Meeting on 24th May, 2023, Salisbury Court
SCC (Joan Carter and Philip McDowell) and Unite (Bex Moylan and Michael Phillips)
Purpose: to meet each other; to discuss ways of working together in the community for everyone’s benefit; to further our understanding of any historic issues and discuss their, or other issues, prevention for the future.
Discussed recycling: end of term clear outs are assisted by charity collection sacks in the Student Accommodation common areas. However, some of the charities Unite are working with cannot handle the huge quantity in this short period, so Philip suggested Unite could add Bethany to their collecting charities, and Joan suggested SHRUB Co-op might be of interest to their students with its Swap Shop and Zero Waste Hub.
Bex explained that, having attained Bronze level in their environmental management, they would like to work towards Silver, which would mean doing activities out in the community, as well as managing their own space well.
We agreed that we could have a trial litter pick / graffiti clean sometime in the week beginning the 19th June. This would involve perhaps 10 staff and a few students, and would primarily be to try it out and learn the ropes, with the idea to have such events monthly, starting next term, with more students.
Unite would provide the manpower. They also have graffiti cleaning kits. They would be responsible for making sure appropriate Insurance is in place.
SCC could arrange to get the litter grabs, bags, high vis vests etc from the Council. They could also suggest areas to cover. The SCC website could let the public know these events are happening, ask for further suggestions of areas to cover, and ask for feedback from the community. (Although we are unlikely to get much feedback, Unite would like to have some, as evidence of working towards the Silver status. It is also a good incentive to keep at it!)
Joan will also connect Friends of the Meadows and Bruntsfield Links' Volunteer Group with Unite as FoMBL have a monthly clean up and/or gardening activity in the Meadows that students may want to be involved with.
Joan also will give Bex and Michael emails for connecting to the Community Garden in the Meadow; they may have other "Greening our Streets" activities for volunteers.
We then discussed how to get the business, Unite, a significant stakeholder organisation in the Southside, and the students they house, more involved in shaping the neighbourhood's future. Students are the largest group of residents in the Southside so they should have more say in its operation, and they could contribute their ideas to a vision of what it could be.
We agreed that they could be informed on arrival about the Council's Consultation Hub and notified of particular consultations of interest throughout the year.
We speculated on using the resource of a staff member who is very interested in geography and mapping as a way into student and staff contributing to a vision for the Southside. The SCC is keen to create a Vision Statement for the area, and we are expecting to have some help with doing this from Pam Orchard. Residents and staff from Unite could perhaps participate in that session, or another, more specific, session could possibly be arranged.
Bex and Michael generously offered the use of meeting rooms at Salisbury Court for community issues.
We also mentioned stimulating interest of students by encouraging them to do the "local history walk".
Complaints: There have been no more complaints about student behaviour or noise.
Joan mentioned the issue of vehicles parking in front of the bench at the south end of the front of Salisbury Court. She had noticed works vehicles (from the neighbouring church) frequently parked there, rendering the bench unusable and had discussed this with a Unite staff member once. Bex and Michael acknowledged it had been an ongoing problem; they have spoken with the church, who said they would tell their contractors, but that has not been effective. Most of the church renovation work is complete so the problem may go away. (Although not said at the meeting, I would like to suggest a simple bollard strategically placed to prevent this in future. If Unite want to park there themselves sometimes, then it could be one that can fold down. Another option is to offer the church the use of one of your parking spaces at the other end of your building.)
All felt this was a very useful meeting. The SCC invites Unite to attend an SCC meeting.