The next meeting of the Leith Links Community Council will be next Monday, 29 June at 6:30pm at Duncan Place.
From the City of Edinburgh Council, Leith Connections team leader
Dear ward and adjacent Councillors, Convenor and Community Councillors,
Please accept my apologies for the delay to bringing the Kirkgate bus stop on Great Junction Street into use following completion of works on that street at the end of last year. Further work will commence on Monday 29 June meaning the bus stop will be able to be brought into use before the end of July.
A number of you have been in contact with me and Lothian Buses about this stop on behalf of residents. (YES, WE JOLLY WELL HAVE!!!!!!)
Following construction, Lothian Buses raised concerns about the communal bin hub being located on the approach to the bus stop in this location. I was keen to avoid re-work to our installed works and explored various alternatives with Lothian Buses and waste colleagues. We will reposition the hub slightly, locally reducing the width of cycle track. We will also install an additional surface water gully to remedy some minor areas of ponding noted due to the shallow gradient of the street.
The footway will remain open throughout the work but the cycle track will be closed with signage back at relevant junction. The carriageway will be locally narrowed during the works.
The attached leaflet has been distributed to business and residents fronting on this stretch of Great Junction Street.
Apologies again and thanks for your patience.
Regards,
Miles
Miles Wilkinson
miles.wilkinson@edinburgh.gov.uk
Senior Project Manager
Tel: 07563 376595
Active Travel Team, City of Edinburgh Council
G.4 Waverley Court, 4 East Market Street, Edinburgh, EH8 8BG
Much to the distress of local families, the state of the childrens playpark on the Links has been extremely poor for some time, and is deteriorating. Complaints have been pouring in, demanding repairs and restoration of favourite play equipment but the Council seems to have taken its eye badly off the ball on this one. Leith Councillor Katrina Faccenda, having escalated the matter on our behalf and on behalf of the many frustrated local parents, has recently received this reply from the Parks Technical Manager:
Dear Cllr Faccenda,
Thank you for your email to Gareth (Corporate Director of Place) regarding the ongoing issues with the play equipment at Leith Links and which has been passed to me for a response. I fully appreciate the frustration this situation has caused for residents and park users, particularly given the length of time these matters have remained unresolved.
There have unfortunately been prolonged difficulties in progressing these repairs. This has been caused by a combination of staff shortages within the service, wider supply chain issues affecting the availability of specialist parts and equipment, and the complexity involved in working with suppliers to identify solutions that are both safe and cost-effective for the specific faults affecting the units.
I do however understand that a series of repair solutions has now been agreed and that the necessary equipment and components have now been sourced. I have discussed this directly with the outsourced maintenance provider, who has assured me that the required works are expected to be completed within the next two to three weeks.
This situation has very much highlighted the need for the service to improve responsiveness to play area repairs. We are currently progressing recruitment to several vacant posts within the play park maintenance team to help address both these issues and wider repair backlogs currently being experienced across the service.
In addition, where agreed targeted repair programmes are not being delivered within expected timescales, we will also look to engage additional external support to help accelerate delivery and improve overall performance.
I appreciate the continued patience of local residents while these matters are resolved and apologise for the delays experienced.
*
Hhhmmm. Could do better, let’s hope they do!
We have been sent this latest update on the public toilets on Leith Links by Marco Galli, Green Space Development Officer at the Council:
The drainage works on site are now complete. We are carrying out final checks, including topographic survey and CCTV camera investigation survey, to make sure the new drainage network meets the required standard before the toilets can reopen. We are on track to reopen at the beginning of June 2026.
During the construction phase, the contractor encountered a number of unexpected challenges I wanted to make you aware of:
Despite these challenges, our contractor Healthmatic kept the programme on track.
Please note that the temporary toilets have been removed from site. We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause in the short term and are working hard to reopen the permanent facility as soon as possible. Several incidents of antisocial behaviour took place, leaving the toilets unsafe and posing a risk to our colleagues who maintained them.
We know the closure has been frustrating and we thank you for your patience. We will keep you updated as we move towards reopening. Please feel free to pass this update on to anyone who may find it useful.
Thank you.
Sorry if this is depressing, but this needs to be more widely known……
We all know about the offensive stench that frequently blights the lives of us locals living near the Seafield Sewage Treatment Centre. (And our ongoing fight to stop or at least reduce it! There is some good news on that, by the way, as work has apparently FINALLY started on building new undergound storage tanks, using the ‘no regrets funding’ provided by Scottish Government some considerable time ago…..)
But what happens next to the sewage? At our recent Community Council meeting, we listened with horror to our visiting speakers, long time campaigners Jo Hirst and Doreen Goldie who talked about the dangers to human health, to animal health, and to the soil and the environment, when the processed sewage leaves the plant in the form of ‘sludge cake’ and is spread across local agricultural land as a fertilizer. There is growing research evidence that this sludge is toxic, and causes an extremely serious public health risk, but it seems that the Scottish Govenment does not want to hear that, nor do anything about it. The practice of dumping sewage sludge at sea is now banned, and a number of countries have also banned spreading it on farmland. But not here. In fact, the Netherlands, who have banned it there, actually export their sewage sludge to the UK for dumping here!
See this recent article which summarises the situation, and if you wish to follow up further, see this comprehensive reading list of links
A campaign has been launched to have this practice ‘paused’ until the full facts are made known. At the very least a much more stringent system of monitoring, testing, regulation and enforcement is urgently needed, as very little of any of those is currently done.
The Leith Links Community Council will continue to participate in the Seafield ‘stakeholder meetings’ and will be keen to add this issue to the list of important considerations facing SEPA and Scottish Water as the time for handing over running of the Seafield plant from Veolia to Scottish Water draws closer.
The AGM and next meeting of Leith Links Community Council will be on Monday 25th May, at 6:30pm, at Duncan Place Community Hub, 4 Duncan Place.
There will be a short AGM followed at 7pm by an ‘ordinary meeting’. We have guest speakers Jo Hirst and Doreen Goldie coming to talk about what happens when sewage at Seafield is treated and turned into sludge cake which is spread across local agricultural land as fertilizer and may potentially have a dangerous impact on our food systems, water courses and the wider environment.
We also have a busy ‘general’ agenda of local issues. Do come along and join the discussions – the Community Council would really appreciate more support from local residents.
If you need to join remotely, please use this MS Teams link
Secretary LeithLinks invited you to a Microsoft Teams Meeting, 25 May 18:30
Documents
The next meeting of Leith Links Community Council is on Monday 25 May at 6:30pm. Following a brief AGM and a short break, starting at 7pm we will hold our ‘ordinary’ CC meeting, starting with visiting speakers Jo Hirst and Doreen Goldie to talk about what happens to our sewage, why it may be dangerous, and what regulation and enforcement is necessary.
Everyone knows about the offensive stench that frequently blights the lives of those who live in the vicinity of Seafield Sewage Treatment Centre. However what is not so well known is that after the City’s sewage has been ‘treated’, the resultant sludge cake is spread across local agricultural land as a fertilizer. Many believe that the several contaminants that remain in this ‘treated’ sludge cake represent a serious public health risk. A campaign has been launched to have this practice ‘paused’ until the full facts are made known.
Come to our next meeting on 25th May at 7.00pm at Duncan Place Community Hub to hear more about this campaign and about why there is so much concern about the potential impact on our food systems, water courses and the wider environment.
We have been asking!
A message has recently been received from the Council, providing an update regarding:
Leith Links Public Toilets
Drainage remediation works have begun on site during the week commencing 4 May 2026. The construction works are expected to take approximately 3 to 4 weeks, followed by reinstatement of the surrounding area and testing of the drainage system before reopening. We are currently targeting completion by the beginning of June 2026, subject to final testing and verification.
The toilets were temporarily closed in December 2025 after issues were identified with the drainage system. Investigations found that the service disruption was caused by a combination of foreign objects entering the drainage network and a construction fault which needs to be rectified to ensure the system works reliably. Since then, the Council has been working with our contractor Healthmatic to develop a solution that addresses both issues and ensures the facility can operate effectively in the long term.
The temporary chemical toilets were removed during the week commencing 14 April 2026 and replaced with a new set of temporary toilets, which will remain in place until the drainage works are completed.
We understand that this has caused inconvenience for park users and the local community, and we appreciate your patience while we work to resolve the issue properly. We look forward to bringing the new public toilet facility back into operation as soon as possible and will continue to provide updates as works progress.
Marco Galli
Green Space Development Officer
City of Edinburgh Council – Parks and Greenspace – Place
Waverley Court – 4 East Market Street – Edinburgh – EH8 8BG
Tel 07709720833 Email: marco.galli@edinburgh.gov.uk
Here is the latest news from the Council on the Restalrig Road works (in response to a request for information from Leith Links Community Council, via Councillor Katrina Faccenda).
“….please find the following updates regarding the ongoing improvements on Restalrig Road.
The project began on 9 March 2026 and is divided into 8 phases (approximately 150m each.) covering Restalrig Road and Restalrig Road South Each phase consists of two parts:
Civil works are currently in Phase 6 (near Restalrig Park) and should be finished by 7 May.
Resurfacing began today (20 April) and is estimated to be complete by mid-July 2026.
While it may appear that little progress has been made, civil works are inherently slower and less visible than surfacing. To date, we have successfully upgraded 10 crossing points and vehicle crossovers with new tactile paving and dropped kerbs, and renewed dozens of gullies. The project is currently progressing to plan.
We are working closely with Lothian Buses to provide regular updates. Diversion details for the current surfacing phase were posted on the Lothian Buses website last week. We encourage residents to check both the Lothian Buses site and our dedicated project webpage for the most recent updates.
I can confirm this is a full resurfacing. The boundaries cover the area between East Hermitage Place and Sleigh Drive (ending just before the roundabout). Furthermore, once Restalrig Road is complete, we will resurface the section of Blackie Road between Summerfield Gardens and Claremont Road.
Due to safety concerns at the Claremont Road/Claremont Park junction, I will instruct our contractor to place no-parking cones to improve visibility and traffic flow while Restalrig Road remains closed. Please note that these cones will be advisory because there is insufficient time to promote a Temporary Traffic Regulation Order (TTRO), so they will not be legally enforceable if ignored. However, we hope this visual deterrent will encourage safer parking behavior during the works.”
Stylianos Kapetanakis BEng MSc NECReg – Senior Engineer Transport Contracts & Design
Infrastructure ¦ Planning and Transport ¦ Place ¦ The City of Edinburgh Council
Planning and Transport, 1.7 , Waverley Court, 4 East Market Street, Edinburgh EH8 8BG
The next meeting of LLCC will be on Monday, 27 April 2026, in person at Duncan Place, at 6:30 pm.
As usual we have a busy agenda of local issues to discuss.
We also have guest speakers Sutherland Forsyth and Sam Gallacher from Scottish Historic Buidlings Trust, to give a short presentation on the latest plans and news about a Leith Museum at Leith Custom House.
