Leith Neighbourhood Network | Let’s make our area better

City of Edinburgh Council / Leith Neighbourhood Network are asking the Leith community for their suggestions on projects which could be taken forward to help improve the local environment, funded wholly or in part by the Councils Neighbourhood Environment Programme funding for our area.

To gather our communities suggestions a drop in session will be held on Wednesday 5th February 2020 at Leith Community Centre (Cafe) from 3pm till 6pm.

In addition to the drop-in event, Council Officers from the Leith housing team are looking to deliver additional local walkabouts with Council tenants to identify potential projects, which will be promoted alongside the drop-in event.

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Great Junction Street bridge works begin on Sunday 5 January 2020 for up to 10 weeks

The City of Edinburgh Council has arranged for waterproofing works to be undertaken on the Great Junction Street bridge from Sunday 5 January 2020 for up to ten weeks.

Although this is outwith the Leith Links Community Council area, these works when taken into consideration alongside tram related works in Leith has the potential cause disruption to many members of our community.

The works mean that the bridge will be closed to south bound traffic, bus stops & routes are also affected.

The below letter and map have been published by City of Edinburgh Council.

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City of Edinburgh Council considers future of Leith Walk / Halmyre Street site

City of Edinburgh Council Planning Service are holding a series of public consultation events early in the New Year on the future of a development site at Leith Walk / Halmyre Street. The site area is shown on the plan below although the surrounding area will be considered in the consultations.

They are looking to gather people’s views about the future of this site to inform the development of a place brief (a place brief sets out high level principles to guide the future development of a site).

Clearly there has been a lot of community engagement activity in the area. It is crucial that the place brief is progressed in the context and spirit of the recent Leith Conference, held at the end of October.

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Duncan Place Resource Centre Community Asset Transfer takes another step forward

In late 2014 the council closed Duncan Place Resource Centre & subsequently proposed demolition.

The community came together to achieve the following:

  • Demolition prevented
  • Charity formed
  • Business plan developed
  • Building refurb & business start up funds secured.

On Thursday Dec 19th Jim Scanlon, Chair of Leith Links Community Council, represented the area on a panel to scrutinise the plans & finances for Duncan Places future.Image

Under the Community Empowerment Act, the panel unanimously agreed to recommend a Community Asset Transfer of building from the council to the charity. This recommendation will be put to the Council’s Finance & Resources Committee in March 2020.

This is an historic moment for Leith and so, the setting of the Historic Leith Town Hall was a befitting venue. The charity will reopen the building in early 2020 and plan to hold a community celebration in Sept, when the building itself will be 100 years old. There will be rooms available by the hour for groups & classes as well as rooms available for permanent let to charities, social enterprises & similar. A great achievement when compared to the potential demolition.

For further details please email: Info@duncanplace.org

 

 

 

 

Projekt 42 seeks community support for new Leith Links facility

Leith based charity Projekt 42 provides accessible, inclusive and affordable health & well being services in Leith.  Image result for projekt 42

The charity, led by Sara Hawkins, has requested a Community Asset Transfer from City of Edinburgh Council of the old pavilion at Leith Links with a view to using it to provide their services.

 

The building is currently not in use and has recently attracted graffiti & vandalism.

 

 

 


Re-post of message from Projekt 42 published on Facebook:

 

Projekt 42 needs a little help 🤗

Projekt 42 submitted a community asset transfer request in August 2019 to the Edinburgh Council for the Leith Links Pavilion, and the Edinburgh council has ignored our request.

The charity has plans to bring the area back to life. We want to rebuild the pavilion and create a space for family activities, yoga and meditation classes, and space to extend our mental health services. Our plans include partnering with the Judy Murray Foundation who will provide the support we need to launch family tennis activities and we hope to bring other activities to the space including volleyball, outdoor fitness and yoga.

We’re a great fit for the area. All the profit we make goes back into leith through providing training opportunities and funding towards qualifications, free and subsidised counselling, free activities for seniors, a youth fitness academy and support for people undergoing cancer treatment. Nobody personally profits from anything we do.

We’re under a really tight deadline. If we don’t receive the support of the Edinburgh Council by the 24th December, the charity loses the funding opportunities we need to renovate the space.

We need your help.

⭐️If you have Twitter, login and RT the @projekt42edi messages to the Edinburgh council.

⭐️If you can, email the local councillors and ask for their support for the community asset transfer (Chas Booth, Adam McVey and Gordon Munro).

⭐️Email the Edinburgh council and ask for an explanation to why they are not creating a safe space for families in this area, why they’re not processing our community asset transfer request and ask what their plans are.

We really need the communities support.


Photographs of the pavilion:

Image may contain: sky and outdoor  Image may contain: house, sky, grass, outdoor and nature

Leith Links Community Council responds to Leith Festival Funfair plan being considered by City of Edinburgh Council

Earlier this month we let you know that City of Edinburgh Council are considering an application to for a funfair to be brought to Leith Links in 2020 as part of Leith Festival.

We invited our community to submit to us their views, suggestions & questions on the application.

The event application has been considered by the Leith Links Community Council Sub Committee on Parks & Greenspaces, who have submitted the below response to the City of Edinburgh Council.  This application specific response is our addition to our standing policy on requests for events on Leith Links.


Dear Sir/Madam

I am writing to give the response of both Leith Links Community Council and the members of the public who responded to our asking for comments on our website.

Firstly, LLCC is happy for this event to proceed. The fair has been setting up on the Links during around the time of Leith Gala Day for a long time and their has never been a problem with that. Our only concern is around the short timescale initially given for consultation. As you will know, there are a lot more events that are being planned for the Links and we would ask yourselves to give us and the public sufficient time to respond to these.

Regards,

David Igoe

Leith Links Community Council

Comments Received on the Leith Links Community Council Website

“Is this around the same time as the Chef Food Fair that you advised us of? The consultation is insulting to the intelligence of the interested parties. There is insufficient information given here about:

Where exactly on Leith Links the Funfair will be located.

How many rides and stalls it will consist of and what their nature will be.

Hours of operation.

Sound/music/noise nature and volume during operation.

Management of the site including rubbish and recycling.

Charges and revenue that will be generated and how that money will be used improve Leith Links

Making good any damage after the event.

Also I suggest all properties facing Leith Links are distributed with information about the proposal, they are the most likely to be affectedly noise etc and better effort should be made to inform and consult them

Unless better information is provided to consulates, no decision to approve this should be made

It should also be clearer what the Councils decision criteria are in these cases.”

“It’s a simple ‘no’ from me. For the last four years a resident I’ve had to put up with road closures, building works and noise. I’ve simply had enough.”

“The level of information provided is very poor and not enough to form any decision.

There is not enough information about numbers expected, how the crowds will be managed, how they will protect the grass etc, what their plans are to fix any damage, how they will manage any additional traffic etc. How will they manage the impact of music and noise on other park users, local residents and local businesses etc.”

“I am supportive of this application, provided that the event organisers minimise vehicle use on the Links (i.e. only for set up and take down, no driving on and off/around in between times) ensure scrupulous litter prevention/collection and cease noise by 1pm or midnight if not before.

This is a traditional event linked to a community event that has been coming for many years. Local residents enjoy it and is good for young people, unlike any of the events that want to use the Links, it does not last long, local peopler used to it, it does not generally attract young people from outside the area so no problems with traffic congestion, parking problems,ms etc.”


 

Annual Review of Major Events in Parks 2018/19 and Consultation on Future Events

Leith Links is an valued greenspace within the Leith community. The land is managed by City of Edinburgh Council who from time to time consider applications by businesses, community groups & third sector organisations to hold major events on the greenspace.

The City of Edinburgh Council is looking to gather your views around specific major efforts in greenspaces across the City including Leith Links. They are also asking your views in relation to adding Leith Links to a list of greenspaces where the Council promote & adverse a greenspace as a location for commercial activities.

It is important that our community take the time to complete the consultation in order that the Council can get as many views, questions & suggestions in relation to Leith Links so that they can find a way forward to appropriately managed Leith Links.

 

Trams to Newhaven: Leith Walk planters relocated to Duke Street / Easter Road / Vanburgh Place / Lochend Road signalised junction

The Trams to Newhaven Team have said that in order to facilitate construction of Trams to Newhaven project, the 14 planters that are currently situated on Leith Walk will be moved to the Leith Links / Duke Street / Lochend Road / Easter Road junction. This will be a permanent move in order to accommodate dedicated cycling lanes post construction. The planters will be moved as part of the enabling works commencing on Monday 18 November 2019.

They went on to say – ‘We are aware that some businesses / residents have been looking after the planters and where this is known we have made contact to explain. An example of this is the Kadampa Meditation Centre who we visited to explain what is happening and to thank them for the work they have done. We will be attaching posters to the planters this week to highlight the planters being moved.’

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