Leith Links Community Council Meeting, 30th September 6:30pm, Leith Community Centre

The next meeting of the Leith Links Community Council will be on Monday 30th September , at 6:30pm in the Leith Community Education Centre, New Kirkgate.

If you live in the area, you are warmly welcomed to attend.

This is also election year for Community Councils and we hope that you may be keen to join us. If you are available to volunteer in your spare time and have an interest in a wide range of local issues we would be pleased to hear from you. The Community Council election period starts on 9th September and closes on 30th September.
AUGUST MINUTES Monday 26 August 2019

TV chef cooking up plans for Leith Links event

City of Edinburgh Council, who have oversight of Leith Links, are considering a proposal to host an event at Leith Links, and you are invited to submit your views and questions.

The event – ‘Tom Kerridge Presents Pub In The Park’, is proposed to take place at Leith Links from 22 June 2020 to 1 July 2020. We have also been informed that a Council officer has suggested the event be held in the same area of the Links used by the Mela.

You can view the proposal below (there is very little information provided to us by City of Edinburgh Council) then submit your views or questions.

Your views should be submitted to parks@edinburgh.gov.uk by 4th September 2019.

You may wish to copy in one or more of the City of Edinburgh Councillors who represent Leith Ward 13;

You may also wish to copy in Councillor Lesley McInnes (lesley.macinnes@edinburgh.gov.uk), who is the Convenor of the City of Edinburgh Councils Transport & Environment Committee.

Click on the picture for more information.

Leith Links Community Council Meeting, 26th August 6:30pm, Leith Community Centre

The next meeting of the Leith Links Community Council will be on Monday 26th August , at 6:30pm in the Leith Community Education Centre, New Kirkgate.

If you live in the area, you are warmly welcomed to attend.

This is also election year for Community Councils and we hope that you may be keen to join us. If you are available to volunteer in your spare time and have an interest in a wide range of local issues we would be pleased to hear from you. The Community Council election period starts on 9th September.

 

Leith Links Play Park Upgrade Update

Leith Links CC received the latest update from the city council on the new play park equipment

I’d just like to give you a brief update on the Leith Links Play Park upgrade.  If you’ve passed by recently you’ll have seen that works are progressing well with new equipment installed, surfacing work beginning and play sand in place.  The overall programme is nearing completion with the site to receive a wet surface pour this week. Completion will see some tar work to seal the surface and the installation of a new gate.

I hope that you’ll agree that the park is looking really exciting with local kids keen to get in and start playing. Edinburgh Lothians and Greenspace Trust who will be confirming the completion date and assisting us to organise a launch event at the play park as soon as possible. We’ll ensure that we keep you updated as the plans for this event progress.

Great news

ParkLife Project: Leith Links update

An update on the Edinburgh ParkLife project in relation to Leith Links…

Introduction

Parks are vibrant public spaces that are important for local communities as places to exercise, relax, play and appreciate nature. The ParkLife project, a partnership between the University of Edinburgh and the City of Edinburgh Council, is exploring how technology can help gather more information about how parks are being used and enjoyed – by wildlife and people – to help those who manage and care for them.

The project ran four community meetings across Edinburgh, including one in Leith organised by Leith Links Community Council, to find out what members of the community want to see improved in their park, what the main challenges are, and which areas are the most/least used in their park. Taking this forward, we then asked them to think about the role that technology might play in all these issues.

Leith Links

Our Leith workshop took place at the beginning of April, was hosted by the Leith Links Community Council in Leith Community Centre and was attended by fifteen Leithers. We divided the attendees into three groups and seated them around an enormous map of Leith Links. We were also lucky to have Scott Thomson in attendance – Scott is the Park Officer for Leith Links.

We then asked them to quickly list everything happening in the Links and to mark their location with a coloured dot on the map. Green dots represent the most used areas, red dots mark areas of conflict and yellow dots specify areas for potential opportunities. As you can see in the photos, the attendees identified up to twenty areas, with the space around the playground being the most colourful on all three maps.

After this exercise, everyone came together to walk around each table to discuss the outcomes. The sorts of issues raised included dog owners using designated play areas and the football pitches; the lack of seating in the playground; and whether it was fair for military fitness groups to use the Links without contributing towards its upkeep. There were lots of opportunities to improve the park: planting a community garden and the improvement of the allotments; the need for better cycle path connections; the restoration of the bowling greens; and a wish for an ice-cream stand, to name a few.

For our last activity, we asked the attendees to narrow down their thoughts to name ONE opportunity to be created or ONE challenge to be solved. They produced the following list:

1. Using social media to canvass views on how the bowling green can be restored.

2. Improving the infrastructure of the non-sporting spaces e.g. picnics or BBQs.

3. Surveying how many people use the park and what people are doing in different areas.

Understandably, funding was the single most important obstacle mentioned by the attendees. The ParkLife team will be to take this list and see how using technology can help. This technology won’t replace getting out Leith Links and speaking to more people. Amongst other things, it is hoped that new information will provide more evidence to make the case for more funding for Leith Links.

The workshops were our first steps to talk with the local communities around Leith Links and other areas across Edinburgh. They reinforced how vibrant and integral these public spaces are for those who use and live near them. We look forward to working with the communities and seeing how parks across Edinburgh bloom over Spring and Summer.

We would like to thank all the participants who attended our workshops and shared their insights. If you want to find out more about ParkLife then you can contact us at parklife@ed.ac.uk or visit our website https://www.edinburghlivinglab.org/projects/parklife

ParkLife Project Seeking Community Volunteers (Leith Links)

You’ll recall that earlier this year we brought you news of the Edinburgh ParkLife project, which is seeking to use data & information to improve Leith Links (and three other parks elsewhere in the City).

They are moving forward with their project and require the assistance of some volunteers to help them.

 

 


The ParkLife user research team invites you to be a ‘park blitz’ volunteer. With your help, we will conduct short face-to-face surveys with park users about their experiences in four parks across Edinburgh. ‘Blitzes’ will last for two hours in one park, and volunteers can opt to participate in more than one blitz. We havefurther opportunities to volunteer at two park community events, for two or four hours per event. You will receive a short trainingsession on the survey questionnaire on 7 May at 2pm (if unavailable then, please let us know).

User research is part of the larger ParkLife project, which experiments with new techniques for gathering and analysing park data. For more information go here.

We will provide a packed lunch and refreshments.

Please indicate your availability in the doodle poll below:

https://doodle.com/poll/f8q3rsnpk9b9uuar

The ParkLife user research team is excited to meet all of you!

Morgan & Michaela

Morgan.currie@ed.ac.uk and M.Hubmann@ed.ac.uk


 

Leith Links Community Council Meeting, 29 April, 6:30pm, Leith Community Centre

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 Links Play Park

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.

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