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
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