SOUTHSIDE COMMUNITY COUNCIL

Minutes of meeting on Tuesday, 11th February 2020, 6:45pm

The Gray Room, Nelson Hall, 5 Spittalfield Crescent, Edinburgh EH8 9QZ

Present:Joan Carter (JC), Liz Logie (LL), Tim Pogson (TP, Chair), Bob Hodgart (BH), Kaaren Haughton, Renu Yadav, Nick Oddy, David Wood, Maggie Peatfield, Daniel Fisher

Also Present: 1 Member of the public

  1. Welcome and Apologies:

    A warm welcome note by TP and apologies received from Stuart, Caroline, Philip and Svetlana.


  2. Minutes of the January meeting and matters arising

    • Apologies from Daniel was missing.
    • Childcare issue to attend meeting. Tim followed up with resident who had raised issue but hadn't heard back. At least the CC can demonstrate the matter is being taken seriously and we are trying to help.
    • Chicken Club: The member of the public who had attended previous meeting re Chicken Club concerns had not followed up by email as yet, as requested. She is a landlord rather than a resident.


  3. Reports from Chair, Secretary and Treasurer

    Treasurer's report
    • Svetlana had sent an email with updated treasurer report. No issues of concern


  4. Reports from Committees and meetings attended

    Environmental meeting (Kaaren)

    • Local people in Lutton Place and elsewhere who are interested in tree plantation in conjunction with Council for support will be invited to meet. "Treetime" focuses on streets that have lost their trees, not on new planting. Joan would request someone from Environment team to come and speak at the meeting. Focus of the meeting: Raising money to help with tree plantation. St Peter's Church hall has been suggested as the perfect place to conduct the meeting. Date needs to be finalised with the council.
    • Joan suggested: Do we need to arrange a subgroup to arrange funds? Tim suggested more clarification on this issue was needed first, perhaps as a result of the meeting being held.
    • Woodland Trust activity also raised by Maggie.
    • Community Councillors support the idea.


    'Engine idling' notices outside Preston Street School

    • Scott Wilkins (Council) had emailed asking who should be involved from local community in consulting on air quality improvements. Suggestions were asked regarding who should be participating in this matter and varied range of suggestions were welcomed i.e. political parties, schools, Nursery schools, etc. Tim to feed back to Scott
    • Joan raised a concern regarding engine running restrictions and how some changes has been made but not enough. Council policies not exercised very well related to air quality and pollution.
    • Discussion of Cowan's Close depot - Liz mentioned that they are intending to build social housing on the site once the refuse department have left.
    • Zebra Crossing - Poster to be designed by Svetlana using photoshop and expected soon. Hilary (SA) has made a Freedom of Information request and should have an answer by next week.


    Cockburn Association, 22/1, Central Hall

    • 850 people attended and Steven Jardine was highly praised for his work
    • Bob mentioned main issue of the meeting was 'City for sale'. Priority was being given to festival events i.e. eroding public places at peak time of the year, New Year and Christmas events organised by Underbelly but also economic impacts of visitors.
    • Bob also mentioned the issue of transparency of the money received by Underbelly. It is set against economic benefits, impacts to resident, recreation and public spaces. There is a need to change the balance.
    • Liz raised a concern regarding starting of Christmas market 7 weeks before, burning of benches, removal of the Christmas tree and the nativity display.
    • Bob mentioned that still no planning permission had been received for Christmas market.
    • Liz suggested the idea of events on solid ground bases, e.g. George Street. Joan suggested that local crafts at the market should be encouraged rather than just stall holders from outwith the area or even the country.
    • Joan raised a concern of how do we preserve the city as a community and where do local communities and community organisations fit in?


    EACC, 23/1 (Attended by Bob)

    • City Mobility Plan
    • Consultation events on that will be held over next 6 months.
    • City Plan 2030
    • Discussion on the above and discussion on creating more formal discussion between community health planning and Board for Social Care and Health Partnership and how it fits into Edinburgh Partnership.
    • Cityplan 2030, deadline to comment is 30th March
    • Housing density, students housing and Airbnb should all be mentioned


    Sustainable green activity (Dumbedykes area).

    • Daniel had attended 5th Feb meeting, and 4th March is the next meeting. Tim raised a matter of engaging everyone in this matter especially as this is less well represented at the Community Council. Kaaren raised if they have their own community council and Tim mentioned that they don't although they have a Residents' Association.


  5. Planning and Licensing

    • Tim: Briery Bauks - Council rejected application for change of use to short term let. Owner appealed to Scottish Government and they have granted it with two conditions:
      • Not more than 5 guests allowed and can't have a stay of less than 3 days.
      • Must maintain a register


    • Joan raised a concern if Edinburgh council sets up short term lets regulation, could Scottish government challenge it? Tim mentioned that legislation needed to be passed following which Council should be able to regulate.
    • Joan mentioned about Treetime: Edinburgh Lothian Green Trust, 'street trees' initiative. Adopting a tree or give money to plant a tree.
    • Tim mentioned about Summerhall issue. Community Council had objected to two late licence applications. Council had decided to carry out site visit and application will come back to 23rd March Committee meeting and we will be invited to put up views.
    • Summerhall has sent letters to Community Council explaining the background.
    • Maggie raised an issue of KFC being open until half past 1 in morning.


  6. Meadows East End Improvements

    Main concerns:

    • Opening times of toilets is not known and they are irregular.
    • Toilets have been subject to vandalism and not always promptly repaired. This issue needs to be resolved before the area starts getting busier with sports activities.
    • Space behind the East End pavilion could be improved.
    • Tim suggested to submit a letter collaborating across organisations and copying to councillors
    • Joan can raise the issue with FoMBL.
    • David W: Community Council should involve Mike shields, FoMBL, Southside Association, etc. Joan volunteered to develop the email to Mike S after gathering ideas.


  7. Salisbury Court Community Space Panel:

    • Retail units subject of planning change of use application to turn into community spaces.
    • Want to setup a panel from community to judge how to use the space. 28th February is 1st meeting. They want us to attend the meeting. Kaaren volunteered to do that.
    • On site medical centre/ Clinic centre would be tremendously helpful. Tim will email to Salisbury Court management and cc to Kaaren.


  8. Any other business

    • Bob had attended a meeting at which various Community Council representatives had shared concerns about the Scottish Govt's Local Place Plan proposals. Bob was proposing that SCC signs up to a Declaration being put forward by these Community Councils.
    • There was much sympathy expressed with the views being put forward by the Declaration, but after much discussion it was decided not to support the proposal on the primary grounds that there was a lack of clarity around who was actually behind the Declaration.
    • Accepting that Local Place Plans were potentially useful tools and that there were legitimate concerns, Community Councillors were keen both to support the principle of a LPP and also to respond to consultation on their form and application. Bob would look into opportunities to respond to consultation on the topic and report back to the next meeting.
    • David mentioned about 20mph speed checks. Agreed to write to the police about the time of checks and also a list of streets to be monitored. Agreed to develop this by email and review at the next meeting.
    • Bob flagged NPF (National Planning Framework) consultation- 18th March 2- 4PM

Next Meeting: 10th March 2020