Bruce Keith joins us again for his talk, Scotland Beneath the Surface
Everything underground! Souterrains, manmade tunnels from castles and for roads and railways, pumped storage schemes, mines for coal and shale, quarries and more…
The talk is at Leith Community Education Centre, New Kirkgate, Leith (up the stair from the shops) on Tuesday 19 March 2024, at 7.00 pm. Admission is £2∙00, or free for members
There are a few aspects of the Leith Low Traffic Neighbourhood that still have ‘temporary’ status, and could perhaps still be overturned. You must send in your views before 8th April. They don’t make it easy for you – no clear questions on the Consultation Hub – you need to email in with your views. But please, do take the time to do this!
How to respond
Leith Connections – Low Traffic Neighbourhood
https://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/cycling-walking-projects-1/leith-connections/5
Email your views on the Experimental Traffic Order (eg. on the bus gate on Links Place) and/ or general views on the low traffic neighbourhood to Edinburgh.Consultation@projectcentre.co.uk
and copy to leithconnections@edinburgh.gov.uk
We are aware that the community holds mixed views on the Low Traffic Neighbourhood overall, but there does seem to be consensus on one particular issue – the ‘bus gate’ on Links Place. The Community Council discussed this at our recent meeting and agreed to share the view that we find the bus gate to be unnecessary and unhelpful – potentially dangerous – and would like to see this overturned, with Links Place returned to two way traffic, for the following reasons. But of course, if you disagree, feel free to comment here below, and to send in your views to the consultation.
There are a number of consultations currently live on Council websites on issues that will impact all of our lives, in some cases quite profoundly. Please take some time to respond to these, before the deadline.
Leith Connections – Low Traffic Neighbourhood
https://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/cycling-walking-projects-1/leith-connections/5
Email your views on the Experimental Traffic Order (eg. on the bus gate on Links Place) to Edinburgh.Consultation@projectcentre.co.uk
And/ or general views on the low traffic neighbourhood to leithconnections@edinburgh.gov.uk
Closes 8 April 2024
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Lindsay Road Bridge Regeneration https://consultationhub.edinburgh.gov.uk/sfc/lindsay-road-bridge/
Closes 4 April 2024
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Edinburgh’s Public Libraries – future vision and strategy https://consultationhub.edinburgh.gov.uk/cf/edinburgh-future-libraries/
Closes 19 April 2024
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There are several other consultations that you may find of relevance, please explore the full list here https://consultationhub.edinburgh.gov.uk/consultation_finder/
Location filming will take place in Links Gardens/Links Place for a chilling new detective series called Dept Q.
The crew will be filming scenes between 4pm and 10pm on Monday 11th March and this will lead to some road closures during these hours to allow the action to take place.
Location equipment and crew will be on site from 9am to set up.
The map link below shows where road closures will take place from 6pm to 10pm.
If you would normally be planning to drive through the area at that time of day then plan an alternative route.
Dept Q is based on the crime novels of the Danish author, Jussi Adler-Olsen which have sold many millions of copies. The books have been made into successful television adaptations and films ( In Danish). This new production which moves the location of Dept Q to Scotland stars some well known actors and could be very successful.
I’ve just finished the first book in English which introduces you to the characters.
The book was first published in 2008 and then made into a movie.
Lets wish them great success with this new take on the novels.
The next meeting of the Leith Links Community Council will be held on Monday 26th February, at 6:30pm. This will be an ONLINE ONLY meeting (Teams).
Minutes of previous meeting available here.
The meeting is held in public,to allow interested local residents to participate.
Email contact@leithlinkscc.org.uk if you wish to attend, and you will be sent a link.
Monday 26th February – next Leith Links Community Council meeting, 6:30pm. This will be an ONLINE ONLY meeting (TEAMS). Agenda available here.
Email contact@leithlinkscc.org.uk if you wish to attend, and you will be sent a link.
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£EITH CHOOSES Results night 22th February
The results of which local charities / community groups have been successsful in winning funding will be announced ‘live’ at 6:30 pm at Leith Community Centre (cafe area). All welcome, do come along to hear the news, and for refreshments and a chat. Short meeting.
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February – Leith Links Community Council survey about traffic and parking changes. Have you filled in this survey yet? Please do so, to have your voice heard, regarding how your life as a local resident, is affected – positively and/or negatively – by all the recent changes to traffic and parking in our area. Timing is key, as some of the changes which were temporary (such as the ‘bus gate’ on Links Gardens / Links Place) are about to be made permanent unless people report that they are not working well.
Give your views via the Community Council survey here
You can also make your views known direct to the council via this link:
edinburgh.gov.uk/leithconnections
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Events on the Links 2024
We have just been informed that the City of Edinburgh Council has REFUSED permission for the proposed event FLY Summer Of Love’92 to take place on the Links, in May 2024. This is good news, as the community council and many local residents had objected to the application, feeling that this particular large scale, long and very loud event and Leith Links, so close to residents, were not a good fit for each other.
Music Encounters March 2024
Provided by the Council, there will be some live music on the Links for all local residents and ‘ordinary’ park users to enjoy, free of charge, on Saturday 16th March, from 1300h to 1500h. More details to follow later.
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Leith Links Community Council has created a survey to find out how the traffic changes recently introduced to Leith are affecting local people. We really want to hear from everybody – please fill it in!
You can access the survey here:
Please don’t delay, fill it in now. We will be collecting this information throughout January and February and will collate the information received and pass it on to the Council so that they have detailed information from real people who live and work here. The next few months are crucial. Not all of the changes are permanent yet – some, such as the bus gate on Links Place, and the blocking of Tolbooth Wynd, have been carried out on a ‘Temporary Traffic Regulation Order’, so feedback from local residents could help to determine whether or not they are made permanent, modified, or dropped.
Other changes are meant to be permanent, but if there is enough evidence to suggest they are not working well, there should be scope for them to be reviewed.
We’ve included both the low traffic neighbourhood and the controlled parking zone, because although these are the responsibility of 2 separate departments in the council, we know that both these schemes interact with each other in affecting our lives as local residents. Equally there is space for free text so you can add other comments.
Some people don’t bother with ‘consultations’ because they feel that the Council ‘always just does what it wants, whether people support it or not’. But this survey is different – it is NOT a Council consultation – we are your neighbours, and we WILL do our very best to use the information you supply to make the Council listen. The basic survey does not take long to complete, although there is scope within it to go into details about each different street, and specific changes, if you want to.
Thank you!
Oh, and, please pass the link on to your neighbours and ask them to fill it in too.
https://forms.gle/EinHqiXkak4hj6Ly7
or via QR code
Seasons Greetings
If you were writing a new Christmas Panto script and you were looking for an idea, then Leith’s Christmas tree could be it.
Our sad tale begins in Leith with tram works and a modern-day plague.
Constitution Street and Leith Walk ripped up, and then Covid strikes.
The Christmas Tree that was installed and stood proudly in the Kirkgate for many, many years had to find a temporary home, and after little or no consultation a decision was taken by council officers to place a tree in Taylor Gardens instead, with 6 lights (4 working) added to lamp standards.
It’s a nice enough tree, but really not the true location where Leithers would expect it to be, and that is something council officials don’t grasp in their decision making process.
It was supposed to be a temporary move, not permanent, but although it may tick boxes with council officers they miss the point of how the community view things.
When I first asked our elected councillors why the tree hadn’t returned to the Kirkgate, Councillor Faccenda kindly wrote to council officers and received a reply with reasons why it couldn’t go back to the Kirkgate. But all of those ‘problems’ really could have been worked out, had there been a willingness from council public servants.
“Unfortunately due to the installation of the Tram lines we are now unable to provide any festive Lighting on Leith Walk which involves working at height. The installation on a cut Christmas Tree involves using a telehandler to lift the tree into position and then a cherry picker later to install the lights”
Where there’s a will there’s always a way of achieving the impossible?
Someone in the council also had the idea to plant a fir tree in Taylor Gardens which could become the Leith Christmas tree of the future.
In reply to Councillor Faccenda the council said about this tree (- and please don’t laugh but I suppose it’s panto time. It’s behind you!)
The decision to move the Kirkgate Christmas Tree along the road to Taylor Park has enabled us to plant a tree which will hopefully be ready for dressing with lights within the next 5 years or so. We will continue to provide an 8m cut tree here until the planted tree is ready.
Now as I’m of a certain age and don’t have a life, I’m drawn to TV programmes like Gardeners’ World and Landward, and having done a few Christmas Quizzes I can confidently say that planted tree will not be ready in ‘less than 5 years’
Quiz answer is 15 years before an average Christmas tree is ready.
So why do council officers put nonsense in emails and expect us to accept what they say without challenging them? I suppose their get-out clause legally was ‘or so‘.
They apparently know even less about trees than me and it comes across that they really don’t care,and possibly haven’t been down to Leith to have a look because they call it Park not Gardens.
They reply in a confident ‘I know what I’m talking about because I’m a council officer’ manner then they don’t expect to be called out for nonsense speak, they expect the community to just say ok,move on.
However they miss the point that it’s not just about location of a tree on a spreadsheet.
They don’t take into account how people who live in the area view it, and have shared memories of good and bad times
The historic heart of Leith for a tree has, for as long as I can remember, been the Kirkgate beside Queen Victoria’s statue. If you take a walk down there today it looks drab and uncared for, and especially at this time of year it could do with some cheer.
We keep getting told that Leith is hip and has a vibrant community and is a top 10 destination as a place to visit and stay.
You wouldn’t think that if, as a tourist, you arrived at the Foot of the Walk by tram to an area that Christmas seemed to have by-passed all because of council bureaucracy which prior to lockdown had never been an issue.
But if you get it right, people will keep coming back, and spend money in our community, and tell their friends what a great place it is with friendly and helpful locals.
It doesn’t have to be over the top flashy lights.
It just has to be welcoming, which is supposedly what we in Leith are good at.
I would like the community to support me in bringing the tree back to the Kirkgate in 2024 and hopefully with help from local businesses in the Kirkgate, to brighten the place up.
Take a trip out to Davidson Mains Street or the front at South Queensferry and you will see what some communities and businesses can achieve at this time of year.
Let me know what you think, and more importantly hit the email inboxes of your elected Leith Councillors, MP and MSP
Don’t moan, just drop them a quick email: BRING BACK THE CHRISTMAS TREE TO THE KIRKGATE
Yes, I know life is hellish at the moment for many, many people, and you can’t eat Christmas trees, but let’s give it a go for our own pride and self-respect returning.
Thanks, and have a peaceful and enjoyable festive holiday.
Jim Scanlon MBE
Chair, Leith Links Community Council
The next meeting of the Leith Links Community Council will be held on Monday 30 October at 6:30pm. This meeting will be online (MicroSoft Teams).
Agenda for meeting, 30 October 23
Previous Minutes (September 2023)
Miles Wilkinson from City of Edinburgh Council will attend to provide an update on the Low Traffic Neighbourhood, and to answer questions, and take feedback. Otherwise the Agenda covers the usual range of topics from Planning Applications to Bin hub locations etc.
Interested members of the local community are welcome to attend this meeting, and to raise any points of concern. Please email contact@leithlinkscc.org.uk to request, and you will be sent the link.
