1. #OurEdinburgh Street Littering Campaign – on behalf of the Community Council, and after consultation, I wrote to Gareth Thomas, South East Locality Waste and Cleansing Officer, to support the proposal to place vinyls on the bins along the Southside/Newington corridor between Salisbury Road and Nicolson Square along the lines of ‘I’m a bin – put your litter in’. Apparently this approach has led to 40% more use of bins elsewhere.
2. Community Councils and Locality Committees – following discussion at our last meeting, I wrote to all thirteen Community Councils in the area of the South East Locality Committee to ask if they shared our concerns over the engagement of Community Councils in the future work of Locality Committees. I received six replies. One merely quoted a discussion they had had with a City Councillor. Two were content to wait and see how the new structures developed and suggested that Community Councils were responsible for ‘demonstrating our continuing relevance’. Three did share our concerns, Merchiston, Tollcross and Marchmont and Sciennes. One of those suggested that we should make a pre-emptive strike before the powers that be decide our fate and that we should make a deputation to the next meeting of the SE Locality Committee on 23 April.
3. Officer Support to Community Councils – as agreed at the last meeting, I wrote to City Council Chief Executive, Andrew Kerr, on 19th March, expressing our disappointment that our last two invitations for Council officers to attend our meetings had been refused and asking whether there was a policy on encouraging and facilitating the attendance of officers at Community Council meetings? I have not received a reply as yet.
4. Mags Campbell – on behalf of the Community Council, I posted a card of condolence and appreciation to Mags’ family
Tim
April, 2018