Marchmont and Sciennes Community
Council Minutes of Meeting held on 23rd October 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, Alastair
Dickie - SMAG, Richard Robinson - Local Resident, Cllr Neil Ross, Cllr Steve
Burgess, Anthony Holmes - Thirlestane
Lane Association
Apologies: Lianne Phillips - MSCC Publicity, Kayleigh Gordon - MSCC
Publicity
Attending: Eli Ferrell - Replacement Minutes Secretary
Meeting began at 7:33pm
Draft Minutes of 25/09/24
Alison moves to pass, Anne seconds.
No corrections.
Matters Arising
Defibrilator update: Earl of
Marchmont is happy to move the defibrilator outside, but has asked the MSCC to
obtain planning permission and quote. Alison is working on that now.
Police Report
None.
Meadows & Bruntsfield Links
October report already circulated.
There has been no meeting since the last MSCC meeting, but the tags on the
trees will be brought up when that occurs.
City Councillor report on topical local issues
Cllr Neil Ross (Morningside): lots
of contributions to the Bin Hub report. Intention to debate findings of autumn
regulation review, will now likely see it in Febuary of next year due to volume
of responses. Recommendations will be considered based on feedback.
Cllr Steve Burgess (Southside
Newington) was at another bin hub workshop today.
There is an experimental traffic
regulation order in place that closes the area around Sciennes school to motor
vehicles. During break times children have to cross the pavement to what is the
current extended playground so there is consideration about moving the pavement
to the other side, however anyone in wheelchairs coming down the road on the
school side needs to be able to get across the road. The school is quite keen
to do that during the school day so that they don’t have to make allowances for
pedestrians and cyclists coming past the school. There is consideration about
closing the pavement during the school day for a six month test with feedback.
Douglas Rogers believes that the MSCC should object to that. The MSCC generally
agrees but wishes to wait to see what the wording of the final order
stipulates.
Community Councils: At full council, there was a
special meeting about the community council scheme. This does not affect
Marchmont Sciennes. There is a proposal to have advertising to try and raise
awareness for the next period of council nominations that ends on the 27th of
February. If any elections are necessary, that would be in March of next year.
The full timeline will come shortly. There should be more information provided
to CC’s regarding the procedure for the elections.
There was also discussion about
potentially providing equipment to community councils to make their meetings
hybrid, which would then be up to council discretion to participate or not.
There are mixed opinions on the value of hybrid or online meetings.
Publicity
Nothing.
Update on Community Space in IQ student accommodation block
(The Mont) (Douglas Rogers)
The community space is progressing,
and there has been an update on the document circulated last time. IQ students
said about ten days ago they would have a lease in ten days for Douglas to look
at. With regards to the Mortuary Chapel the restorations of the fabric of the
building still rests with Downing and the conservators are concerned that it
has not been maintained properly because maitenance has been done at bare
minimum. There are discussions between IQ students and the historic Church of
Scotland but nothing will be finalized until about Christmas. The murals are
being restored currently but they are very fragile due to movement.
Bin hub Issue
Cllr Neil Ross attended the recent
meeting. The bin hubs feedback report will come back to the Transport and
Environment Committee meeting on the 18th of November. There were many
contributions made about how this could be improved, and officers are responding
to that. Changes are likely to be made to the location policy. Physical
presence at the meeting would be good so that councilers can ask questions
about true SMAG/MSCC concerns. SMAG is happy to send someone along to the
meeting in person. Normally they would not have the right of entry unless they
had a deposition of something specific, but MSCC is happy to deputize SMAG to
represent them at this meeting. There must be an email authorizing this to
committee services by two days before the meeting.
SMAG was hoping to raise awareness
of the November meeting. Alastair Dickie brought along a note of where they
stand on bin hubs currently, which will be circulated later. The goal is about
minimizing the impact on the community, but they would like the rules to be
clearly stated so if residents object to where the bins are located, they have
a clear process to appeal. They would ideally like to put the glass bins in a
more discrete location from the other bins. Cllr Neil Ross says that lining the
glass bins to prevent noise is also under consideration.
The report presented at the November
meeting will discuss noise mitigation as one of its crucial facets, as that was
a primary complaint.
Planning (Applications & consultation)) (report
attached)
No applications seem likely to
affect local residents.
Update on Sewer Flooding project (if available)
They’ve moved up the road at
Marchmont Crescent and are planning to stop working for two weeks over
Christmas and New Year. They are hoping to finish the work entirely in
February.
Treasurer's report
Treasurer’s report has been
circulated. £1500 in the bank.
Meetings attended
None.
Progress and provision to the public toilets
Due to the complications of the
desired complex, it is likely to be very expensive. There are three sets of
toilets, so the 1 million pounds covers all three areas (Leith Links,
Inverleith Park, and Middle Meadow walk).
Update: a cafe kiosk does not align
with current regulation. This has caused challenges. The design is in the
process of being modified to adhere to legal requirements. They expect to have
the new facilities installed by the first quarter of 2025. This information can
be found on the website regarding the toilets, which will be circulated.
Anthony Holmes questions about the
East Meadows and Links toilets that have been closed and need to be
refurbished. Cllr Neil Ross points out that there has been a shortage of
capitol.
Xmas tree event
Everyone is on board and organizing
is happening. Breakfast Bothy is delighted that they will be the charity. The
council asked for their last annual report, but as they are a new charity
Alison is hopeful that they will make allowances. The event will take place on
the first Saturday of December, which is December 7th.
AOB
Sunday parking at Melville drive:
Susie Agnew has noted that parking there is no longer free on a Sunday because
Melville drive on both sides is the boundary of Zone 4 and therefore is
restricted from 12:30-6:30 on Sunday. There are no notices to say where the
parking restrictions are in the Meadows. There are notices as you drive into
Edinburgh on Queensferry road. You can park for free up until 12:30, but people
need to be notified of the afternoon restriction.
Cllr. Neil Ross will check into why
there aren’t notices.
Antisocial behaviour at local shops: police have to request the CCTV
footage in order for the issue to progress. Cllr. Neil Ross says that the
request goes through the Locality Community Planning Partnership committee.
Anne will write specifically to the police flagging the issue and asking them
to have CCTV in the relevant areas. Cllr. Flannery is the representative on
that committee, so she will be copied in on the letter to the police.
Anthony Holmes wonders why the
police no longer send written reports or attend the MSCC meetings. Cllr Neil
Ross says that the community police budget was removed unfortunately.
Next meeting will be Wednesday, 27th of November (NOT 20th
as intimated in draft agenda).
archmont
& Sciennes
