1. EACC - on 25 February, I attended the first meeting under the chairmanship of Steve Kerr (Corstorphine). The main topic of conversation was community engagement with Paul Lawrence, Director of Place, acknowledging that the Council had not always got this right. There was a proposal that the EACC develop a new concordat to focus the relationships between the City Council and Community Councils.
It was also reported at this meeting that David Leslie, the Chief Planning Officer, would shortly be leaving his post through voluntary redundancy.
2. Neighbourhood Networks - on 23 February, I attended a city-wide meeting considering the effectiveness of Neighbourhood Networks. These were very young organisations at mostly early stages of development across the city when lockdown struck. Some are now reconnecting, but in the main, it is acknowledged that there appears to be a lack of clarity around roles and responsibilities. There is an acknowledgement that new ways of reenergising Neighbourhood Networks are needed and there is commitment to pursue this.
3. Astley Ainslie Community Trust - having received no response to three separate means of trying to make contact, Jo Scott of the Southside Association, having read of this difficulty in our minutes, supplied me with a further email address of a related organisation. Through this means, I made contact with Stuart Buchanan, Convener of the Astley Ainslie Community Trust. Stuart has forwarded me copies of a December 2020 Feasibility Study and the May 2019 document, Community Visioning for Astley Ainslie Hospital Grounds in order to inform our discussions of whether we wish to support the Community Trust.
4. Edinburgh World Heritage - in response to the invitation from EWH for local residents to inform them of priorities for building conservation funding in the EWH area or nearby, and with the agreement of the Community Council, I submitted an ‘application’ in support of the application by Greyfriars Charteris Centre. I have also made the Southside Community Centre Management Committee aware of this opportunity.
5. Treasurer - following our Treasurer, Svetlana, having to stand down as a Community Councillor due to her moving out of the area, I have so far received no positive responses to my appeal for someone to step into this role. I am pursuing individual approaches and have other potential courses of action to pursue if these approaches do not bring about a solution.
Tim
March, 2021