About us

Leith Links Community Council is a local voluntary body composed people who care about our community and want to make our area an ever better place to live, work, study, volunteer or visit.

The general purpose of Community Councils is to act as a voice for our local area. We do that by raising matters of concern with our elected representatives or directly to public bodies. We also work to improve our local community by taking part in partnership work and by undertaking our own projects.

We meet regularly throughout the year, usually the last Monday of each month at 18:30 in Leith Community Centre, except July & December when we don’t have a monthly meeting. Our community are welcome and in fact encouraged to come along to our meetings. Further details can be found on our ‘our meetings‘ page.

During the ongoing Covid-19 global pandemic our meetings are taking place online using Zoom and Teams.

Elected representatives

Our elected representatives are people who live in our area and care passionate about our community. They were all elected at the 2019 Edinburgh Community Council elections unless otherwise indicated.

Gail Clapton	Vice chair Treasurer Travel and mobility sub committee
Abby Cunningham	Parks and greenspaces sub committee Leith Chooses steering group
Angus Hardie	Planning sub committee Travel and mobility sub committee Community Councils Together on Trams
David Igoe	Parks and greenspaces secretary
Sally Millar	Secretary Planning sub committee Travel and mobility sub committee Leith Chooses steering group Edinburgh Bus Users Group
Andrew MacKenzie	Planning Secretary Community Councils Together on Trams
Teresa Perchard
Christine Reid	Parks and greenspaces sub committee
Jim Scanlon MBE	Chairperson Travel and mobility sub committee Seafield Stakeholders Group Edinburgh Association of Community Councils Planning sub committee
Eileen Simpson	Seafield Stakeholders Group

Nominated representatives

Our nominated representatives represent the interests of local local interest groups on our Community Council.

We currently have two nominated representatives but have six seats available, there are therefore four seats still available to local interest groups.

Local interest groups who are interested in joining us should contact City of Edinburgh Council to find out eligibility for registering, and the process for joining.

Barbara Kerr	Representative of Leith Festival since 2021.
Robert Cormack	Representative of Leith Rotary sinec 2021.

Associate representatives

Our associate representatives are people who the Community Council has decided to bring onto the Community Council because they have specialist skills, knowledge or experience that would be beneficial.

We currently have no associate representatives.

Ex officio representatives

Our ex officio representatives are automatically members of our Community Council by virtue of holding elected office at the City of Edinburgh Council, the House of Commons, the Scottish Parliament or the Scottish Youth Parliament. The area they represent includes part or all of the Leith Links Community Council area.

It is uncommon for many of these ex officio representatives to attend on a regular basis, in fact some have never attended a single Leith Links Community Council meeting.

Councillor Chas Booth (Leith Ward 13)
Councillor Adam McVey (Leith Ward 13)
Councillor Katrina Faccenda (Leith Ward 13)

Councillor Danny Aston (Craigentinny/Duddingston Ward 14)
Councillor Joan Griffith (Craigentinny/Duddingston Ward 14)
Councillor Ian Whyte (Craigentinny/Duddingston Ward 14)
Councillor Alex Staniforth (Craigentinny/Duddingston Ward 14)

Our area

We are specifically tasked with representing the Leith Links Community Council area however, our work is not confined to this area. For example, a large planning development in another Community Council area may have an impact on local infrastructure in our area in, in which case it would be legitimate for us to become involved.

Our area is defined by the red line in the map below.

Our elections

Community Council elections were last held in Autumn 2019. We had twelve candidates standing for twelve seats which meant no public vote was required, with all candidates returned as elected unopposed.

Ten of our current elected representatives were members of the previous Community Council.

Click here to view our blog posts about the 2019 Edinburgh Community Council elections.

How we are governed

Community Councils were first established in Scotland by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973.

The City of Edinburgh Council produces a Scheme of Administration for Community Councils which lays down local provision & rules for Community Councils in the City.

Our Community Council also adheres to its own Constitution and Standing Orders.

Frequently Asked Questions

In this section we have provided answers to some of our most frequently asked questions.