Category: City of Edinburgh Council

Duncan Place Trustee Recruitment

Duncan Place are recruiting 6 new trustees to help run this important community hub.

If you would like to find out more about what the role involves then contact Duncan Place at:

info@duncanplace.org

or drop in to Duncan Place on 16th April between 7pm and 8pm for more information on what would be expected from you.

Duncan Place already delivers a range of services to the community and this is an exciting opportunity to get involved.

link to job advert on Right Move

Potential Trustee Form V1

Your last chance to comment on Low Traffic Neighbourhood! Do you like the bus gate on Links Place?

There are a few aspects of the Leith Low Traffic Neighbourhood that still have ‘temporary’ status, and could perhaps still be overturned. You must send in your views before 8th April. They don’t make it easy for you – no clear questions on the Consultation Hub – you need to email in with your views. But please, do take the time to do this!

How to respond

Leith Connections  – Low Traffic Neighbourhood
https://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/cycling-walking-projects-1/leith-connections/5
Email your views on the Experimental Traffic Order (eg. on the bus gate on Links Place) and/ or general views on the low traffic neighbourhood to Edinburgh.Consultation@projectcentre.co.uk
and copy to leithconnections@edinburgh.gov.uk

We are aware that the community holds mixed views on the Low Traffic Neighbourhood overall, but there does seem to be consensus on one particular issue – the ‘bus gate’ on Links Place. The Community Council discussed this at our recent meeting and agreed to share the view that we find the bus gate to be unnecessary and unhelpful – potentially dangerous – and would like to see this overturned, with Links Place returned to two way traffic, for the following reasons. But of course, if you disagree, feel free to comment here below, and to send in your views to the consultation.

  • The bus gate is dangerous. Because of the bus gate, all traffic (including buses, though excluding taxis) trying to head west is forced to turn right into Salamander Place. This creates a very congested and dangerous junction at the corner of Links Place / Salamander Place / Links Gardens.
  • The Salamander Place roadway was not designed as a major traffic through route, and is not fit for purpose;  it is cobbled and has many large holes and bumps along its length. Two way bus traffic is making the surface worse every day. It is dangerous for pedestrians as it is quite wide, but there are no crossing points except at the junction with Salamander Street.
  • Because of the location of St. Marys Primary School nearby, many children heading into and home from school have to cross the road at this dangerous junction. The school crossing patrol officer on duty at this corner often comments on how dangerous the junction at this corner is. Locals often observe chaos at the junction as buses and lorries have to ‘queue up’ on either side of the road narrowing build out on Links Place to make the turn.
  • The bus gate on Links Place actually makes Links Gardens much more dangerous for pedestrians, including pupils, staff and parents at St. Mary’s Primary School. All traffic coming up Salamander Place (including lorries from the docks etc.) now has to turn left along past the entrance to the school.
  • The bus gate is unnecessary. Links Place is not a particularly busy route for traffic anyway, since the introduction of the trams and the consequent closure of the south end of Constitution Street to traffic – plus the later closure of Tolbooth Wynd and Burgess Street, Sandport Bridge etc. – there is no ‘through route’ anyway westward along Links Place, so the traffic using it would be mainly local people, rather than it ever becoming a ‘rat run’.
  • This stretch of Links Place is not in fact a densely populated residential area anyway, so it is unclear why this particular stretch was chosen for extra  ‘protection’ from traffic. There is park all along one side, and the other side is largely taken up with offices (Great Michael House), plus a few detached houses, and only one block of tenement flats. Yet at the same time, the bus gate has actually made things far worse – not better – for nearby neighbours, by forcing traffic to reroute through the very densely residential area behind Links Place (Fox Street, Pattison Street, Elbe Street) with narrow streets, and for Salamander Place which has a large residential population in very large blocks of flats on both sides.
  • Closing Fox Street etc. to through traffic as well  – as has been threatened – would make things even worse, as then there would simply be no way for local people to get to where they are trying to go! Even thinking of closing off the Fox Street route is an admission of failure by the Leith Connections Team as they have to recognise that the closure of Links Place west bound is not working well.
  • There is already a serious issue in Leith of ‘lack of resilience’ in the face of unexpected events. For example, if road repairs, utility based road works, a fire or road accidents take place, there are simply not enough routes left open in Leith to let traffic bypass the trouble spot and find another route. This leads to great congestion and delays, extra emissions etc. Keeping Links Place open would help to reduce this problem if it occurs.
  • And finally  – There is no bus that ever goes along Links Place anyway (nor will they in future, because they can’t get round the corner at Constitution Street by the Police Station, where the pavement has been built out), so it makes no sense to reserve this stretch of roadway for buses.
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Vital Consultations – please add your views

There are a number of consultations currently live on Council websites on issues that will impact all of our lives, in some cases quite profoundly. Please take some time to respond to these, before the deadline.

Leith Connections  – Low Traffic Neighbourhood
https://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/cycling-walking-projects-1/leith-connections/5
Email your views on the Experimental Traffic Order (eg. on the bus gate on Links Place) to Edinburgh.Consultation@projectcentre.co.uk
And/ or general views on the low traffic neighbourhood to leithconnections@edinburgh.gov.uk

Closes 8 April 2024

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Lindsay Road Bridge Regeneration https://consultationhub.edinburgh.gov.uk/sfc/lindsay-road-bridge/

Closes 4 April 2024

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Edinburgh’s Public Libraries – future vision and strategy https://consultationhub.edinburgh.gov.uk/cf/edinburgh-future-libraries/

Closes 19 April 2024

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There are several other consultations that you may find of relevance, please explore the full list here https://consultationhub.edinburgh.gov.uk/consultation_finder/

 

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Music Encounters on the Links, 16 March 2024

There will be some live music on the Links for all park users to enjoy, free of charge, on Saturday 16th March, as follows:

11-13:00 set-up

13:00-13:30 Firelight Trio – European music including Swedish polskas, Scottish reels, French waltzes, toe-tapping klezmer and dazzling original tunes. www.firelighttrio.co.uk

13:40-14:10 Ché Caré – One of Edinburgh’s finest Latin Trios and house band at Boteco Do Brasil playing timeless pop classics from all around the globe with a Latin core and jazz-rock twist. https://www.instagram.com/checaretrio/

14:20-15:00 Tom Oakes Duo/Trio – 2019 Scots Trad Awards ‘Musician of the Year’ nominee, Edinburgh-based Tom is regarded as one of the UK’s top Flautists and Multi instrumentalists. www.tomoakesmusic.com

15:00-16:00 take down

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Do you want this event on the Links?

This is the response that the Community Council has sent in to the Council, with regard to a proposal to hold an electronic dance music festival event on the Links, across a weekend in May 2024.

If you wish to send in a comment yourself, whether in support or as an objection, please do so as soon as possible, as consultation is closing very shortly. Email parks@edinburgh.gov.uk

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The Leith Links Community Council is writing to formally OBJECT to this proposed event on Leith Links in May 2024.

It is not that the Community Council and local residents object to all / any concerts on the Links -general nimby-ism – actually, we have received lots of extremely positive comments about the Proclaimers concert organised by Regular Music last year, and an indication that more of that kind of event might be very well received locally – it is that the majority object to this particular event. The reasons for objection follow below, and basically focus on time scales, scale and noise. We believe that Leith Links and this event are not a good fit for each other. This is basically a two day festival and Leith Links is too close to a densely populated residential area for such an event.
Time-scales – Is this too close to the 8 June date for the Gala Day, in terms of letting the grass recover? And in terms of blocking off access to a large section of the park for local residents and park users?
Length of the event –  This plan would apparently block off a large section of the Links for 10 days – in stark contrast to the the Proclaimers concert which was done faster, within about 4 or 5 days.
 Also the weekend days of the proposed concerts are too long – much longer than the Proclaimers concerts. FLY would be 12-11pm  and 12-10pm – with loud electronic music playing from three different sources, more or less continuously (whereas the Proclaimers was only 3-10 with music only playing between 6 or 7 – 10)
Finish time – It has previously been agreed with the Council that 10pm is an absolute deadline for amplified music, whether it’s a Saturday or any other day. This is so that local residents, especially those with young families, can sleep. 11pm is not acceptable
Scale –  the scale of this would  be similar to the Proclaimers concerts in terms of numbers of  tickets sold, but the type of music would not be as universally  acceptable to local residents as the Proclaimers were – it will be very loud electronic dance music. 12,000 inside the fences and potentially many other young people flooding the Links outside the enclosure might be very different to the intergenerational crowds who came for the Proclaimers.
 
Noise -This sounds like a 2 day non stop  ‘Festival’ not just two concerts.  As we know from the Proclaimers (who only played for 4 hours max per night), everyone locally can hear  amplified music on the Links. Continuous loud electronic music for 11/10 hours a day would not be acceptable. This type of electronic dance music is famous for being particularly loud and penetrating. We would anticipate endless complaints from locals.
We particularly object to the three different sound sources, meaning that music would presumably be continuous. And specifically to the Landrover Defender ‘background  music’ source as this is not protected by a tent, so will be even louder than from the other stages. 
Location – There was a reason the festival was held previously at Hopetoun House – i.e. it was as far away as possible from residents. That would be a much more appropriate locus for this kind of event. Or a bigger park in Edinburgh further away from local residents e.g. Inverleith?
On the Links, the proposed location of the tents looks wrong, this should be as far away as possible from residential properties. (There is actually nowhere on the Links that would be far enough away!)
Traffic and Parking – There are already major parking problems around the Links. Due to the new parking restrictions on the north side of the Links, local residents on the south side of the Links now get swamped with irresponsibly parked cars mainly due to commuters on week days. In spite of public transport links nearby, there would obviously also be many cars flooding into the area for this large scale event, with resulting chaos (like a Hibs match but lasting 48 hours instead of 4 hours!!) and this would cause major inconvenience for local residents.
The Principle – The Community Council and many local residents believe that concerts should only be located on Leith Links if they bring positive benefit to the local community. We are opposed to events occupying public space that simply bring profit to the council and the event organiser, and we vigorously wish to protect Leith Links from such events. We particularly do not want to see Leith Links turned into a regular ‘cash cow’ for promoters instead of a peaceful and health giving green space available to be enjoyed by local people and visitors. 
We have taken time to consult members of the local community via our website. The comments we received back were mostly negative although there were positive views mixed in with these. However, most of the positive ones seemed to be based on a belief that the event would be very similar to the Proclaimers concert last year, whereas reading the details of this application it appears to be very different to that event. Comments submitted by local residents include the following:
I strongly object to the FLY event. It’s too big, will run until late both days, will cause parking issues and will be extremely noisy. It’s not possible to have quiet electronic music! We must stop the council from presuming that they can use the Links as a full- blown concert venue and close the facility off for entire weekends. That’s not its intended purpose.
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The FLY festival is too big, too long and potentially too noisy. We don’t want these sort of events, otherwise the Links will end up being a full-scale music venue and none of the residents will ever get a decent night’s sleep! 
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I agree with the objection to the FLY Summer of Love ‘92 two day event. Living directly on Leith Links, and with a young child, loud music and lots of visitors late at night is extremely disruptive for our family.
Thank you
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As a public space it  (ie the Links) should cater to all age groups and tastes….The LLCC should be representative of the whole community. Let the young people have their fun also.
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We had a great time during the Proclaimers, but that was because folk could sit outside the tent and enjoy the music. If the whole place was cordoned off then that wouldn’t be good. Looking forward to more events this summer.
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I would fully support … The Proclaimers were amazing.
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Joy to the World

Seasons Greetings

If you were writing a new Christmas Panto script and you were looking for an idea, then Leith’s Christmas tree could be it.

Our sad tale begins in Leith with tram works and a modern-day plague.

Constitution Street and Leith Walk ripped up, and then Covid strikes.

The Christmas Tree that was installed and stood proudly in the Kirkgate for many, many years had to find a temporary home, and after little or no consultation a decision was taken by council officers to place a tree in Taylor Gardens instead, with 6 lights (4 working) added to lamp standards.

It’s a nice enough tree, but really not the true location where  Leithers would expect it to be, and that is something council officials don’t grasp in their decision making process.

It was supposed to be a temporary move, not permanent, but although it may tick boxes with council officers they miss the point of how the community view things.

When I first asked our elected councillors why the tree hadn’t returned to the Kirkgate, Councillor Faccenda kindly wrote to council officers and received a reply with reasons why it couldn’t go back to the Kirkgate. But all of those ‘problems’ really could have been worked out, had there been a willingness from council public servants.

“Unfortunately due to the installation of the Tram lines we are now unable to provide any festive Lighting on Leith Walk which involves working at height. The installation on a cut Christmas Tree involves using a telehandler to lift the tree into position and then a cherry picker later to install the lights”

Where there’s a will there’s always a way of achieving the impossible?

Someone in the council also had the idea to plant a fir tree in Taylor Gardens which could become the Leith Christmas tree of the future.

 

 

In reply to Councillor Faccenda the council said about this tree (- and please don’t laugh but I suppose it’s panto time. It’s behind you!)

The decision to move the Kirkgate Christmas Tree along the road to Taylor Park has enabled us to plant a tree which will hopefully be ready for dressing with lights within the next 5 years or so. We will continue to provide an 8m cut tree here until the planted tree is ready.

Now as I’m of a certain age and don’t have a life, I’m drawn to TV programmes like Gardeners’ World and Landward, and having done a few Christmas Quizzes I can confidently say that planted tree will not be ready in ‘less than 5 years’

Quiz answer is 15 years before an average Christmas tree is ready.

So why do council officers put nonsense in emails and expect us to accept what they say without challenging them? I suppose their get-out clause legally was ‘or so‘.

They apparently know even less about trees than me and it comes across that they really don’t care,and possibly haven’t been down to Leith to have a look because they call it Park not Gardens.

They reply in a confident ‘I know what I’m talking about because I’m a council officer’ manner then they don’t expect to be called out for nonsense speak, they expect the community to just say ok,move on.

However they miss the point that it’s not just about location of a tree on a spreadsheet.

They don’t take into account how people who live in the area view it, and have shared memories of good and bad times

The historic heart of Leith for a tree has, for as long as I can remember, been the Kirkgate beside Queen Victoria’s statue. If you take a walk down there today it looks drab and uncared for, and especially at this time of year it could do with some cheer.

We keep getting told that Leith is hip and has a vibrant community and is a top 10 destination as a place to visit and stay.

You wouldn’t think that if, as a tourist, you arrived at the Foot of the Walk by tram to an area that Christmas seemed to have by-passed all because of council bureaucracy which prior to lockdown had never been an issue.

But if you get it right, people will keep coming back, and spend money in our community, and tell their friends what a great place it is with friendly and helpful locals.

It doesn’t have to be over the top flashy lights.

It just has to be welcoming, which is supposedly what we in Leith are good at.

I would like the community to support me in bringing the tree back to the Kirkgate in 2024 and hopefully with help from local businesses in the Kirkgate, to brighten the place up.

Take a trip out to Davidson Mains Street or the front at South Queensferry and you will see what some communities and businesses can achieve at this time of year.

Let me know what you think, and more importantly hit the email inboxes of your elected Leith Councillors, MP and MSP

Don’t moan, just drop them a quick email: BRING BACK THE CHRISTMAS TREE TO THE KIRKGATE

Yes, I know life is hellish at the moment for many, many people, and you can’t eat Christmas trees, but let’s give it a go for our own pride and self-respect returning.

Thanks, and have a peaceful and enjoyable festive holiday.

Jim Scanlon MBE

Chair, Leith Links Community Council

 

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How should the Tourist Tax be spent?

Most people will have heard that the City of Edinburgh is going to charge visitors to the city a small charge per night, as many other cities do, all over the world. It has been called a ‘tourist tax’ and also a ‘visitor levy’.

The Council is now consulting on how the tax/levy should be set up and how the monies collected should be spent.

Please take time to fill in this survey. You may feel that you don’t have clear opinions in the first section (but there are ‘don’t know’ options) but PLEASE keep going until you get to the later section which is about how the monies should be spent.

You will see that the Council is proposing that it might be spent on advertising and promoting tourism. Is that what you think? Is that what it was originally meant for? Is that what the city most needs, and what council tax paying residents most urgently want to see done?

Please access the survey via this link, and give your views

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/VisitorLevyforEdinburgh?fbclid=IwAR2ihyuo0LTcQ7H-b5BZNcoQGB2BqwnwiJnP49jKiDa3N-v2ZtGHcICPw4I

We are surprised to see that this survey is not on the usual Consultation Hub platform, but is separate, and has apparently not been widely advertised. Why would that be? We are trying to find out.

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

Online Survey

 

Grit your teeth Leith Links-ers! It’s ALL happening…

What’s happening NOW? LOTS!

Parking (lack of/chaos) There will be widespread parking restrictions all around our area over the next 2 weeks – yes, above and beyond those caused by the CPZ! This is because of the Leith Festival Gala Day on Saturday 10th June (fairly minimal disruption) and because of the Proclaimers Concerts to be held on Saturday and Sunday 17 & 18 June (fairly massive disruption). Crews will start building the enclosure and marquee site for the Proclaimers as of 9th June, and there may be heavy vehicles coming and going. All parking is suspended on Links Gardens (see the yellow notices attached to lamposts) and some other places.

Local residents all around will face displaced parking overflowing from Links facing streets.

On the concert days themselves, we can be pretty sure people will still try to drive            here (in spite of the tram and bus services), so it could be like two major Hibs                  matches in a row (lasting over 6 hours each)…

The official information release says:

“Excitement is building around Leith Links as over the weekend of 17th and 18th June part of Leith Links will see crowds of 6,000 people each night attending sold-out Proclaimers Concerts. In the build up to the concerts and over that weekend more ‘excitement’ will likely be generated by suspension of parking in Links Gardens and surrounding streets.   Initially from 8am on 9 June parking will be suspended in Links Gardens and part of East Hermitage Place until 6pm on 23 June. This is to facilitate building and removal of the event site. And from 2pm on 17 June until 11pm on 18 June parking will additionally be suspended all along East Hermitage Place, Hermitage Place, Vanburgh Place, parts of Somerset, Fingzies and Parkvale place, Gladstone Place, Summerfield Gardens and Claremont Road. So it’s going to be very difficult for local residents to park near their properties over the weekend of 17/18 June and there will likely be some displacement parking from 9 June.

For further details see temp-23-132-ending-on-23-june-2023 (edinburgh.gov.uk)“

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Low Traffic Neighbourhood

There is a new traffic island currently in construction on Links Place (near Links Gardens & junction with Salamander Place), aimed to make crossing easier and safer for pedestrians, as part of the Leith Connections scheme. (Note – this is NOT a zebra crossing as the Living Rent group claim.) Road markings are confusing right now but full signage will be going up very shortly. This will be a bus / taxi gate, and it will go live in a couple of weeks (delayed from original go live date of 12th June). So you can still drive through there for the moment.
Once live, no cars will be allowed to go through from Links Gardens west towards Queen Charlotte Street – only buses (there aren’t any), taxis (but not private hire cars), and cyclists. Vehicles heading west will have to go down Salamander Place and left along Baltic Street. As far as we know, vehicles WILL be able come through travelling from west to east.

Good luck folks!

 

 

 

 

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Controlled Parking& Low Traffic Neighbourhood in Leith Links

Parking Info

We were grateful to Gavin Brown and Gavin Graham of City of Edinburgh Council for coming along to the March ’23 Leith Links Community Council Meeting to talk about the forthcoming CPZ in our area, which is now scheduled to go fully live on 26th June.

The meeting was attended by a large number of local residents They answered our many questions very fully, and a transcript of those Q &As is available here.

They stressed that if anybody has questions about anything to do with parking controls in their street or area, expecially if urgent, they should in the first instance contact:

ParkingOperations.CustomerCare@edinburgh.gov.uk

as that email is constantly monitored and will achieve a quick reply, whereas emails to the personally may take longer to go through.

See also our earlier post witrh details about permits, at:

http://www.leithlinkscc.org.uk/controlled-parki…eith-north-leith/

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LTN Info

We were grateful to Councillor Scott Arthur and Miles Wilkinson of City of Edinburgh Council for coming to our April ’23 LLCC meeting and sharing information about the Low Traffic Neighbourhood, which has been being rolled out in stages throughout April and May (and June, to come). Again, that meeting was attended by many local residents, and many questions were asked and answered. The presentation that Miles gave that evening is too large a file to be handled easily here, but you can read the latest edition of the LTN Newsletter here.  (N.B for 35 read 34 bus).

Any queries about the LTN should be directed in the first instance to: leithconnections@edinburgh.gov.uk

 

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