Marchmont
and Sciennes Community Council
Minutes of
Meeting held on 27th November 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. Tim Pogson, Cllr. Marie-Clair
Munro, Kate McNairney - SMAG, A. Dickie - SMAG, Cuillin Scott - local resident
Apologies: Lianne
Phillips - MSCC Publicity, Kayleigh Gordon - MSCC Publicity
Attending: Nora
Flynn-McIver - Minutes Secretary
Meeting began at 7:35pm
Draft Minutes of 23/10/24
Alison moves to pass, Anne seconds.
Minutes pass.
Matters Arising
Defibrillator: the owner of the Earl
of Marchmont pub is happy for the MSCC to put one in. However, it will cost
£1000 to install. It is too late to go for a December grant, but Alison will
look at a grant in the spring.
Sunday parking on Melville Drive:
Susie asked for permission to pursue information again via Neil Ross. The issue
is that there aren’t enough small notices on lampposts, etc. Susie was granted
permission to look into this.
Police Report including antisocial
behavior in Marchmont
Sgt. Barry said he would hope to be
here, but was not able to make it.
Meadows & Bruntsfield
Links/FOMBL Report
Report has been circulated. The main
issue is the placement of the toilets as well as the changing room. Cllr. Munro
has been dealing with this issue directly for months and brought the issue of
wanting the toilets near the playground, as well as the issue of gender-neutral
toilets. Many people, including many women, have expressed concerns. Cllr.
Munro disagrees with the reasoning behind the gender-neutral toilets and is
still pushing the argument to have a female-only toilet, though she does not
think that the officers will change their minds. She understands the reasoning
behind it but also understands people feeling uncomfortable. Different
political parties disagree on this issue but the council will follow what the
majority ends up deciding. Cllr. Pogson noted that the placement issue has to
go through planning and also noted that he has not been fielding any emails
with concerns about the gender-neutral toilets. This means that people can
express their concerns through the planning process. Cllr. Munro flagged that
there is a safety issue regarding children at the playground using the toilets
across the Meadows. Brian expressed the concern that pushing back too much may
cause the issue to be pushed down the road too far. Cllr. Pogson noted that
this is meant to be about additional capacity, but Cllr. Munro predicts that
the existing toilets on the east end of the Meadows will be shut down due to
budget cuts. Susie expressed concerns that leaving the issue alone will mean
that it won’t be dealt with. Alison noted that she does not oppose the location
of the toilets because of its central location. MSCC did not have unanimity so
Susie proposed a vote on who agrees on or opposes the issues. Alison noted that
she has concerns about whether or not the MSCC should state a position on this
issue. No vote was called.
On the community space: Alexa has
had personal issues that have caused a delay on the issue, Douglas has reached
out to IQ Students but has not heard back. He will reach out again to push the
issue further.
City Councillor report on local
issues
Cllr. Pogson: The main thing to note
is to watch the Scottish Government budget on December 4th to see what
allocations of funding will be coming to different things. On December 19th,
there will be information on actual allocations to Edinburgh. There is some
hope that more money will be allocated in particular areas, like health. This
budget has been routinely cut for the past few years, but health has been
selected as a key funding area. Another place where there is hope for more
funding is in affordable housing. Cllr. Pogson also noted that there is a
consultation open until December 15th on the tourist tax for 2026, which is
estimated to raise an additional £50 million which could be spent in service to
the tourist economy, which can include things like affordable housing.
Cllr. Munro: With regards to the
budget, Cllr. Munro notes that there is reason to be quite nervous about the
budget. It is not looking good for councils, so all political parties will
likely to be pushing for the Scottish Government to give more to councils. She
also notes that the tourist tax will not solve every problem, despite it being
a good idea. Draft Princes’ Street and Waverly Valley investment consultation
is open on the Edinburgh City website, lots of money is going here, Cllr. Munro
encouraged anyone who has perspectives on this to fill in the consultation.
There are concerns that there will be more buildings and shops in Princes’
Street Gardens and that the Gardens will be closed for an event in May. Susie
asked whether this is in addition to the plans for The Mound. Cllr. Munro
clarified that they want to close Forrest Road, The Mound, the bridges, etc,
and traffic will be rerouted through the Grange. Douglas noted that he thinks
that the plans seem like a good idea, but Cllr. Munro explained that there will
be issues for elderly people and people with disabilities. The Bank of Scotland
in Bruntsfield is closed and the cash machines have been taken away, which
might be of interest to local residents. The playground at the end of the
Meadows is in a rundown state, Cllr. Munro has taken people to look at it, this
will be dealt with in time. Antisocial behavior is still a problem, not just
children from James Gillespies. Cllr. Munro asked that the head of the school
to reach out to local businesses. She is also hoping that the Scottish
Government to be convinced to halt free bus passes for those who are engaging
in antisocial behavior.
Publicity
No report.
Upcoming CC elections
There will be elections at the end
of February, there will be more information at the next meeting. There are
events in Edinburgh, one in the central library at the beginning of February is
applicable to MSCC. Some publicity will need to be done to get more local
people interested.
Update on bin hubs
Kate McNairney gave a deputation at
the Traffic and Environment Committee meeting. Local resident issues are being
noticed. Permission has been granted to move some of the bins. The report came
from officers, various groups were invited to a workshop, but resident groups
were not invited. The report after this workshop came out, but Cllr. Munro did
not agree with this report. A composite amendment was created - the bin hubs
can be split, they can be put across the road, there can be smaller bins, and
they can be put on grassy areas. Cllr. Munro noted that this will take a while
to change, but it can now happen at all. An announcement of the achievement
will be put on the notice board.
Planning applications
Grange Association report has been
circulated. Nothing particular to report. 140 Causewayside is not in the MSCC
area. Anne noted that the MSCC acknowledges the hard work of the Grange
Association doing new planting and removal of weeds.
Update on Sewer Flooding Project
They are hoping to open Marchmont
Crescent for the Christmas holidays.
Treasurer’s Report
£883 in the bank.
Meetings attended
Douglas Rogers had an online meeting
with Nester about the net zero street-by-street project. He asked whether he
could broaden this and put up a notice on the community notice board with a QR
code on it, as well as putting up links on the website. Douglas will go through
Kayleigh to get this done.
Christmas Tree event
Event planning is going well. Five
people are donating prizes, The Breakfast Bothy is happy as the nominated
charity and Keith Taylor will give a short promo on it. Alison has not heard
whether ScotMid will donate, so she is given permission to pick up snacks and
drinks if we don’t have a second donation. She also has to pick up the PA
system from the Council, Cllr. Munro volunteered to pick it up on Friday and
will drop it back off on Monday. Kayleigh will promote the event on public
Facebook groups. Brian suggested that Keith Taylor of The Breakfast Bothy
co-compete with him and Alison will put it to him.
AOCB
Anne noted that she got an update
from JR Builders about Sylvan Place, they are hoping to take scaffolding down
in February and March. They will also clean things up before Christmas.
Date of next meeting
Wednesday, January 22nd, 2025
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