Marchmont
and Sciennes Community Council
Minutes of
Meeting held on 22nd January 2025 at St. Catherine’s Argyle Church Hall
Present: Brian
Gilmore - Chair, Anne Laing - MSCC Secretary, Alison Service - MSCC Treasurer,
Douglas Rogers - MSCC, Cllr. Mandy Watt, Cllr. Pauline Flannery, Kate McNairney
- SMAG, Anthony Holmes - Thirlestane Lane Association, Richard Shillcock -
local resident
Apologies: Susie
Agnew - MSCC, Liane Phillips - MSCC Publicity, Kayleigh Gordon - MSCC
Publicity, MP Ian Murray
Attending: Nora
Flynn-McIver - Minutes Secretary
Meeting began at 7:34
Draft Minutes of 27/11/24
Alison moves to pass, Anne seconds.
The minutes pass unanimously.
Matters Arising
Earl of Marchmont defibrillator: the
planning application has gone in with the help of Ben Parker, the planning
department was helpful, but we did not actually need planning permission.
Alison is currently waiting for information regarding the grant application,
but they don’t get the money until June. As such, the defibrillator will likely
not be installed until June.
Sunday parking on Melville Drive:
Susie Agnew passed a note that she had talked to Cllr. Neil Ross who has said
that he will discuss this with colleagues in the Transport Committee to see if
this can be addressed.
Police Report
None.
Meadows & Bruntsfield
Links/FOMBL Report incl. public toilets
FOMBL has received the biodiversity
report, which has been circulated. The public toilet situation is ongoing, but
FOMBL is still liaising on certain aspects. Work should be starting this spring
and there are just a few more things to figure out. There have been no changes
regarding the placement of the toilets. The temporary toilets have also been
removed.
City Councillor report on local
issues
Cllr. Flannery: On the toilets in
the Meadows, Marco Gali is working with Healthmatic to figure out construction,
and plans to have a timeline soon. He has assured council that the project is
on time. Information should be put on the council website.
A local resident wants to make the
front gardens on Livingston Place look more presentable and Cllr. Flannery is
happy to liaise on this. The local resident also wants to cooperate with
neighbors and Sciennes School. Cllr. Flannery recommends that MSCC work with
her on this.
The Culture and Community Committee
has sent out emails to councillors for ongoing training, this process is on a
committee report.
The visitor levy is being voted on
this Friday, there are sticking points about timeline. Cllr. Flannery’s
understanding of this is that it comes into effect in July 2026, and you will
be charged for bookings from August 1st of 2025.
Alison asked about gaining access to
the constitution for MSCC, Cllr. Flannery will follow this up because the
current document may be a draft.
On environmental visits, there
appears to be some confusion on what level of care the Council should be
providing, and Cllr. Flannery is looking into this. This currently is only done
for Council-owned buildings.
Cllr. Watt: the bin hub issue
continues to be an issue. The quiet route is also still an issue.
On the visitor levy, the draft
agreement is that the levy is 5% for the first five days of a visitor’s stay.
This should start from August 2025, and the issues that Cllr. Flannery spoke
about are still in negotiation. The levy can only be used to promote visitor
experience or to mitigate effects of visitors. The most controversial part of
this is to put the money into housing. The tourism mitigation aspect may look
for insight from community councils about the use of the money, this creates an
opportunity for locals to give insight on what may be needed. This could be
related to public toilets and these could be improved with this levy. The
estimates of how much will be raised vary between £14,000 and £40,000 per year,
so the total amount estimated is unclear. Cllr. Flannery notes that the website
Leith Chooses may be a good template for this sort of community project and
participatory budgeting. Douglas Rogers asked if the EACC had been contacted,
Cllr. Watts recommended that community councils can reach out for this. He also
noted that graffiti removal has declined and suggested that some of the money
be used for this. Cllr. Watts noted that the Council can only remove graffiti
on public property. Douglas also mentioned that a graffiti reporting system could
be upgraded.
Publicity
Kayleigh is happy to advertise for
future councillors.
Upcoming CC elections
The community council is
reconstituted with a set of elections coming up. MSCC can have up to 12
community councillors, if there are more than 12 nominated then there would be
an election, but this is unlikely. The notice of election will be published on
the 5th of February and nominations will open for candidates on the 6th of
February. Nominations will close on the 27th of February. The form is
relatively easy and you need two people from the local area to nominate you. If
elections are required, they will take place on the 27th of March, and the new
session will begin on the 28th of March. The returning officer from Council
must call and chair the meeting, and then set up the new office bearers. Brian
noted that it would be nice if the meeting could be on the normal date, but
this may not necessarily happen. This is being advertised via leaflets and the
website, also possibly The Meadow’s Share. Cllr. Flannery offered that there is
a website for the University of Edinburgh run by Stuart Tooley that advertises
community group work and that this could help to get more students involved.
Update on bin hubs
Kate McNairney talked about the
South Meadows Action Group. They have monthly meetings and their monthly
newsletter will advertise the changes that the Council made in December. They
are also trying to create a framework to ensure that people who want their bin
hubs moved can have their voices heard. Cllr. Flannery noted that there is also
a review on the 6th of March about this. Brian mentioned that SMAG could
propose being an associate member of MSCC from the action group and have an
official person representing the group on the community council.
Planning applications
Report has been circulated by the
Grange Association.
Update on Sewer Flooding Project
Anne reports that they hope to be
finished by May.
Treasurer’s Report
£843 in the bank. Next month there
will be £21 outgoing for the location map for the defibrillator.
Meetings attended
None.
Christmas Tree event
The event was successful, it raised
approximately £120 for The Breakfast Bothy. After the event, ScotMid gave
vouchers, but only £20 so the remainder came out of the MSCC budget. Brian
thanked Alison for her work on the project, as well as everybody else who put
in work for the event.
AOCB
Douglas met with IQ Students in
London and has gotten an assurance from them that they will start preparing a
lease or license for the community space in the student accommodation, and that
Alexa will work with Douglas to prepare the space for use as an arts centre
once they have access to the building.
Date of next meeting
Wednesday, February 26th, 2025
