Report from the Southside Association, September 2018

1. Murals

Murals have been painted in Gibb's Entry and Haddon's Court Pends, Nicolson Street. They have made a big improvement to the area. If you haven't seen them yet, please go and have a look.

2. Fly Posting

There has been a great deal of fly posting in the area during the festival period. The Council has a contract with a company called Out of Hand who manage all the Fringe advertising, and who are supposed to clear all the flyposting. It would appear that they have not been doing so. Hilary McDowell has been active in removing flyposting, as has Councillor Rose, but this is not a satisfactory solution to the problem. Hilary had a walkabout with Steven Cuthill, South East Locality Environmental Manager, to draw his attention to the problem, and encourage him to bring pressure on Out of Hand to clear up properly. The Council's Procurement team will soon be looking to select an operator for handling Fringe advertising for 2019 and there is concern that no account will be taken of the poor performance of the current contractor. The Southside Association has asked to see the contract terms for this operation, to ensure that it is quite clear that the operator is responsible for clearing flyposting during the time of the Fringe. It is understood that the original purpose of this contract was to regulate Fringe advertising and to control flyposting.

Flyposting outwith the Festival period is also a concern. There used to be an arrangement with night clubs and the licensing dept that premises licences would be at risk if acts / shows using those premises were involved in flyposting. This scheme seems to have lapsed. The SA would like to see it reinstated, and it should be general licensing policy to revoke the licences of premises associated with flyposting.

To this end the SA is planning a deputation to full Council to urge the Council to act on the problem, and it is hoped that the SCC will support and help the SA in doing this.

3. Roads Capital Programme

The 2016/17 projects included upgrading the pavement from Drummond Street to Varsity Music to Caithness stone. This has now been done as part of the resurfacing programme in the spring of this year, and it was revealed that the only reason why it had not happened at an earlier date, when the pavement outside Surgeons Hall was upgraded, was that there was scaffolding on the Drummond Street corner at the time, and the work was left incomplete. Funding had been allocated to the upgrade at that time. It should not, therefore, have been taken from the 2016/17 Roads Capital allocation. This means that another project should be able to be funded from the 2016/17 list. It should be noted that all other work from 2016/17, i.e. pavement repair on Nicolson Street between Hill Place and West Richmond Street, is still outstanding.

The 2017/18 project which came top of the list is the pedestrian crossing of Bernard Terrace near the St Leonards Street junction. There is no sign of that being implemented yet. The SA appreciates that the SCC is putting pressure on the Council to undertake this work as a matter of urgency, and would urge the SCC to continue to do so until some action happens.

For 2018/19, the SA would like to propose another pedestrian crossing, this one on Salisbury Road, at the junction with Dalkeith Road. At present there is no time when it is safe for pedestrians to cross, as either northbound traffic can turn left into Salisbury Road, or southbound traffic can turn right. This is on the route many children take to Preston Street School, and there used to be a crossing patrol at this point. What is needed is a change to the traffic lights so there is a time when no traffic can turn into Salisbury Road. This can easily be achieved with a small change to the light sequencing, and should not be very expensive. A bit of re-engineering would also be necesssary, adjusting the pavement widths.

4. Licensing consultations

There are two consultations open at present from the Licensing Board, one on its general poicy, and the other on overprovision. Reps from the SA spoke at the hearings and engaged with the workshop in preparation for these consultations. The SA will be considering its response to the consultations later this week, and is more likely to focus on the number of licensed premises in our area, and the associated effects they have on our society. The SA reps heard at these meetings that the vast majority of people represented there, including the Health Board and the Police, would like to see a limit to the numbers of licensed premises.

5. South East Locality Improvement Plan - Southside Corridor small area plan

On 12th June, Hilary McDowell of the SA together with Nicholas Oddy of the SCC attended the first meeting of the small core working group that will oversee and monitor the development and implementation of the plan. They tabled a list of "desired outcomes" which had been approved by both the SA and the SCC. It had already been announced that a ban on A-boards was to be introduced 'in the Autumn' but no firm date was given, and it seems there had been no staff recruited to enforce the ban. No minutes have been circulated from this meeting, nor has another meeting been called, despite the fact that it was stated there would be meetings every 4 to 6 weeks for the next 4 years. The SA is reluctant to commit to sending a rep to this group unless it can be seen to be effective in producing results on the ground. One positive result is that a 3 day 'deep clean' of the main corridor is planned for October - this is expected to involve the new Nicolson Square group. One action the SA thought it could undertake with some help from the SCC was to distribute leaflets outlining the new restrictions on A boards to businesses if the Council felt that would be helpful.

6. Resurfacing and upgrade work

The SA has been very pleased with the work that has been carried out this spring, and would urge the SCC to express its gratitude to the Council for the way the work has been carried out, and in particular the way Steven Blacklaw has liaised with the community throughout. We note that there are still some outstanding items - bollards to go in and cycle racks to be cemented in place, together with some wobbly paving slabs to be sorted out.

7. Meadows Fringe events

The SA is keen for the overuse of the Meadows during the Fringe Festival to be reduced. We understand that the lease for 2019 and following years is soon to be renegotiated, probably with Underbelly and the Ladyboys in contention. In addition John Millar, owner of Monkey Barrel Comedy here in Edinburgh. would like to create a new Fringe hub on The Meadows from Fringe 2019 and beyond. The SA is looking for an open and transparent procurement process, and would ask the SCC to do what it can to ensure this happens.