The toilets are very much OPEN!

Some people seem confused about the toilets on Leith Links. Here are the facts:

The toilets are opened from 10.00am to 20.00pm,  7 days per week. There is a council attendant looking after the toilets. This will be the situation throughout the summer.

The toilets are situated in a grey ‘Portakabin’ type building sitting right next door to the old bowling greens building, up at the Croft end of the Links, behind the tennis courts (shown in blue in the picture below). (The attendant may use the old bowling green building next door to store materials, or to sit in, if wet etc.)

                   

To access the toilets, you need to enter the old bowling green area by one of three gates:

  • one is open to the road on Links Place, more or less opposite Salamander Place
  • one leads off the entrance path to the Links at the bottom of Johns Place
  • one is a little gate further along that path that leads into the tennis courts area, behind the toilets and bowling green area. (This one is probably the nearest for people at the playpark or in the main body of the Links.)

(behind the blue tennis courts, top of this pic)

 

What is missing is signage. Because the toilets are behind the hedge, and facing ‘away’ from the Links, people may not spot them.

And / or people may see that the doors on both buildings are shut, and assume that the toilets are shut – but they aren’t!

We have asked the Council to put notices up to direct people to the toilets and to clarify opening times. If they don’t do that soon, we’ll put some up ourselves.

This sounds mad, but please use the toilets!  If nobody uses them, we’ll not be able to make a good case for needing toilets on the Links permanently.

 

 

New MasterPlan to improve Leith Links – your views? Urgent!

Leith Links is a great park and we all love it –  BUT it could certainly be EVEN BETTER!
In
recent months, a new 10 year ‘concept MasterPlan’ for improving the Links has been developed, by a team led by the City of Edinburgh Council’s ‘Thriving Greenspaces Project’ and including representatives from a number of local organisations; ourselves i.e. Leith Links Community Council, Earth in Common / Links Activity Park group, Leith Councillors, some local residents, and consulting a wide range of ‘stakeholders’ such as Leith Athletic, Leith Franklin Cricket Club, Duncan Place, local Primary Schools etc.

The final draft has now been published and it is open to public consultation  RIGHT NOW (closing on 22 July 2022).

        
You can see the plans and give your views via the Council web site
If you don’t like using the Consultation Hub with its usual forced route through leading questions, then please feel free to write / email in with your thoughts and ideas to thrivinggreenspaces@edinburgh.gov.uk (and it’s a good idea to copy to your local Councillors),  and/ or use the comments facility below to record your thoughts and we will forward them to the project team.
Whichever route(s) you choose, please do it NOW, before the holidays, otherwise you might forget, and miss your chance!
The draft master plan is based on the conversations we have been leading and facilitating  over the past year, about what local people need and want. It lays out a vision of what could happen in the future, but there is no guarantee at this stage that it will actually happen; significant new funding is still to be found, and support from the local community is vital (if there are objections or new suggestions, there is plenty time for these to be taken into account, the details of the plan are NOT a ‘foregone conclusion’).
  
The plan includes lots of great ideas (yes, including permanent toilets!), such as nicer benches, better bins, improved lighting, wheelchair accessible picnic tables, cycle parking, wildflower meadow, use of surfaces for heritage mural, arboretum (started already), ping pong tables, a ‘trim trail’ and 3km fitness loop and a ‘natural play area’ at the east of the Links. Also a modern bandstand (or ‘outdoor performance space’), and many other upgrades.
         
To bring the old bowling greens area back into productive use, there is a proposal for an ‘Activity Park’ that could incorporate a bike pump track and a skatepark.
A skatepark came out as a very popular suggestion, in last year’s surveys that we carried out, and is likely to be heavily promoted by its supporters – but there are also issues to be explored about what impact it might have on near neighbours.
Please make sure YOUR voice is heard!
 

Next meeting of Leith Links Community Council, Monday 27th June, 6:30pm, online via Teams

The next meeting of the Leith Links Community Council will be held on Monday 27th June at 6:30pm, online (Microsoft Teams)

Papers for the meeting can be downloaded here:

Agenda for 27 June 2022

Minutes of last meeting 30 May 2022

Scottish Water and the operators of Seafield, Veolia, will be attending to give an update on the sewage plant and answer questions about recent odour issues.

A speaker from Scottish Historic Buildings Trust will talk about the future plans for the Custom House Leith

As always, our meetings are open to interested members of the public. If you wish to attend, please email contact@leithlinkscc.org.uk and you will be sent an invitation / link for the meeting.

Next meeting of Leith Links Community Council, Monday 27th June at 6:30pm, online

The next meeting of the Leith Links Community Council will be held on Monday 27th June at 6:30pm, online (Microsoft Teams)

Papers for the meeting will be issued soon.

Scottish Water and the operators of Seafield, Veolia, will be attending to give an update on the sewage plant and answer questions about recent odour issues.

As always, our meetings are open to interested members of the public. If you wish to attend, please email contact@leithlinkscc.org.uk and you will be sent an invitation / link for the meeting.

LEITH CONSULTATIONS

Just like when you’re waiting on a 16 bus stuck in a traffic jam three arrive at the same time.

The City Council have added three really important consultations for the future of Leith to the consultation hub on the city council webpage.

LEITH CONNECTIONS PHASE 3

Leith Connections: Phase 3 west – east proposals – City of Edinbu

Leith Connection Phase 3 has some lovely graphics including one of Salamander Street with a new cycle lane and narrowed road space for cars and trucks that I’m sorry to say do have to use our roads every day on one of the main arterial routes East to West through the city.

I also find it strange that the graphic doesn’t show the CPZ plan for the same route which had permit holder and pay and display parking on Salamander Street at the same view in the graphic so I do wonder IF these teams actually communicate with each other.

The Leith Connection Phase 3 consultation is open until 17 July so please, please make your thoughts known.

 

ETRO Go Home?

The next consultation is on ETRO which we may remember in a previous life was known as Spaces for People. Love it or loathe it,  the road coning and closures project introduced to make streets safer for cycling, walking and wheeling during the pandemic is now finally up for public consultation. This is your opportunity to comment on the future plans. Do you want them kept or ditched? Have your say now or you could be stuck with them permanently.

 

LEITH LINKS MASTERPLAN 

Finally, the Leith Links Master Plan is also open on the consultation hub for your positive or negative comments. Please use this opportunity to add your views on how you would like to see Leith Links developed for all residents in the future.

The Leith Links Masterplan Team had a stall at Leith Gala and many members of the public visited the tent to find out more and to share their views, so now it’s your turn to do the same.

You can see more about the plans here.

Leith Links Masterplan – City of Edinburgh Council – Citizen Space

You can also comment here, on the Hub, but you’ll only find a very limited set of leading questions. If you have more to say on any specific point, you should email directly to Miles.Wilkinson@edinburgh.gov.uk

The deadline for this consultation is 31 July. Please also be sure to copy your email also to our elected Councillors:

Chas.Booth@edinburgh.gov.uk

Cllr.Katrina.Faccenda@edinburgh.gov.uk

Adam.McVey@edinburgh.gov.uk

 

 

Come and talk to us on Gala Day – Leith Links,11th June

Anything you want to find out about or to talk about, relating to your local area?

New developments? Problems? Questions? Ideas? Offers to help? Interested in maybe becoming a Community Councillor yourself?

Do drop by our stall on Gala Day on Saturday, and have a chat. 

The three Community Councils of Leith often work together, as there are many issues that affect all parts of the ‘wider Leith’ community. We will be sharing a stall on Leith Links on Saturday, Leith Festival Gala Day.

  • Leith Central Community Council
  • Leith Harbour and Newhaven Community Council
  • Leith Links Community Council

2019 Gala Day. Cross your fingers for better weather this year….

AGM and next meeting, LLCC, Monday 30th May 2022, 6:30pm

The AGM and next meeting of the Leith Links Community Council will be held on Monday 30 May 2022 at 6:30pm, online (Microsoft Teams).

The AGM will be held first, and the regular meeting will follow straight on afterwards

Papers for the meeting can be found here:

1. AGM Minutes, 2021 (draft until adopted)

2. AGM Agenda 2022

2. Minutes April 2022 (draft until adopted)

4. Agenda 30 May 2022

As always, our meetings are open to interested members of the public. If you wish to attend, please email contact@leithlinkscc.org.uk and you will be sent an invitation / link for the meeting.

 

Public Toilets on Leith Links

Hurrah! The temporary public toilet block for spring / summer on Leith Links has now been delivered and should be linked up for plumbing and power very shortly.

Public toilets are vital for everyone especially as the days get longer and warmer, and more people spend longer out of doors in the park. Public toilets also empower the community as a whole, because community events involving large numbers of people can be organised.

As last year, the toilet block will be manned by a Council attendant. We are very grateful to these guys for their work and we ask the community to treat them with respect. However, they cannot be expected  to do ‘everything’, especially if it involves putting themselves at risk. If serious anti social behaviour occurs in the park while they are present they will call the police.

 

More new flats at Leith Links / Salamander – online consultation 28 April

Cruden Homes are planning a new development of 99 flats at 124 Salamander Street & 1-3 Salamander Yards (redevelopment of the Edinburgh Carpet and Flooring Warehouse). view / download introductory leaflet here

Please view the plans, ask questions and make comments at an online consultation event on Thursday 28th April (3.30pm-7.30pm, ‘drop-in’) at www.orbitconsultations.scot/salamanderstreet/

 

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