Community Council Scheme and Boundary Review 2023

Overview

Community Councils are voluntary organisations set up by statute by the Local Authority to act on behalf of their areas. They are involved in a range of activities which promote and protect the well-being and identity of their communities; and help bring local people together to make things happen. They advise, petition, influence and advocate numerous causes and cases of concern on behalf of local communities.

Edinburgh currently has 46 community council areas. All local authorities must provide a Scheme for Community Councils, which outlines their governance arrangements, which also includes details on boundaries for Community Council areas. The last review of the scheme was carried out in 2019.

As the city’s population increases, the scheme needs to be reviewed to make sure that our Community Councils are the right size to fairly represent our new and growing neighbourhoods.

Why your views matter

The council has a statutory requirement to consult with affected stakeholders as part of the review. There are three phases to the consultation process. This is the first phase, where City of Edinburgh Council (CEC) wants to hear your views on community councils and any suggestions on how we can improve the scheme and boundary areas.

Phase 2 will then ask for views on any proposed changes to the scheme and boundaries. These proposals will be based on the initial feedback received during Phase 1. Phase 3 will give you the opportunity to make any last comments before the final scheme is adopted.

You can find more information on Community Councils in the related section below. You can also download the current scheme for Community Councils and access a map tool where you can see the boundaries for community councils.

Give us your views

 

Leith Links Activity Park Consultation – please give your views now!

You may remember a community picnic we ran in July 2021 to ask local people what they would like to see developed on the Links, and in particular in the derelict building and the bowling greens area.
      
Since then, a Working Group has been developing a 10yr concept Masterplan for Leith Links. The group is composed of Leith Councillors, City of Edinburgh Council staff (the ‘Thriving Greenspaces Project’), and representatives of a number of local organisations, such as Leith Links Community Council, Earth in Common, Duncan Place. The draft master plan (which was put out to public consultation in summer 2022 and received very positive support) creates a vision for the future, but in order for it to happen, it needs funding (which is currently not yet in place), resource and – very importantly – local support.
The masterplan includes suggestions for a number of interesting developments, in various areas of the park. An ‘urgent’ area for development is the old bowling greens area, and this is being addressed by a sub group of the Working Group,calling itself Leith Links Activity Park. Along with some landscape architects, they have put together a vision of what this could look like.
It includes a skatepark – which consistently came out top in all earlier consultations – but also a number of other exciting possibilities such as a pump track/bike trail, roller skate rink, bouldering rocks, petanque court, water play area etc. Now consultation is needed to see which of these are most popular.
A public consultation is live until the 10 October to get feedback from the community on the design and all the ideas. Please fill in your views! And please share as widely as possible across all your networks to make sure everyone who might be affected gets to see it and comment.:

14th Leith Boys’ Brigade

The Community Council has been asked to publicise the 14th Leith Boys’ Brigade.

This may be of interest for families looking for constructive and fun things for their boys to do locally.

This is their message:

We are a voluntary youth organisation which meets every Wednesday at Duke Street United Reformed Church.

The 14th Leith provides a safe and caring place to develop skills, make friends and build confidence. Our programme offers active, creative and adventurous activities across three age groups:

  • Anchors (Primaries 1,2 and 3) – 6 -7pm
  • Juniors (Primaries 4,5 and 6) – 7.15 – 8.15pm
  • Company (Primary 7+)

Our team of volunteer leaders is registered, PVG-checked and trained.

We are a Leith community organisation, and we are trying to spread the word that our new session is underway, and runs weekly during term time. New members are welcome.

More information is available by emailing bb14thleith@hotmail.com , calling 07921 386451 or visiting https://www.facebook.com/14LeithBB/

The BBs Mission Statement

The Boys’ Brigade has faith in young people and provides them with opportunities to learn, grow and discover in a safe, fun and caring environment which is rooted in the Christian faith.

Next Leith Links Community Council meeting, Monday 25 September, 6:30pm,online only (Teams)

The next meeting of the Leith Links Community Council will be held on Monday 25 September at 6:30pm. This meeting will be online (MicroSoft Teams).

Agenda for meeting
Previous Minutes (August 2023)

The meeting will be held jointly with Leith Harbour and Newhaven Community Council and the main business of the evening will be a presentation from Orbit Communications, Scott Hobbs Planning and 56three Architects about the proposed redevelopment of Daltons Scrapyard ((52/66 Salamander Street, EH6 7LA) into a ‘mixed use development comprising purpose built student accommodation, residential (build to rent), retail/commercial space and associated works’

This is part of the preliminary consultation that developers are obliged to hold prior to lodging an actual Planning Application. (The Proposal of Application Notice (PAN) was lodged on 7th August and there is a 12 week minimum consultation period following that, so we can expect to see the full application around October.)

Members of the local community are welcome to attend this meeting, so please email contact@leithlinkscc.org.uk to request, and you will be sent the link.

Meanwhile, if you want a preview of Dalton’s planning proposals, you can inspect these at www.daltonregen.co.uk

 

Leith Glassworks a talk by Katie O’Connell

The next meeting of the Leith Local History Society will be the AGM at 6.30pm on Tuesday 19 Sep. 2023 at Leith Community Centre followed at 7pm by a talk from Katie O’Connell,
All are invited.
Leith Glassworks by Katie O’Connell, AOL Archaeology and the findings from the new housing site on Salamander Street.
Please see below for this years forthcoming talks:-
17 Oct. 2023 George IV’s Visit to Leith – Eric Melvin
21 Nov. 2023 The Plague in Leith – learning from the past – Janes Groves
19 Nov. 2023  Society Social Evening – possible quiz
16 Jan 2024 The Northern Lighthouse Board – Mike Bullock
20 Feb. 2024 The Gallipoli Campaign – David C. Clarke
19 Mar. 2024 The History of Golf – Brian Graham
16 Apr. 2024 Scotland – Beneath the surface – Bruce Keith
21 May 2024 – AGM possible speaker to be arranged.
If you are interested by the programme of upcoming talks why not complete the attached membership form and bring it to the next meeting.
Look forward to seeing you on 19th Sep.

A Letter from – the concert promoters

Regular Music, the promoters of the Proclaimers concert next weekend have written this letter to the community of local residents:

Concerts at Leith Links, Edinburgh

Saturday 17-Sunday 18 June 2023

The Proclaimers

Dear Neighbour

We would like to inform you that we are staging 2 concerts with The Proclaimers in a big top tent at Leith Links on Saturday 17 June and Sunday 18 June 2023.

The concert arena doors will be open to ticket holders from 4.00pm and the concerts are scheduled to end at 10pm. There will be licensed bars and food village available for the attendees. 

From Sunday 11 June until Friday 16 June we will be setting up the concert arena and from Monday 19 June until Thursday 22 June we will be removing all the infrastructure from the site. Please note that we will be checking that the sound system is working correctly on the afternoon and early evening of Friday 16 June.

If you would like to contact us in advance of the event or with any issues during the event then please contact us on the following email or telephone no.

Email: info@regularmusic.com

Phone: 07983 596786

Luxury Steam Yachts built in Leith – talk on 18th April

The Leith Local History Society holds interesting meetings monthly. The next one, on Tuesday 18th April at 7pm, in Leith Community Centre, welcomes guest speaker Eric Graham, who is the author of fascinating books including:

Seawolves Pirates and the Scots; Clyde Built; & A Maritime History of Scotland

Next Tuesday,  Eric will share his knowledge of Luxury steam yachts built by Ramage and Ferguson in Leith for very wealthy people around the globe.

Do come along to  Leith Community Centre, for this fascinating talk, and spread the news to your pals – all welcome.

SOS Leith – read about sewage in the Water of Leith

At the recent February meeting of the Leith Links Community Council, we had an excellent guest speaker; Jim Jarvie of Save Our Shore (SOS) Leith. He explained in full detail the appalling situation about raw sewage being emptied regularly into the Water of Leith, and remaining there, trapped in the deep silt (as the river is no longer tidal). SOS Leith is campaigning to get Scottish Government, SEPA and Scottish Water to address this situation responsibly.

You can view the presentation here: Jim Jarvie SOS Leith talk

Leith Links Community Council is committed to supporting the work of SOS Leith in any way possible.

       

Leith Local History Society

After an absence of two years due to covid Leith Local History Society returns with a programme of talks over the next five months. Unfortunately numbers of people attending meetings have dropped as some members have moved on.

It would be great to see new faces so if you’re interested in finding about the history of the local area it would great to see you

The next meeting of the Leith Local History Society will be held on Tuesday 17 Jan. at 7.00pm in Leith Community Centre. The Talk will be – Old and New Leith a series of slides comparing how Leith has changed in the last 150 years.

LLHS MEETING

 

Best wishes

Jim Scanlon

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