Thanks everyone for a wonderful Christmas Tree Lighting Event!

Thanks to all the performers at the Marchmont & Sciennes Christmas Tree lighting (Choir from Sciennes Primary and Pipes and Drums, Wind Band and Chamber Choir from JGHS). 

To Stuart from Marchmont Hardware and Brian from MSCC who compered. 

To the local traders who provided raffle prizes (Marchmont Pharmacy, Bohemia, New Leaf Co-op, MarchHair, Ann McGinley Florist, Marchmont Hardware, Doodles). 

To Butterflies Cafe for mince pies and Scotmid.

And to the volunteers who put out the chairs, put up the staging, served the wine and passed out song sheets and mince pies.

But especially to Alison who organised the whole thing!

Merry Christmas everyone when it comes. Maybe it'll snow!

Excellent turn-out to provide views on future development of current Royal Hospital for Sick Children Site.

About 75 local people braved the lashing rain to join a three hour Public Engagement Event to explore options for the current Royal Hospital for Sick Children site on Wed 16 November. 

This was the latest in a series of events co-hosted by Marchmont & Sciennes Community Council (MSCC) to allow local residents to contribute.  Daniel Johnson MSP and a couple of local City Councillors also attended. So did Sciennes Parent Council and a representative of James Gillespie's High School Pupil Voice.  The event was facilitated and managed by Grant Myles of People Assets, an experienced event facilitator who has worked with NHS Lothian before, on masterplanning.

The meeting opened with a quick update on the proposed timescales for the sale of the site by NHS Lothian, as they prepare to move children's healthcare facilities in 2018 to the Royal Infirmary site at Little France. The site will be advertised for sale within the next week and offers will be invited from prospective developers by February 2017.  These offers will be considered from a financial perspective, and proposals will also be independently assessed against a 'pre-application position statement' being prepared by NHS Lothian's planning advisors (GVA) for NHS Lothian.

The aim of the event was to generate community views and ideas for inclusion by GVA in that 'position statement'. Alongside components in the 'position statement' about i] formal planning constraints and ii] heritage considerations (listed buildings, conservation area etc) the collected community views will support NHS Lothian's identification of the scheme that represents 'best value' and lead to an agreement to sell by Easter 2017.

The event continued with an opportunity for each individual attendee to write down ideas and views on post-it notes.  These ideas were then arranged under five headings: Uses; Buildings; Movement; Spaces, and Next Steps.  Participants then moved around the room reviewing each others' ideas and adding to them.  The emerging commonalities under each theme were then summarised by groups of participants onto flipcharts and reported back in turn to everyone present. 

The meeting closed with a discussion of how all the information gathered will be used (by NHS Lothian in selecting a developer, and potentially by developers), and how participants at the workshop can continue to contribute to the consultation process and stay informed (about the sale, and proposed site designs).  All the flipcharts and post-its will be retained and all the contributions will be included in a full report of the meeting.  The report will be available by mid December and will be publicly available for review and comment, including at the MSCC Infoblog.  This is the report that will contribute to the community views section of the GVA 'position statement' for NHS Lothian.

Once a developer is selected there will be further community engagement, including through the statutory 'pre-application notice' process that must precede submission of a major planning application. MSCC will be working to promote as much on-going additional community involvement as possible.

Thanks to Grant Myles who facilitated and to GVA (planning advisors) and NHS Lothian who partnered with MSCC to organise the event.  

If you'd like to stay informed please join our dedicated mailing list by e-mailing pagsk2017@gmail.com or keep an eye on the MSCC Infoblog or on the MSCC Facebook page, or follow @marchsciennesCC on Twitter.

Agenda for MSCC meeting on We 25 November 2015 at 7:30pm

http://www.bernadettetodd.com/berntalks/archives/Bern%20Kodak%202009%20004.5.jpg

Marchmont & Sciennes Community Council will hold its monthly regular meeting on We 25 November 2015. 

[not 24th as originally posted- sorry]

The meeting will take place in our usual venue of St Catherine's Argyle Church Halls on Beaufort Road/ Grange Road. The meeting will start at 7:30pm.

This will be our third meeting of 15/16.  The next meeting after this one will be 27 January 2016. 

All who live or work in the area are most welcome to attend 

A G E N D A

 1                  Sederunt and apologies

 2                  Draft Minutes of last meeting, 28 Oct 2015 and matters arising (not otherwise on Agenda)

·       Lovers Loan wall

·       MSCC publicity on advertising drums

·       Replacement bus shelters at top of Marchmont Road

·       41 bus route

·       Live music

·       Planks at Sciennes School

·       Street closures at Sciennes School

 3                   Police Report

Items for discussion

 4                  Road crossings on route to James Gillespie’s Schools

 5                  Overflowing recycling bins

 6                  New planning applications

 7                  Edinburgh’s Budget Challenge

Items mainly for information

 8                  Christmas Tree Light Ceremony 2015

 9                  Treasurer’s report

10                  Community Council Development & Support Programme

11                  Reports of meetings

·       MABLAG

·       Royal Edinburgh/ Astley Ainslie hospital redevelopments

12                  AOCB

Agenda for MSCC meeting on We 28 Oct 2015 at 7:30pm

http://www.bernadettetodd.com/berntalks/archives/Bern%20Kodak%202009%20004.5.jpg

Marchmont & Sciennes Community Council will hold its monthly regular meeting on We 28 Oct 2015. 

The meeting will take place in our usual venue of St Catherine's Argyle Church Halls on Beaufort Road/ Grange Road. 

This will be our second meeting of 15/16.  The next meeting after this one will be 25 November 2015. [not 24th as originally posted- sorry]

All who live or work in the area are most welcome to attend 

A G E N D A

 1                  Sederunt and apologies

 2                  Draft Minutes of last meeting, 23 Sep 2015 and matters arising (not otherwise on Agenda)

·       Redevelopment of Royal Hospital for Sick Children site

·       Lovers Loan wall

·       MSCC publicity on advertising drums

·       JGPS parking (police update)

·       Replacement bus shelters at top of Marchmont Road

 3                   Police Report

 4                  Update on Meadows & Bruntsfield Links from Mike Shields 

Items for discussion

 5                  New planning applications

 7                  Christmas Tree Light Ceremony 2015

 8                  Parking consultation

 9                  Road crossings on route to James Gillespie’s Schools

10                  Bins and notes to householders/ residents

11                  Student Housing planning guidance

12                  Proposed Pedestrian Crossing – Marchmont Road/ W Pk Rd

13                  41 bus route

14                  Electric Vehicle Charging Points in Marchmont & Sciennes

15                  Sciennes has placed loose planks in the green strip at the back of the garden walls of Hatton Place

16                  Hard standing area proposed for the Meadows

Items mainly for information

17                 Treasurer’s report

18                  Reports of meetings

·       Traders’ Evening

·       Edinburgh Association of Community Councils

19                  AOCB

Date of next meeting: 24 November 2015

All who live or work locally are welcome to attend

MSCC is online at: http://marchmontandsciennes.blogspot.com

Public to be consulted on primary school pressures in south Edinburgh

A statutory consultation will begin in August 2015 to consider options to deal with primary school capacity and accommodation pressures in south Edinburgh.

The decision was agreed at a meeting of the Education, Children & Families Committee of City of Edinburgh Council on Tuesday 19 May after councillors discussed the Primary School Capacity Pressure in South Edinburgh report.

updated: Consultation on street closure outside Sciennes (among other places) and drop-in session

School Streets Project- Proposed Experimental Traffic Regulation Order - Prohibition of Vehicular Traffic (During School Travel Periods)

City of Edinburgh Council is seeking the views of stakeholders and the public on its school streets proposal. This will introduce school streets at 11 primary schools across Edinburgh for a period of 18 months.  These locations have been experiencing on going road safety issues caused by drivers bringing their vehicles too close to the school gates.

More details of the proposals are available at the CEC consultation website.

Plans and information about how the scheme will operate will be shown at a drop-in session at Sciennes Primary School on Thursday 15 January, 2015 at 3:30 PM - 7:00 PM.  Staff from the council’s Road Safety team will be on hand to answer questions and record your comments.

Update: if you couldn't make it along to the drop-in session take a look at the plans for Sciennes (PDF) and comment using this online form.

Agenda for MSCC meeting on We 26 Nov 2014 at 7:30pm

Marchmont & Sciennes Community Council will hold its November meeting on 26 October 2014, at 7:30pm.  

The meeting will take place in our usual venue of St Catherine's Argyle Church halls on Beaufort Road/ Grange Road. 

This will be our third meeting of 14/15.  There will be no meeting in December.  We will resume our regular practice of meeting on the fourth Wednesday of the month on 28 Jan 2015 (until Jun 2015).

All who live or work in the area are most welcome to attend 

A G E N D A

 1            Sederunt and apologies

 2             Draft Minutes of last meeting, 22 Oct 2014 and matters arising (not otherwise on Agenda)

·      food recycling

·      MSCC leaflet

·      Cycle route consultation submission

·      Cemetery cheque

 3             Police Report

 4            Update on Meadows from Mike Shields 

Items for discussion

 5            New planning applications (?)

 6            Council Budget challenge

 7            Tarmac over setts

 8            Youth and criminal justice consultation

 9            HMO review

10           Christmas tree event preparations

11           Installation of new noticeboard

Items mainly for information

12            Update on Christmas tree lighting ceremony

13            Treasurer’s report

14            Reports of meetings

                        students in the community funding for projects

                        cycle routes/ CC liaison

15            Sciennes in pilot of school streets scheme

16            AOCB

17            Date of next meeting: 28 January 2015

Please write to your councillor about budget cuts affecting schools

The local primary and secondary schools parent councils are asking all parents and carers to write to their councillors about cuts to the City of Edinburgh Council - Children and Families Budget 2010 - 2013. See below for how to contact your councillor.

School Council Chairs attended a briefing from the City Council Children and Families Department officials, on 16th December 2009 and were very concerned at the proposals that were presented to the Parent Councils.  

In the short term, the proposals from the Council officials for the City of Edinburgh include: significant reductions in learning assistants; withdrawal of visiting specialists in early Primary (i.e. PE, music, drama); centralising librarian resources which would remove dedicated school staff members; and withdrawal of all foreign language assistants.

For each school's own budget, there will be a requirement to find a 2.5% cut on top of the 1.5% imposed last year. This 2.5% will be year on year, and the Edinburgh Secondary Head Teachers have indicated to the local authority that this is impossible. They have made clear that education will suffer in Edinburgh's schools if this is followed through.   'We only have a short time to influence the politicians as they consider the budget options for 2010/11.  Please take the time to express your concerns and views to your elected councillors (JGHS Council Chair)

 

The Gillespie's High School Council website contains further details and explanations and a suggested draft of a letter.

Sciennes Primary are  asking parents and carers to sign an online petition or to join a Facebook group and to write to all of our councillors and to the Director of Children and Families Gillian Tee, and the Convenor of the Education Department, Marilyn McLaren (also a local councillor), opposing the cuts.

Councillors for  Meadows and Morningside (Marchmont) are:

Marilyn MacLaren	529 5566	marilyn.maclaren@edinburgh.gov.uk
Alison Johnstone	529 3191	alison.johnstone@edinburgh.gov.uk
Paul Godzig	529 3273	paul.godzik@edinburgh.gov.uk
Mark McInnes	529 4958	mark.mcInnes@edinburgh.gov.uk

and for  Newington and Sciennes:

Steve Burgess	529 3274	steve.burgess@edinburgh.gov.uk
Ian Perry	529 3288	ian.perry@edinburgh.gov.uk
Cameron Rose	529 4078	cameron.rose@edinburgh.gov.uk
Gordon Mackenzie	529 3175	gordon.mackenzie@edinburgh.gov.uk

Alternatively you can write to any of the above at:

City of Edinburgh Council,

Waverley Court,

4 East Market Street,

Edinburgh, EH8 8BG