Tag: 2022

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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Communal Bin Hubs – have your say!

Communal Bin changes – tell the Council what you think by 18 December, via https://bit.ly/bin-hubs-survey

Do you use communal bins?  Have you noticed the changes the Council has made recently to your bins? The Council has been creating ‘bin hubs’ providing new bins, more bins, some different bins and – they say – more frequent collections. In some places they have moved the location of the bins. The overall aim is to improve the amount of waste which can be recycled, though it is also expected to improve street cleanliness if bins are emptied more regularly, and overflow less.

The Council now wants to know what you think about these changes, and whether your recycling habits have been affected. A short online survey has been set up by the charity Changeworks (posters about it have been placed on the inside stairwell doors of over 500 buildings across 96 streets in the Leith area). Residents can access the survey by scanning the QR code on the poster or typing the web address (https://bit.ly/bin-hubs-survey) into a browser. (Anybody can participate and input their views, you don’t necessarily have to have a poster.)

Please use this chance to have your say – the deadline has been extended to 18th December

Survey questions cover communications about the changes and whether you think things like street cleanliness have improved as a result of the new bin hubs. The survey does not ask directly if you are happy with the location of the new communal bin hubs, but there is a ‘comments’ box that you can use to say what you think about where the Council chose to locate the bin hub. Is it in a sensible place that you can access easily? Is it too close to windows or doorways? Are there problems with noise, or smells, or parking? The Council did not consult people prior to installing them in Leith. If you are unhappy with the location of your bin hub, write the details into that comments box AND don’t hesitate to contact one of your Councillors and the local Community Council and we will see how we can help.

Tell your Councillors

If you miss completing this survey, or find it inaccessible, you could also contact any of your local Councillors about this issue and/or let the Community Council know your views – we would all love to know what you think about the changes. Contact details:

Elected City Councillors:

Cllr Chas Booth – chas.booth@edinburgh.gov.uk

Cllr Katrina Faccenda – Cllr.Katrina.Faccenda@edinburgh.gov.uk

Cllr Adam McVey – adam.mcvey@edinburgh.gov.uk

Leith Links Community Council – contact@leithlinkscc.org.uk

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The Council say they will share the findings of the Survey with us in the New Year. The Community Council also monitors the state of communal bins and suggest improvements. Any additional information or views from local residents is really helpful for us, to be able to represent your views and experiences of this important local service, so please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

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O Christmas Tree O Christmas Tree

In last weeks Evening News, there was an article detailing where the council would be installing Christmas trees around the city this year. Leith wasn’t mentioned.

Last year because of ongoing tram works the council decided not to put one at the usual central Leith spot at the Kirkgate.  I know we all have enough on our minds with fuel and food costs going through the roof but a bit of Christmas cheer would be welcomed.

When I asked why another location couldn’t be found to place a tree, I was informed that the council had planted one in Taylor Gardens.

Exhibit 1

The council did eventually install a full size tree, which we welcomed, but could have been placed more centrally possibly at the Shore outside Malmaison or outside Bank of Scotland in the Kirkgate where many more tourists and Leithers pass during the day.

This year we had the same excuse about tram works for no tree at the Kirkgate but the council told us they had planted a tree beside Leith Library.

Exhibit 2

The council also intend to install a full size tree in Taylor Gardens but when I passed there yesterday there was one Christmas light from the bottom of Leith Walk stuck on a lamp post.

Why have I decided to moan? Because I feel the people of Leith deserve better and have stoically put up with continual disruption to their lives from ongoing tram and road works.

Having had a year to investigate alternative sites, it should have been simple for the council to find somewhere for a tree in Leith’s historic centre where more people pass including much welcomed visits from tourists.

Rightly or wrongly it does give the impression that the council really don’t care.

From an environmental point of view I applaud them for their tree planting but it could be 20 years before these trees are mature enough to be decorated.

After all Leith has been through over the last few years surely it’s not a lot to ask for a Christmas tree to be located in the heart of the community to be enjoyed by all.

Jim Scanlon MBE

Chair, Leith Links Community Council

 

 

 

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Trees in Pots, the latest instalment….

Following the dry spell in the spring / summer when they all nearly died, some of the trees in pots at the foot of Easter Road / Academy Lofts / Leith Links have now been offered a new life. Four of them have now gone to live on a farm (sorry – in a park) liberated from their pots and free to wiggle their roots, grow, express their authentic selves, and live their lives out – hopefully – in peace and harmony.

The Parks Dept. have now taken them away from the Academy Lofts entrance to Leith Links. The big, rusty, graffitied iron pots are gone.

The trees will be relocated into the ground somewhere – either elsewhere on Leith Links (we hope) or in another park.

Overall, this is probably a good thing. We wish them ‘Bon Voyage’ and ‘Have a happy life!’

That leaves 9 other trees in pots still in the area – one outside the Persevere (dead), which we’ll keep trying to get removed, and (living) 3 outside Tesco’s car park on Easter Road, 4 outside the front of Academy Lofts on Duke Street and one on Duncan Place opposite Academy Lofts. Please can we as a local community continue to keep an eye out for them and water them next spring as and when they look like they need it? (It was amazing earlier this year how they all arose from the apparently dead and perked up,  as soon as they got watered and rained on!)

Councillor Katrina Faccenda speaks up for Leith

Leith Ward Councillor Katrina Faccenda spoke up last week in the Council Transport and Environment Committee about the awfulness of life in Leith in recent years / months / weeks, due to the Tramworks. Her words were polite, but her message was frank and very clear. As a result, she has been invited to attend the Tram All Party Oversight Group (APOG) (a role usually not open to Ward Councillors).

Her words are below. If you want to be sure that she is aware of issues that affect you, when she attends the Tram APOG meetings, you should contact her at cllr.katrina.faccenda@edinburgh.gov.uk

My statement to the Transport and Environment Committee on the Trams to Newhaven Update

Councillor Katrina Faccenda

I want to congratulate the team – lessons have been learned from Phase 1 and to see that the project remains on schedule and within budget is a remarkable achievement

However, I am concerned that we underestimate the impact that the ongoing works have on the residents of my Ward.

As a city we recognise the importance well-maintained public spaces, this committee spent the whole morning discussing one street in the new town where very few people live permanently.

and the importance of the lived environment for people’s well-being – yet residents in Leith have for years had to live in building site

Building sites which are not always kept as clean and tidy as they should be – which become litter traps and are used as yards for long-term storage

Many businesses have asked me why the street in front of their business a storage yard for materials is which will not be need for many months – surely there are alternatives to this.

I have also had many letters regarding the steepness of the dropped pavements at junctions like Constitution St/Bernard St and the mismatching/confusing nature of the tactile paving which are meant to help the visually impaired – I do hope that these as well as some of the poorly laid and cut paving will be made safer, but it would be better for this not to happen in the first place.

The now infamous new crossings like the one at Brunswick Street are out of my ward but due to bus issues more Leithers than ever are walking up Leith walk to get into town.

I appreciate that the Trams team are responsible for delivering a project and it falls on other parts of the council such as Lothian buses to deal with many of the other inconveniences.

I am not sure that anyone who does not regularly travel to and from Leith can appreciate the level of stress that people are enduring daily – and negotiating public transport has become almost impossible if you do not have access to a smartphone and the bus App but even that is of limited use as it doesn’t keep pace with diversions.

Buses are changing route on an hourly basis, changes in bus stops being serviced and we are now going into the winter without bus shelters at many bus stops and ironically lovely shelters at tram stops on Leith Walk

Leith lost the 22 service – a lifeline service for many and one of the reasons is reported to be reduced use – we know that many of those who are able to walk, or wheel have stopped using buses due to unreliability caused by traffic and diversion – and those who still need buses struggle to find one.

Lastly, the Support for Business package has been welcomed by many businesses but hasn’t been enough for others – well established businesses are closing and only last week another business, a bar on Bernard St announced its closure – cash flow is vital to small businesses and an evening of customers paying by voucher is not ideal.

I appreciate that the pandemic and lockdown make measuring business impact difficult, but I do hope this will be looked at in planning future large scale infrastructure interventions across the city.

Summing up – everyone appreciates that life in a city will involve road works and occasional disruption but for one part of the city to have to put up with so much for so long has become intolerable for many – and please do not forget that many of the future beneficiaries of the trams are not those putting up with this – they are still to move to Leith into new housing accessible by tram.

I think the council must acknowledge the level of disruption and stress the people of Leith have endured and to publicly thank them for persevering and recognising that our strategic plans for the city should be balanced with the wellbeing of our citizens

 

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Remembering Lost Leithers

It’s always a shock when you hear about the death of a much loved Leither. 

This week has been particularly bad with the deaths of three people who contributed so much to our community.

The Queen of Leith, Mary Moriarty died last week and her funeral is on Tuesday 25th October. A service will be held in South Leith Parish Church at 12pm then on to Seafield Crematorium (limited spaces). You will then have the chance to raise a glass to Mary in The Dockers Club and share your memories with friends.

Mary was well known in Leith, not only as the owner of the famous Port of Leith pub where many a fun night was had, but also for her many years of hard work with Leith Festival helping it survive through good times and bad.

From my window I remember that on the day before the gala Mary would be out on the Links spraying and numbering the pitches for the gala day stalls.

She was always there at the crack of dawn on the Saturday and still there hours after the last stall had left with a litter picker and black bin bag making sure the park was cleaner than how she had found it.

I’m proud to say that I knew Mary for many years, and she will be sorely missed by many of us in the Leith community who will all have our fond memories of her. She could always make you smile even when you were feeling down.

I also lost another friend, Jim Tweedie recently who died over a week ago and his funeral is on Friday, 28 October, Warriston Crematorium at 2pm. 

Jim was a hard working member of the Leith Community and Chair of Leith Local History Society preserving our history and informing new residents about our rich past.

The society continue to meet on the third Tuesday in the month in the community centre and with a series of monthly talks.

Jim and I were also on the steering group to save Custom House for the people of Leith and with the help of local councillors, especially Councillor Gordon Munro the city council was persuaded to purchase the building using Common Good Funding. Work to establish a heritage display in the building is ongoing.

Finally, Davie Jeneil who ran a successful jewellers shop in Great Junction Street for over 30 years providing gifts for the many birthdays, weddings and celebrations of Leithers.

I also knew Davie as a great supporter of Leith Rules Golf Society. His family always put in a team for the Foulis Medal. A fun competition on the Links every year using hickory golf clubs which is open to local Leith businesses and community groups.

When Davie’s son in law turned up to play, I always thought we would be quicker just handing him the medal because he is such an excellent player.

Davie also supported the society by providing the quaichs and engravings for our other team events and again he will be sorely missed by all who knew him.

On behalf of Leith Links Community Council, I would like to extend our condolences and best wishes to the family and friends of all these great Leithers who we will all miss.

Jim Scanlon MBE

Chair 

Leith Links Community Council

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Leith Links Litterpick, Saturday 22 October

Do come and join in a sociable litterpick on Leith Links on Saturday 22nd October. All ages  – go at your own pace – kids welcome, should be a fun and useful way to round off the mid-term week.

Please bring your own gloves and litterpicker if you have one. Otherwise, there will be some available to borrow. Meet at 10 am at Duncan Place car park (4 Duncan Place, just behind / beside Leith Primary School)

The litterpick is organised jointly by Leith Links Community Council and Duncan Place Community Hub.

Public Toilets on Leith Links will close for the winter, 28th October 2022

Leith Links Community Council has been given notice (well, actually, we had to ask for the information) that the public toilets on Leith Links will be closed for the winter on 28th October 2022. They will be physically removed shortly after that date. Enjoy them while they are still here!

This is not a change of plan – these these toilets were always intended to be temporary, as they were last year.

The design of the Leith Links MasterPlan (in discussion) does include permanent public toilets but that is a long term (10 year) plan, not a ‘quick fix’. For the moment it is up to us as a community to keep confirming to the Council that we need these mobile temporary public toilets and will be looking forward to seeing them back again next spring.

 

 

The bus saga –

It seems clear by now, from the many responses sent back in via this website, and FaceBook,  ‘I Love Leith’ etc. that NOBODY received a leaflet about the bus route changes. A mystery.

So this is the latest message that Leith Links Community Council has sent to Lothian Buses. We are still awaiting a reply.

23 September

To: Lothian Buses

Dear Ms Marshall

Thank you for your most recent message.

I wonder if I could ask for clarification?

You say “We appreciate that some of our customers are unable to access our digital platforms and so in addition to bus stop information being refreshed to reflect the changes we reached out to approx. 22K households (in the EH6 6. EH6 7, EH6 8, EH7 6) areas with detailed information on Monday 12 September and Tuesday 13 September.”

May I ask you to clarify exactly what “reached out…to..households” means? On a first reading, we understood you to mean that you had leaflets delivered through the door of 22K households. However, this does not seem to be the case. Have we misunderstood you? Did you reach out in another way, and if so, can you explain precisely what form this took?

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We understand that the period since the Queen’s passing has, unexpectedly, been a very demanding period for Lothian Buses across the city and that it may take a while before things get back to ‘normal’, so we do not wish to be overly demanding. However, we would like to reiterate our request / invitation to meet with someone representing LB at some point soon, to discuss constructive ways in which we (i.e. the community council, as members of the local community and representing the local community) can collaborate and work with you and help to monitor the new services over the next few months, as you have stated you intend to do. You will obviously have access to passenger numbers and other objective data. And presumably, reports from drivers. We have access to ‘soft data’ in the form of the views of passengers as to how well the services are functioning, and meeting peoples’ needs, any important needs that are not being met, and so on.

Thank You

Sally Millar

Secy, Leith Links Community Council

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Leith Links Community Council received the following message from Lothian Buses, in response to our earlier email correspondence.

16.09.22

From: Gaynor Marshall, Communications Director, Lothian Buses

Thank you for your further email.  All comments and feedback are duly noted.

In terms of our communicating the change I can advise that information was published in advance of the changes on 11th September.  We appreciate that some of our customers are unable to access our digital platforms and so in addition to bus stop information being refreshed to reflect the changes we reached out to approx. 22K households (in the EH6 6. EH6 7, EH6 8, EH7 6) areas with detailed information on Monday 12 September and Tuesday 13 September.

Attached is a copy for your reference – it may be helpful for you to host it on LCC website. 

I can also confirm that all decisions were made with the information available at the time following dialogue with colleagues at CEC (TTN).  

The changes that came into place on 11th September will be monitored over the next few months with our immediate priority being stabilising the longer term commercial viability of the network and subsequent economic recovery of our business.

In terms of your further comments I refer you back to all previous communication which has provided our rationale and reasoning underpinned by commercial data and operational feasibility.    

In closing I would add that Lothian strive to deliver for customers in continuing exceptionally challenging circumstances.  We pride ourselves in being a part of the communities we serve and we will only endeavour to engage in meaningful and relevant dialogue when conducted in a professional and constructive manner.

Kind regards

Gaynor Marshall
Communications Director, Lothian Buses

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We will be responding in due course.

In the meanwhile, we would be interested –

  1. to know more about the leaflets. Please can you let us know if you got a leaflet through your door (or if you didn’t, but you think you should have, as you live along the bus routes). It would help if you added your street name and/or postcode.
  2.  to hear more about your experiences with the new bus routes. Last week was highly untypical, but starting from this week – how is it going for you, so far?

Please write a comment below or email contact@leithlinkscc.org.uk

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More about Buses

Leith Links Community Council has just received the following message from Lothian Buses, in response to our earlier email correspondence.

16.09.22

From: Gaynor Marshall, Communications Director, Lothian Buses

Thank you for your further email.  All comments and feedback are duly noted.

In terms of our communicating the change I can advise that information was published in advance of the changes on 11th September.  We appreciate that some of our customers are unable to access our digital platforms and so in addition to bus stop information being refreshed to reflect the changes we reached out to approx. 22K households (in the EH6 6. EH6 7, EH6 8, EH7 6) areas with detailed information on Monday 12 September and Tuesday 13 September.

Attached is a copy for your reference – it may be helpful for you to host it on LCC website. 

I can also confirm that all decisions were made with the information available at the time following dialogue with colleagues at CEC (TTN).  

The changes that came into place on 11th September will be monitored over the next few months with our immediate priority being stabilising the longer term commercial viability of the network and subsequent economic recovery of our business.

In terms of your further comments I refer you back to all previous communication which has provided our rationale and reasoning underpinned by commercial data and operational feasibility.    

In closing I would add that Lothian strive to deliver for customers in continuing exceptionally challenging circumstances.  We pride ourselves in being a part of the communities we serve and we will only endeavour to engage in meaningful and relevant dialogue when conducted in a professional and constructive manner.

Kind regards

Gaynor Marshall
Communications Director, Lothian Buses

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We will be responding in due course.

In the meanwhile, we would be interested –

  1. to know more about the leaflets. Please can you let us know if you got a leaflet through your door (or if you didn’t, but you think you should have, as you live along the bus routes). It would help if you added your street name and/or postcode.
  2.  to hear more about your experiences with the new bus routes. Last week was highly untypical, but starting from this week – how is it going for you, so far?

Please write a comment below or email contact@leithlinkscc.org.uk

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