Community Council
Minutes of Marchmont &
Sciennes Community Council
Meeting of Wed 24th
March 2021, 7.30pm by Jitsi Meet.
Present: Brian Gilmore (Chair, MSCC), Elinor O’Donovan (Minute Secretary),
Nigel Ayton (Grange Association), Alison Service (MSCC), Susie Agnew (MSCC),
Shane Voss (MSCC), Tony Holmes (Thirlestane Lane Association), Cllr Steve
Burgess, Adam Stewart (MSCC), Anne Laing (MSCC).
Apologies: None.
Matters Arising: None.
Brian talked to Cllr Mandy Watt about the
pavement outside Grange cemetery on Beaufort Road. As things have been busy
with Spaces for People she was not able to look into it but will do so presently.
The minutes of February 2021’s meeting have been circulated and
approved by Brian, seconded by Alison.
Police Report:
Has been circulated.
The police are unable to attend our
meetings as they can only use Microsoft Teams.
Susie is disappointed that the break-ins
reported in the area over the last six weeks weren’t reflected in the police
report. In the last week, there was another break-in on Tantallon Place, and all
the recent break-ins have been reported to the police.
Brian will contact the police again
before our next meeting to see if they can provide a report more specific to our
area.
Meadows and Bruntsfield Links: None.
FOMBL Report: Was circulated last month.
FOMBL have recently applied for three small grants and are
actively going ahead with putting table tennis tables on the Meadows by the
tennis courts. They are also involved in tree-planting. There will be another
meeting on April 6th.
City Councillor Report on topical local issues:
Cllr Steve Burgess:
Anti-social behaviour and public
urination on the Meadows:
The recent stint of good weather means
that there has been an increase in people drinking on the Meadows, and
subsequently an increase in public urination on the streets surrounding the
Meadows. There are public toilets on the Meadows, but these are only open until
6pm which creates a problem after this time. Cllr Burgess would like to see the
council keep these toilets open to correspond with daylight hours.
Cllr Melanie Main received an agreement
that there would be a report made to the Culture and Communities Committee of
the Council to develop a strategy regarding toilets on the Meadows. This would
hopefully result in new toilets being placed on the Meadows, possibly in the
junction at the mid-way point on Middle Meadow Walk. If approved, however, this
could take time to implement and won’t solve the problem this summer.
It was also noted issues associated with
the Meadows extended beyond public toilets, and included proactive management
of the green spaces, anti-social behaviour, waste management and other issues.
These had been occurring for a number of years and are likely to require a
longer term joined up plan to address, involving relevant public sector
organisations, retailers and community groups. This could also usefully
benchmark with the approaches taken by other local authorities. Cllr
Burgess agreed to explore how the council’s statutory community planning
responsibilities could be used to develop and coordinate an appropriate
response, and to identify who the community council could engage with to
explore this further.
There has been a movement to bring in
more mobile CCTV cameras on affected streets which may provide a deterrent for
public urination.
The public toilets at the top of Middle
Meadow Walk fell into disrepair a few years ago but could be a potential
solution, though Cllr Burgess feels these are still too far away from the
Meadows to prevent people from urinating on the streets closer by.
Cllr Burgess believes – and everyone
generally agrees -that Portaloos are the best solution (though they may be
vandalised). Cllr Burgess believes that other Southside councillors would
support this if brought to the Council, and comments that it might be a good
idea for MSCC to lobby local councillors about getting Portaloos put in place.
When cafes re-open, the public toilet sticker
scheme will be back in action which may alleviate the issue somewhat. Susie
raises the issue that the stickers are quite small and so may not be noticed.
Closure of Whitehouse Loan:
Cllr Burgess has received many emails
from people both for and against the closure. The Project Officer for this
scheme has produced a briefing note addressing residents’ concerns, and notes
that cycle journeys are at 600 per day and are likely to increase. The closure
will take some getting used to for residents, but it will be closely monitored,
and in the briefing note the Project Officer details what the next steps are
likely to be.
Cllr Burgess will share the Project
Officers’ report with Brian who will circulate it.
Gillespie’s High School:
There was a recent deputation of Gillespie’s
High School to the Education Committee about parents’ concerns regarding the
squeeze on classroom space and its consequences for students. Students that are
currently taking Advanced Highers now have 2/5 periods that are non-classroom based,
i.e. trips, activities, remote working. Parents are concerned that this isn’t a
suitable replacement for face-to-face teaching.
The Committee officers have been tasked
with finding out if they can put in temporary accommodation.
Sick Kids Hospital Site
The NHS have begun moving out this week and it will have
high security staff onsite until Downing Group take over.
Anne:
Local residents received a letter saying that NHS Lothian will
still have the site for another 10 weeks – and it is currently high security as
they move out. 1st June is the expected hand-over date.
There have been no updates regarding the Downing proposal.
Astley Ainslie.
Nigel:
The Grange Association has received an email from NHS saying that
at this time the focus of NHS Lothian is that Astley Ainsley Hospital remains an
active healthcare site, pending a further review of the business cases.
This has raised concerns that the NHS are backtracking and will
not vacate the site as they said they would, though at this time this is just
speculation. The Grange Association will continue asking them to clarify their
intentions for the site.
Planning applications
Nigel:
14-16 Hope Terrace has been sold, and those who bought it are
redeveloping it into family homes. Part of their application is that they want
to build a new three-storey house on the site of the tennis courts which abuts
the adjoining property. Nigel has been relaying concerns from residents to the
developer and Grange Association have submitted formal objection.
Grange Cemetery
Nigel:
Friends of Grange Cemetery (FOGC) is an active voluntary group
which look after Grange Cemetery and which is mostly composed of volunteers
from the Grange area south of the cemetery. FOGC wish to recruit more
volunteers from the Marchmont area and one approach to achieving this has been the
addition of a standing item to the MSCC meeting’s agenda where Nigel will give
updates on the activities of FOGC.
Susie comments on how lovely it has been to see Grange cemetery
used by people for exercise during the lockdown and to see it used as a park. She
suggests that FOGC put a larger and more visible notice on the gates
encouraging visitors to join in.
Treasurer’s Report
Monthly report has been circulated. The bank balance is currently £1176.28.
Meetings attended.
Spaces for People:
Shane: Edinburgh Council are trying to reassure local Community
Councils that the current measures put in place by temporary traffic regulation
orders will be followed up with proper consultation, i.e. due process will
return as soon as possible.
AOCB
None.
Date of next meeting: Wednesday 28th April at
7.30 – using Jitsi Meet.
