At its AGM on 27 May 2019, Leith Links Community Council presented and adopted its Annual Report covering the past year’s activities. This report is available in paper booklet format around and about in the area, and you are most welcome to download and read here an electronic version LLCC Annual Report 2018-2019.
There are many ways to volunteer in our community, one of them is by becoming a Community Councillor on Leith Links Community Council.
Later this year we will be having our 2019 election, which will provide a chance for you to put yourself forward as a Community Councillor for the next three years.
To find out more:
Last Wednesday night / Thursday morning (15/16 May) was the night from hell, with both a loud high pitched continuous whining noise, PLUS a constant ear-splitting siren from Seafield sewage works keeping people awake all night from Bonnington to Craigentinny and all points in between (i.e. mainly, the Leith Links area!). This was a record high for noise complaints, and people in our community are angry and frustrated (and tired!).
Naturally Leith Links Community Council reported the matter, as did many individual residents. We have received this report from City of Edinburgh Environmental Protection Dept.
Veolia have investigated and advised me (Council officer) that they had an alarm activation. Their Sludge Import Tank reached its high level and this triggered an audible alarm. The tank level is higher than normal in order to minimise the overall odour risk within the Seafield site. It is rare for this alarm to trigger during the night shift as most tanker imports are limited to the day shift – however an overnight import delivery seems to have triggered the alarm. The alarm stays on until the sludge level within the import tank is reduced (by the processing of sludge through the sludge treatment centre on site).
Veolia shall be reviewing the arrangements for this alarm further today, and will advise me on progress or future actions. Scottish Water shall also reduce their road tanker imports to Seafield in the short term, which will reduce the rate of level rise within the Sludge Import Tank.
Veolia have apologised for the inconvenience and disturbance caused within the community, which I agreed to pass on to residents who complained.
To add insult to injury, sleepless people have had to stay indoors and keep their windows closed all day yesterday (hottest day of the year so far) due to the overwhelming smell of sewage pervading the local area. What does Seafield have to say about that? They say – we did warn you we were cleaning the tanks…
We think that while it is good to get warnings and explanations, that is not enough. Action is needed. Change is overdue. This community wants to see our Council standing up to Scottish Water / Veolia, and enforcing its own laws and ‘Code of Practice’, to protect our community’s basic quality of life from the endless nuisances caused by Seafield.
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 |
City of Edinburgh Council has announced the provisional timetable for the upcoming Leith
Links Community Council elections, with voting day expected to take place on 31 October 2019.
|
Event |
Day |
Provisional timeline |
|
Notice of Election (start of nomination period) |
-52 |
9 September |
|
Close of Nominations (forms to Returning Officer) |
-31 4pm |
30 September |
|
Withdrawal of Nominations |
-31 4pm |
30 September |
|
Notice of Poll (if required) |
-21 |
10 October |
|
Polling Day |
0 |
31 October |
You may recall that in 2016 Leith Links Community Council was the only Community Council in Edinburgh to be elected by public vote, when seventeen members of community stood for election to our body of 12 Community Councillors.
Between now and the election period we will doing all we can to encourage & support people to stand as candidates, and should we require a public vote we will be doing as much as possible to get as many voters as possible to cast their votes. In 2016 588 voters had their say, this represented 6.9% of eligible voters.
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
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
In 2018 the Edinburgh Cycle Hire Scheme (operated by Serco under contract to Transport for Edinburgh) introduced a hire point in Leith Links, sadly this had to be removed following serious damage.
Leith Links Community Council will be considering other suitable locations at our next meeting on Monday 25 March 2019 (18:30 in Leith Community Centre), with a view to submitting a request or requests, and is keen to hear your suggestions.
Below is a map of our area (the area within the red boundary line), if you can think of a suitable location please let us know and tell us why you think it would be suitable.
We’ll circulate a list of the suggestions in due course.
update 30/3/19: We have removed the suggestion form and considered the suggestions at our meeting on 25 March 2019, please view our minutes of this meeting when they are published on this website for further updates
