch via the Council website, go to
Councils and Committees, and then there is a list of committees.
People can follow in real time on the website or go back and watch
later. All papers are published a week before the committee.
(https://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/council-democracy)
The
Meadows toilets will be done in the .latter quarter of this year,
there will not be a cleaning kiosk attached. The toilets will be
accessible to
disabled people.
Sciennes
school update: there was a site visit in July with relevant parties,
it was supposed to be done during school holidays but this did not
happen. Some changes have been made, but there is a lot of
uncertainty on what the design of the roadblock will look like. Anne
Laing asked about when the notices and concrete blocks will be
removed, as they are now irrelevant - some of these seem to be
related to the Sick Kids site. Cllr. Flannery will go back and make
sure that developers are aware of things. Margaret Coughtrie asked
about whether or not the street is blocked - the answer is that this
is a permanent limit on cars, but bikes can still go through.
There
is a group led by Stuart Tooley that is meant to be a link between
the universities in Edinburgh and the community, so people who have
projects that they want to do can reach out and try to get students
involved in the community and the projects. Cllr. Flannery is happy
to help out with this.
Publicity
Anne
spoke to Lianne and Kayleigh about the notice boards today - the
notice board next to Margiotta’s is being graffitied and needs to
be relocated. Anne has been keeping the notice boards updated, but
the wind has made this difficult.
Use
of Community Space in IQ Student Block (Douglas Rogers)
Alexa
Hare would like to use this space to teach art. Douglas has had a lot
of difficulty getting in contact with IQ Students, but managed to
speak to the principal people in London. The main person involved is
leaving the company in two months, so there are efforts to get things
done quickly. They are working on licensing. Douglas has booked a
meeting with the conservator for the Mortuary Chapel, as IQ Students
seems to not be interested in it - the conservator has some concerns
about the structure of the building, Douglas will find out more about
this next week and will give information back to IQ Students. Douglas
also brought up improvements to Sylvan Place, which will be
addressed. Alexa, Margaret, and Janet are all discussing with Douglas
about setting up a charity or a community interest company to handle
the space. Douglas has been working on how to write a letter of
intent for this. Douglas proposed that the space be used as a
community space, specifically arts support, and IQ Students wants a
lease for this, as well as for the group to pay for maintenance and
liability insurance. Douglas has proposed the name Sciennes ArtsHub
CIC. Douglas also suggest that future MSCC meetings can be held
there. The current interest statement states support from the MSCC,
Douglas is asking for feedback and information.
Alexa
Hare: it is unclear as of now as to what Alexa’s role is, but she
is looking for a place to teach art and give access to arts to more
people. She would like to teach these as afterschool lessons - she
would charge those who can afford for a 90 minute art lesson in order
to pay for the lease and to fund projects to give people more access
to art classes who come from disadvantaged backgrounds if there is
money left over. The hope is that they could get multiple different
groups renting the space in the future. She also would like to
establish a bursary program to help people who cannot afford lessons.
Anne asked about how the children will be supervised, Alexa flags
that people who are paying for lessons are unlikely to engage in
negative behavior. Margaret Coughtrie is not in support of the CIC
model and doesn’t want to be involved in something with all of the
requirements that a CIC has. Margaret thinks that the charity
structure would be theoretically better, but that there is not enough
time to make this happen. She also suggests the possibility of a
Company Limited by Guarantee, but there are also some things that are
unclear on whether this is feasible either. More discussion
ultimately needs to happen about multiple aspects of this project.
The MSCC agrees to be associated with the project and encourages
Douglas to keep pushing forward with the rest of the focus group.
Cllr. Flannery suggested chatting with other community center trusts
about the issues raised, and also to focus on a unique selling point.
She also flags to make sure to focus on basic provisions that people
will be concerned about regarding children.
Funding
application for Community Consultation re net zero housing
Greenlight
Grant application from ECCAN: the grant application for £20,000 for
a community consultation to work with the Marchmont area to make the
are net zero has failed. ECCAN were more interested in funding other
things. Douglas will now be creating a focus group of people in the
area who are interested in looking into this issue.
Planning
applications
Report
has been circulated. Nothing of particular note was referenced.
Update
on Sewer Flooding Project
No
updates.
Treasurer’s
Report
£1080
in the bank. We will likely end up with a small deficit in 2024/25.
Meetings
attended
Bin
hubs workshop: report has been circulated. There were representatives
there from all of the community councils in Edinburgh. The main
takeaway is that all of the councils were asking for better
flexibility and that focus on amenity would be top priority. They
were told that nothing would be changed until the New Town section
has been done, which should be by next Spring. All comments are being
fed back to the Transport and Environment committee. There will be
another workshop online and the hope is that local resident groups
can be present for this. Kate McNairney asked about what was talked
about in the initial presentation at the meeting - they outlined the
problems and seem to be focusing somewhat heavily on the noise of the
glass bins. It is also unclear as to why the glass bins are all
sideways and therefore difficult to gain access to, someone has sent
an email about it but there has been no response yet. Evelyn Dickie
said that it is possible that the reason for this is that if the bin
is facing the pavement, it might fall over. Cllr. Flannery clarified
that there can be a deputation at the November council meeting on
this, they just need to be told two days in advance. She would
recommend people coming in person if they want their issue properly
debated. If they require that a community council send the
deputation, MSCC is happy to have Kate represent us. SMAG also thanks
Anne for her work on the issue. This issue will be on the agenda next
month. There is a local resident who is interested in bringing the
community together to discuss revitalizing Livingston Place, Cllr.
Flannery asked that anyone who is interested in this reach out
through her.
Astley
Ainsley: almost every
Councillor of the
two areas involved were there, approximately 20 people were there.
There was a letter from the NHS stating that the development will
eventually happen, but definitely not quickly. There is a new warden
for the area who can be contacted and there are initiatives to open
up the grounds to make more use of them. The statement from the NHS
said that they will not be doing this in the same way that they dealt
with the Sick Kids site, they also have to get the best possible
value from properties that they sell. There are positive ideas coming
up, there is still hope that it could be a community space of some
sort in the future, but no actual progress has been made. There has
to be a master plan for the use of the entire place, buildings can’t
be used independently before this. It would be helpful to look into
ways to fundraise and also fluid ways to use the Astley Ainsley.
Margaret flags that this issue has been present since 2016/17, and
that it seems as though the site is still being used for hospital
services of some sort. People have also been parking on the site
without permits.
Progress
in provision of public toilets in the Meadows
Report
has been circulated. Alison had a meeting on the Meadows with FOMBL,
the council is on board with putting toilets there. It is unclear,
however, how long this will take, as the cost could be close to £1
million. There is also interest in putting in changing room for
adults as well as children. They are looking at putting it on the
bottom right hand side of Middle Meadow Walk, though this is not the
preferred place for FOMBL. There is a separate part of the issue
where they also want to refurbish and fix the existing toilets on the
east side of the Meadows.
Progress
on Sylvan Place development
Update
from Calum Bell: they are currently on track and looking to be
finished by June 2025. In October, they will begin internal works.
They are hoping to have scaffolding works down by Christmas,
dependent on the weather.
Christmas
Tree event
The
event is going ahead, Alison has written to all of the relevant bands
and schools. MSCC needs to choose which charity to donate to, Susie
suggests The Bothy. The event will be on Saturday, 7th December.
AOCB
Lianne
passed on the message that there has been a lot of shoplifting in the
area and is wondering about revisiting the possibility of having CCTV
installed by the council. It has also been made difficult to counter
shoplifting. Anne will contact Cllr. Flannery about this issue.
Susie
flags that some progress has been made on the electronic bus
timetables, but they are inaccurate.
Date
of next meeting
Wednesday,
October 23rd 2024
archmont
& Sciennes
