MERCHISTON COMMUNITY COUNCIL

MINUTES and PAPERS of public meeting on 19 September 2017 at Merchiston Tennis and Bowling Club

CC: Community Council
CEC: City of Edinburgh Council
EACC: Edinburgh Association of Community Councils
FOMBL: Friends of the Meadows & Bruntsfield Links
LB: CEC Licensing Board
LF: CEC Licensing Forum
MCC: Merchiston Community Council
SCNP: South Central Neighbourhood Partnership
SWNP: South West Neighbourhood Partnership

1. Chairman’s welcome and report

2. Apologies for absence

David Key, Cllr
Daniel Cairns
Mairianna Clyde
Ian Murray, MP
Daniel Johnson MSP
Helen Zealley

Present

Tom Graveson (chair)
Jim Geekie (Secretary)
Guillaume Evrard (Minute Secretary)
Ian Doig
Frances Hawarden (Treasurer)
Ian Clement
Hugh Halcrow
Joan Houston
Vivien Kitteringham
Ewan Klein
Robin Morris
Bridget Stevens
Ted Tate

Gavin Corbett, Cllr
Nick Cook, Cllr

3. Police reports

Nobody to report.

4. Edinburgh Rugby at Myreside

See report by BMS.

5. Parking in Shandon and further

A community group has set up a petition on CEC website. It’s been relatively successful in terms of signatures (about 330 signatures).

GC: Parking is a long-standing issue in Shandon. Residents are asking for CPZ or residents parking. Want dangerous parking tackled, issue of accessibility with poorly parked cars. Residents want a consultation with CEC officers.

The petition is going to go to CEC Transport committee, where the originator of the petition will be able to make a representation. Changes are technical to implement. CPZ S3 and S4 could be expanded.

ID: Commuters, residents, and parents picking their kids up from school

GC: Creating a CPZ push issues further down the road where there is no CPZ

ETRO Polwarth Terrace: there are reservations around MCC about the nature of the ETRO, and also the notice process happened and how MCC had no opportunity to convey comments during the consultation period.

MCC can have the opportunity to comment again if and when there is a TRO prepared for consultation on Polwarth Terrace.

NC: the bus 35 is being replaced with a bus 300, and there is a change in pricing. NC has been in touch with Lothian Buses to enquire about the precise specifics of the changes.

6. Minutes of the last meeting on 20 June 2017, and matters arising not on the agenda

7. Regular reports

Neighbourhood Partnerships

South West Neighbourhood Partnership (SWNP)

It is no more. The funding panel does not operate anymore; there is still a fund available, and funding applications still being processed.

IC: There are talks of additional redundancies in CEC, so the situation is getting very tricky in terms of decision-making. At the last EACC meeting, there was concern expressed that community councils are being marginalised.

NC: it’s been a very long process, and things don’t seem to have progressed very far.

BMS: the painstaking process in the transition from neighbourhood partnerships to localities is difficult to understand. What is the CEC localities manager doing in the process?

South Central Neighbourhood Partnership (SCNP)

See report below. (GE)

Planning

Old Boroughmuir High School; Cala Homes appealed to the Scottish Government; NC submitted a further objection to the reporter

New Boroughmuir; still planning to have pupils in by January 2018; there is a conversation with Fountainpark about teachers’ car parking

Licensing

See report below. (BMS)

Health

IC EACC Health and Care focus group

Health and social care integration is not going smoothly; many individuals waiting for very long for community care and assistance

Lengthy waiting lists for children and adult mental health

NHS Lothian are hoping to close Liberton Hospital; so there is less and less acute care provision

NHS Lothian annual review at Murrayfield Stadium

GP crisis (for example, Bruntsfield Medical Practice closed again to new patient registrations)

Treasurer

Healthy balanced with the annual grant received in August

Councillors – in advance and/or present

NC:

GC: Fountainbridge Canal Initiative is meeting on 28 October, 14h, City Chambers, about the brewery site; park walks has involved a lot of residents; litter pickers along the old railway

ID: litter pickers are very commendable; people shouldn’t litter in the first place, now bins in Harrison Park are completely overflowing, so there is a need for more regular collection

8. Points raised by residents and members of the public

Dog fouling, always gets worse with winter coming back

Holy Corner, right of way

9. AOCB

Communication – external and internal

Create a calendar page on MCC website so that it’s easier to plan ahead for availabilities

BMS: Community engagement group was convened during the previous council; there is a strong case to revive it, ID, IC, VK, JH

Use the website more as a notice board

20mph now on Ashley Terrace

Little Free library, in a box on a pillar, in the garden of FreshStart, on Harrison Place

Date of next meeting – Tuesday 17 October 2017

Papers

South central neighbourhood partnership meeting, 28 August 2017 (GE)

Cllr Rose in the chair

Dec 2016 meeting minutes: Dumbiedykes gardening grant approved

Local community plan 2014-2017, presentation

Achievements :

South central decides
Awareness campaigns and weeks of action
Spirit of dumbiedykes
Community grants

South east locality improvement plan

Aim to achieve better outcomes for greatest inequality

Governance

NP still operating

Establishing locality committees

Working group for locality already taken place, next meeting in September 2017

Discussion needed to establish remit of locality committee

Complex situation, and desire to get it right with people

Minutes from working groups communicated or not? No

Options are very open on how governance is going to be set up

Delegated competences from NP to localities is still very much unclear

All in all, the governance questions are being solved too slowly, could take the whole 5-year administration

Other business

Question about Meadows Jawbones, no update since April 2017

Newington library ventilation noise, still an ongoing issue with local residents, CEC asset management involved

FOMBL (Friends of Meadows and Bruntsfield Links)(SO049555) (RM)

As MCC rep, honourary treasurer and Trustee/Board member attended AGM on 23/6/17 (re-elected and all five area community councillor reps elected amongst 12 trustees) and Board Meetings on 17/7/17, 14/8/17 and 18/9/17 – please see the website for info as available and notices circulated via our secretary.

CEC Licensing Forum (RM)

As MCC nominated elected South area rep apologies for meeting on 12/9/17 due to longstanding previous engagement. Bridget S attend as co-opted member with her report circulated. Thank you.

EACC (Edinburgh Association of Community Councils) (RM)

As MCC rep attended quarterly meeting on 14/9/17.

Items discussed and reported – Localities (4 – 16 out of 43 CEC Community Councils in our South West Locality), Licensing Forum, Edinburgh Partnership and economy strategy, rubbish collection (bins), payment of minute secretary (who was not a member of the community council) approved, new open Health and Social Care Action Group sub-committee started including Ian C from MCC with meeting dates to be advised, planning up-date, statement on inclusiveness and the meetings in public with further discussion topics on bins, potholes and pavements at future meetings.

Date of next meeting 14/12/17 tbc.

5 September 2017, George Watson’s College Community Liaison Group Meeting (BMS)

Inaugural meeting – representatives from local community, neighbourhood churches, the school (including pupils), community councils, residents’ associations, Edinburgh Rugby etc. Agenda included:

Edinburgh Rugby’s use of Myreside – general agreement that ER’s stewarding, crowd and parking control arrangements last season had gone very well; gratitude expressed to ER’s Jonny Petrie for keeping local residents in the loop. Most local residents now happy to have these matches taking place at Myreside.

Regarding plans for upcoming season, it was regrettable that planning application for re-erection of stands, gantry and relocated TV screen not yet submitted so that retrospective permission will have to be sought.
objections from residents of 84 Myreside Road (small block of flats adjacent to grounds).
GWC Headmaster confirmed that this year the college will have a financial involvement.
GWC plans to open up all of its sport facilities to community use – to be discussed at next meeting of the Liaison Group.

Problem of parents dropping children off irresponsibly to be addressed. Ditto cyclists emerging from school gates and then cycling along pavement. Another challenge is the increasing number of pupils driving themselves to school and having to find parking space.

Powerpoint presentation about Campus Development Masterplan: Capacity of GWC junior school to be significantly increased, necessitating further traffic management controls. Possibility of creating new access road from Myrseside Road at side of No 84 – residents of that building extremely unhappy at prospect. GWC Head said planning application (possibly excluding road) about to be submitted. I urged him to hold a full public consultation meeting first – would be in everybody’s interests.

I would like to recommend that Joan Houston be MCC’s rep on this group.

12 September 2017, Edinburgh City Council Licensing Forum (BMS)

Still no resolution of Convenorship issue. Some of us feel (and constitution allows) that it should alternate between a member of the licensed trade and a representative of the community. Still no guidance on replacement of Neighbourhood Partnership reps with Localities reps. Transition from NPs to Ls being described by CEC as a “work in progress” – extremely slow progress in my view! I’ve written to our (South East) Locality Manager, Sarah Burns, asking how she proposes to identify a rep to serve on the Forum. I also reiterated to the Forum an earlier agreement that day of the week selected for meetings should be varied. Detailed presentation on use of defibrillators in context of suggestion that installation of one of these should be a condition of licence. Probably not legally possible but could be recommendation. We were told that use of the kit is straightforward. May be installed free of charge. St John Scotland keen to roll out as widely as possible – in church halls, community centres, sports clubs, corner shops etc.

At a recent meeting of the new CEC Culture & Communities Committee, permission was requested and given for the controversial Music is Audible Group to continue – despite it having been set up as a short life working group. My worry is that the group may come up with recommendations for yet further loosening of the rules concerning music noise from licensed premises. I will ask that this be placed on the agenda of the next licensing Forum meeting, which will be a joint meeting with the Licensing Board (= the councillors who grant/refuse licences).

Astley Ainslie Hospital Community Forum (HZ)

1) The ‘community representatives’ on the Forum have had two very successful days leading walks around the grounds to improve public awareness of the site.

200 people attended on 29 September and 250 on 8 October – a total of 450 people most of whom showed considerable interest in the site and its future.

2) The Forum itself, which comprises the Community Representatives and the Lothian Health and their advisers met on 21st September.

We were informed that :

* they are still working out which services will move away from the site and which may need to stay because alternatives are not available.

* a Consultant has been appointed to draw up an updated ‘masterplan’ for the site but we could not be told until the name has been agreed at a formal Board meeting.

* an archaeological survey is planned for part of the site around St Roque House – partly in the hope of identifying the site of the long lost St Roque Chapel.

* various other surveys are planned e.g.ecological and a complex 3D survey of the site has been made using a drone.

* there would be extensive consultations with ‘the community’ and we were reassured that we would have ample opportunity to contribute to this process .