The next meeting of the Leith Links Community Council will be on Monday, 27th May 2019, at 6:30pm in the Leith Community Education Centre, New Kirkgate.
This meeting will be the AGM of the CC followed by any urgent business.
If you live in the area, you are warmly welcomed to attend.
Draft Minutes Monday 29 April 2019
Leith Links Community Council have been instrumental in delivering Leith Chooses (or Leith Decides as it was known) for a number of years, as a Community Council we are keen to support our community having a say in how local funds are spent.
This years Leith Chooses was once again a big success, once again building on the success of previous years. But, the Leith Chooses steering group are, as always, keen to get feedback & suggestions to help ensure that future events meet the communities expectations.
Please take a few minutes to complete their survey, whether you took part this year or not, they want to hear your views.
Click on the TAKE SURVEY picture to take part.
City of Edinburgh Council intend to make some changes to the road layout at the Duke Street / Easter Road / Lochend Road / Vanburgh Place roundabout which will provide for:
They have provided the following information slides to let our community know what is planned.
To submit feedback, or questions you can contact Council officers directly, or you can complete our simple webform. Our webform will send your questions or feedback directly to Council Officers but will automatically copy circulate it the Community Council and Councillors Booth, McVey and Munro.
City of Edinburgh Council have confirmed that information on the proposals will be made available to the public through local notice boards, community councils and a letter drop to local traders and residents to allow the public to provide comment and feedback.
You can use this webform to send your questions & views to City of Edinburgh Council (Place Department), with your questions & views automatically copied for information to City of Edinburgh Council (Councillors Booth, McVey & Munro) and Leith Links Community Council.
Since we published these proposals a number of members of the community have taken the opportunity to ask questions or provide their views via our webform. Our webform sends peoples views & questions directly to Council Officers, with us and local ward Councillors (Councillors Booth, McVey & Munro) copied in.
Here is a list of the questions asked & views shared as of 11am this morning:
City of Edinburgh Council have announced that a series of streets in the Leith area will be resurfaced over coming weeks.
The roads affected have been prioritised because of their current condition and because the upcoming tram works will prevent any planned resurfacing work from taking place in and around the proposed tram line during the construction period.
The resurfacing works are planned to start on 27th May and will be carried out during weekdays in separate phases in order to minimise disruption to the public. On some traffic sensitive routes, work may be carried out under nightshift to minimise the impact on traffic. Most roads affected will be fully or significantly resurfaced with a select few being only partially resurfaced or patched as required. There will also be some improvements to pedestrian facilities, traffic signal upgrades and renewal of some street furniture.
Listed below are the streets affected along with the proposed month/order of the works and traffic management. Please note this is subject to change following final confirmation from the contractor (MacLay Civil Engineering) next week. Neighbourhood notification letters will be issued to local residents and traders prior to the commencement of each phase.
|
Street |
Month |
Treatment |
Proposed Traffic Mgmt |
|
Abercromby Place |
May |
Fully Resurfaced |
Road closure. Local diversion |
|
North Leith Sands |
May |
Fully Resurfaced |
Road closure. Local diversion |
|
Albany Street |
June |
Fully Resurfaced |
Road closure. Local diversion |
|
Lindsay Road |
June |
Fully Resurfaced from North Leith Sands to Portland Street |
One-way closure. Local diversion |
|
Broughton Street |
June |
Full Resurfaced |
Northbound Road Closure |
|
Ocean Drive |
June |
Fully Resurface both northbound lanes from Lindsay Road to roundabout, and southbound bus stop at Holiday Inn |
Road closure. Local diversion |
|
East London Street |
June |
Fully resurface from roundabout to Cochran Terrace |
Lane closures |
|
Annandale Street |
June |
Fully resurface from Haddington Place to roundabout and from roundabout to Hopetoun Street |
Road closure in 3 phases. Local diversion |
|
Great Junction Street |
June |
Fully resurface from Cables Wynd to Henderson Street |
Lane closures or Eastbound closure with local diversion |
|
Dalmeny Street |
July |
Overlay setts in centre of carriageway (retain setts in parking areas) |
Road closure. Local diversion |
|
Hopetoun Street |
July |
Various sections resurfaced |
full Road closure. Local diversion |
|
Gordon Street |
July |
Fully resurfaced and overlay setts on Manderston Street |
Road closure. Local diversion |
|
McDonald Road |
July |
Resurface eastbound bus stop at Papermill Wynd |
Lane closure or southbound closure with local diversion |
|
Broughton Road |
July |
Fully resurfaced from Broughton Primary to Bonnington Road |
Road closure in 2 phases. Local diversion |
|
Links Place |
July |
Fully resurfaced |
Road closure. Local diversion |
|
Duncan Place |
July |
Fully resurfaced |
Road closure. Local diversion |
|
Bonnington Road |
July |
Fully resurfaced from Broughton Road to Corunna Place |
Road closure in 3 phases. Local diversion |
|
Academy Street |
July |
Overlay setts in running lanes (retain setts in parking areas) |
Road closure. Local diversion |
|
Newhaven Road |
August |
Fully resurfaced from Pilrig Street to Pitt Street |
Road closure in 2 phases. Local diversion |
|
East Hermitage / Restalrig Rd Junction |
August |
Fully resurface Junction area |
Temporary Traffic Lights and closure of Links Gardens. Local Diversion |
|
Duke Street / Easter Road Junction |
August |
Fully resurface roundabout and approaches |
Temporary traffic lights |
|
Pilrig Street |
August |
Fully resurfaced from Spey Street to Newhaven Road |
Road closure in 2 phases. Local diversion |
|
Easter Road |
August |
Various sections resurfaced |
Various lane closures and temporary traffic lights. Possible road closure required at Albion Road with local diversion |
A number of months ago we introduced one handy web from on our website which allowed members of our community to report nuisance & intrusive odours from Seafield Waste Water Treatment Plan to City of Edinburgh Council, Scottish Water, Veolia, Scottish Government and the Scottish Parliament.
As we have recently received a significant number of complaints relating to nuisance noise from the plant, we have updated our form, allowing you to report smell and / or noise from the plant.
The form can be accessed by clicking here, and can be used any time, any day.
The next meeting of the Leith Links Community Council will be on Monday 29th April , at 6:30pm in the Leith Community Education Centre, New Kirkgate.
If you live in the area, you are warmly welcomed to attend.
Please find the Agenda for the next meeting here Agenda29.4.19
and minutes of our March meeting Monday 25 March 2019
Leith Festival is an important annual event, only made possible by the massive support of our local community and volunteers willing to invest their time.
Their next AGM is due to be held on Wednesday 1 May 2019, at 7pm, in Leith Dockers Club. Everyone is welcome to attend. Click here to see their Facebook event.
They are currently seeking some new board members, including a Treasurer. So if you are looking for a new volunteering opportunity please do get in touch with them.
Click here to view Leith Festival contact details.
A Leith Volunteer Fair will be held in Leith Community Centre on Friday 7 June 2019 from 1pm until 3pm.
This will be a chance for our community to find out about volunteering opportunities from a number of local organisations including Leithers Don’t Litter, Bethany Christian Trust and Leith Festival.
Pop along on the day to find out more.
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.
During 2017 the local community continued to suffer noxious smells and it was clear that the reporting system set up by Edinburgh City Council was ineffective. Difficult to use and response times poor.
In 2018 the CC introduced a reporting tool for the community to quickly report nuisance smells when it became clear that system set up by Edinburgh City Council (COEC) was ineffective, difficult to use and resulted in poor response times.
The link the CC set up is easy to use and we know that our locally elected politicians and public servants are aware of reports. More importantly the public servants we expect and trust with policing our complaints can’t ignore public concerns.
Between 09/07/18 and 19/08/18 there were 123 reports.
Then 09/09/18 to 23/11/18 19 reports.
During the most recent incident between 15/02/19 to 18/03/19 we received 57 reports
Scottish Water issued an update on 15/02/19 alerting the community to urgent work being carried out at Seafield due to build up of sludge. This was followed by an apology issued by Scottish Water on 26/02/19.
SEPA told the community they only received 1 complaint passed to them from COEC and they were not aware that there had been so many.
SEPA said to Leith Links Residents Association
Thanks for your email. I am sorry to hear the community have been experiencing odours. I have logged your email as an environmental event. The event reference number is ENV/0897328 and I can provide the update below.
SEPA did not receive any complaints about the site during the month of February 2019. We received one complaint on Friday 1 March 2019. Two officers attended the site on Friday 1 March and undertook an odour assessment on site and at two offsite locations.
Offsite the officers detected a faint whiff of sewage odour from the site. This was not deemed to be offensive. The odour detected offsite matched the odour detected on-site near the picket fence thickeners, which are unrelated to the activities covered by the Waste Management Licence and located outwith the Waste Management Licence boundary. Our findings were passed to City of Edinburgh Council Environmental Health on Monday 4 March.
The City of Edinburgh Council said
We can advise that we received a total of 83 Seafield odour complaints in February 2019, with 77 of these received between 24 and 28 February. Officers carried out 14 visits to the area, between 24 and 28 February, as a result of these complaints. In addition, four proactive assessments within the community were also carried out during the month and a plant inspection was carried out on 26 February.
We can confirm that mostly no or faint odours and occasionally moderate odours were witnessed on the visits made to the community during February 2019, which would not amount to what you refer to as a smell nuisance.
So although we received 57 complaint reports COEC didn’t think there was a problem. There is a problem for the local residents who have taken the time to report it.
I estimate that for every report made through the CC website there are probably 10 households who don’t
During February the CC has also been contacted by local residents because of noise which appears to have started about the same time that the most recent smell incidents were being reported. Veolia had to bring in mobile centrifuges to deal with sludge levels.
Leith Links CC received the response below from the City Council investigating noise
I refer to your emails below concerning a miscellaneous noise, causing disturbance over a wide area around Seafield / Restalrig. I’m sorry you had not received a reply, however we do not appear to have received your original email. We have now logged your complaint on our system.
With regard to the noise, I have two ongoing complaints in the
Seafield / Prospect Band area and received another from a resident in the Restalrig area yesterday. However, so far it has not been possible to witness the noise being complained off. Seafield Sewage Treatment Works (STW) were also contacted last year, however their investigations did not identify any unusual noise issues from machinery. A noise survey visit to one of the residents had been scheduled for last night, but was cancelled due to the high wind speed; as it affects noise measurements. The noise survey has been re-scheduled for next week.
Information provided from the original two residents who had complained and the fact that another two complaints have been received suggests that the noise is becoming louder and more persistent. Therefore it should make it easier to investigate the noise and determine the source.
I’ll give you an update once I have carried out the noise survey visit next week.
The noise stopped before any further investigation could take place about the same time the work stopped at Seafield.
On a balance of probability these problems are linked to Seafield.
The infrastrucure at Seafield is old and it’s failing on a more regular basis to cope with excessive levels of sludge.
I also believe that during the most recent incidents there was a crisis at the plant that Veolia were trying to fire fight. Both SEPA and COEC have let the community down again by not investigating incidents properly.
We still have this mistaken belief by public officials that their noses and ears are better than those of the community.
Urgent action and investment at that the plant must be the way forward.
We haven’t even reached the normal smelly season during May.
Leith Links Community Council will continue to work together with the Residents Association and I promise to raise the communities concerns strongly at the next Seafield Stakeholders meeting scheduled for 260419
Jim
