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City of Edinburgh Parks Department confirmed yesterday that after discussion with the contractors work on the new Leith Links Play Park will start during w/c 21st April.
This is great news for the area as we come into summer .
The contractors haven’t confirmed how long work will take but I would hope that it will be in use by June? Watch this space for further updates.
Later this year the ParkLife project (a collaboration between City of Edinburgh Council and University of Edinburgh) is coming to Leith Links!
Everyone who uses or has an interest in Leith Links is welcome to attend this community workshop to find out more about the project & what it means for Leith Links. This is also an opportunity to feed into the work of the project moving forward.
The workshop is being held on Monday 1 April 2019 from 6pm in Leith Community Centre – follow this link to book your seat.
The ParkLife project is looking at how new uses of data and technology can help us understand how people use and value parks. The aim is to support the city and park partners to work together to improve parks to benefit everyone. The project includes the installation of a wifi enabled model which park users can engage with, should they wish to do so.
The workshop will give you an opportunity to share and develop your ideas about ways Leith Links can be improved and how technology might be able to help. During the workshop we will design several ‘prototypes’ that could be built and installed in Leith Links. These can be anything from a digital notice board that provides information about park activities to a system for timing yourself running a mile.
You don’t need to have prior understanding of technology in order to be able to join. You just need to be a person who cares about parks! Your views are important and will directly contribute to the project. Parks are diverse spaces and we would like to hear from as many people as possible.
City of Edinburgh Council are considering an application to permit a Leith Links 5k to be held in Leith Links (organisers also plan to use the Restalrig Railway Path).
The request doesn’t contain a great amount of detail but is published here for your information, please be aware we have removed the name of the individual making the application.
If you have any views either in support or objection to the request, or just a general comment please let City of Edinburgh Council know;
The next meeting of Leith Links Community Council will be on Monday, 25th February, in Leith Community Centre (Shore Room). Please remember the new start time is 6.30pm.
If you live in the Leith Links area, and have questions or concerns to discuss, we would be pleased to welcome you.
Please find Agenda and draft minutes of last meeting attached.
agenda Agenda25.2.19 minutes Draft2LLCC Minutes Jan 2019
Leith Links will shortly be the home of Alfred the Owl, or rather a replica of him who may or may not be called Alfred. City of Edinburgh Council and University of Edinburgh are working together on a project called Parklife (funded by NESTA) which will see the owl installed in a tree to monitor & interact with park users.
Four parks across the City will have an electronic owl installed – Inverleith Park, Leith Links, The Meadows & Bruntsfield Links and Saughton Park.
The project will explore and develop new ways to use data and digital technologies to better understand how parks are used and valued by citizens, and how to engage park users in shaping the future of our parks.
Should park users wish to do so, they can connect with the owl via wifi in order to engage with each other for the purposes of sharing information such as the park users location & usage of the park etc.
Representatives of City of Edinburgh Council and University of Edinburgh will be attending a future meeting of Leith Links Community Council (date to be decided) to speak with us about the project. And of course we will publish more details as & when they become available. The meeting will be open to the public and we will promote the meeting in advance on this website as well as our Facebook & Twitter streams.
The next meeting of Leith Links Community Council will be on Monday, 26th November, in Leith Community Centre (Shore Room). Please remember the new start time is 6.30pm.
If you live in the Leith Links area, and have questions or concerns to discuss, we would be pleased to welcome you.
LLCC Minutes Draft October 2018
Below is the response from Leith Links Community Council (LLCC) to City of Edinburgh Council (Parks and Greenspaces Dept.) on the proposal to use Leith Links as a Fringe venue between 29 July 2019 and 28 August 2019, by Lady Boys of Bangkok / La Clique Cabaret. Leith Links Community Council itself starts from an impartial position on the matter but considers its duty is represent the interests of local residents, who have raised a number of important points and concerns. Follow the links to read those points in more detail.
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The Leith Links Community Council has considered all aspects of this application very carefully. Please see attached our policy on events outlining the general terms that any applicants (and City of Edinburgh Council) need to meet in order to be acceptable. It is clear that for a large and exceptionally long-running event such as is proposed here, there are many key issues that would need to be addressed, on which we would need to be reassured, before even considering accepting such an application. We have also carefully read and considered the many views expressed by local residents, and these have very much informed our view as a Community Council.
Views of local residents / community
Because this proposal is unusual in proposing a much longer use of the Links than previous applications for events, LLCC decided to put this proposal out to wider public consultation. From our website, FaceBook page and Twitter accounts we provided a link to an easy-to-complete ‘form’ for local residents to give their views. In the 5 days the form was available, we received 56 formal responses (plus a number of informal comments, that are not recorded here).
We have copied and pasted from those responses into the attached document public comments . Please take the time and trouble to read these comments – or you will not be ‘listening’ to our community.
We are aware that these are popular Fringe shows in need of a new venue. We have nothing against the shows in question. We can appreciate the potential value for local businesses in bringing more Festival visitors down into Leith. However, overall, we would have to question whether that is a powerful enough rationale for granting the application, when set against the opposing arguments. It is not clear that having these shows on the Links for 4+ weeks would be in the best interests of the local community. We therefore propose that City of Edinburgh Council should not approve this proposal at least until there has been wider consultation and until all the concerns raised have been adequately addressed.
On a practical basis, there are barriers to Area 9 as a potential venue, due to the John Rattray Statue due to be installed shortly exactly on the access point for that part of the Links. (See attached picture). Also, the childrens Playpark close to Area 9 is due to be upgraded in 2019, so there could be vehicles to and fro-ing, and fairly major building works still taking place there. Furthermore, it is our understanding that that part of the Links is already booked by LAFC for football (which season restarts in mid-August).
The Links is a large park, however other areas on the Links are equally ‘booked’ or in permanent use e.g. football, cricket pitches, St. Mary’s Primary school playground, PE and sports (term restarts in mid-August), informal childrens’ play, informal sports and/or relaxation, family picnics, dog walking, cycle path, formal and informal bootcamps, tennis, future development of the ex Dry Dock area etc. etc.
In short, Leith Links is not a commercial business but a green space for relaxation, health and well-being, much needed by the community in this very densely populated area of Edinburgh. It is a busy, family-friendly, public place that belongs to the local community and that should be openly accessible to them at all times, rather than blocked off in part for a long chunk of the summer for adult shows and private profit.
Wider Consultation?
We think that the Council should undertake further consultation with the community, given the scale of the event proposed, the risk of a significant precedent being created, and the sensitivity of citizens of both Leith and the whole of Edinburgh, at the moment, about Council decisions about the use of public green spaces being imposed upon them.
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We are currently considering proposals submitted to City Of Edinburgh Council to allow The Lady Boys Of Bangkok to use Leith Links as a venue during August 2019.
As we are a statutory consultee we will be submitting a response in due course, as we consider our response we are particularly keen hear & consider the views of others on the proposals.
We have created a brief easy to use web form to help people submit their views to us.
We will publish our response to the proposals on our website as well as our Facebook & Twitter channels.
The Lady Boys Of Bangkok propose to use area 9.
Although there was no community council meeting in July we were still involved in meetings regarding trams, planning and Seafield. The next meeting of the community council will take place on Monday, 27th August at 7pm in Leith Community Centre.
Agenda27.8.18, LLCC Draft Ordinary Minutes May 2018, LLCC MINUTES Draft Jun 2018 (1)
