Muirhouse Salvesen Community Council Meeting at Muirhouse Millenium Centre, on Tuesday 6th of October 2009
Agenda
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Tuesday, 6th of October at 7pm in the Muirhouse Millenium Centre.
Tuesday, 3rd of November at 7pm in the Muirhouse Millenium Centre.
Tuesday, 8th of December at 7pm in the Muirhouse Millenium Centre.
All meetings are open to the public.
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Various community groups, local businesses and initiatives joined together to organise an ecofair on Saturday, 26th of September. Stalls present ranged from the North Edinburgh Trust, which gave away free bags, T-shirts, energy-saving lightbulbs and invitations to join the forthcoming climate change workshops to Craigroyston Community High, Barrie Grub, National Grid, Working Links, SAED and many more. A karaoke disco entertained young and old as did face-painting and a pedal-powered smoothie maker.
PiltonEcofair
Ecoelephant
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Birnies Court and Fidra Court are currently undergoing an upgrade in the kitchen and bathroom facilities. These include a new boiler/heating system linked up to the shower/bath, new kitchen furniture and new flooring, tapestry, tiling and furniture in kitchen and bathrooms. Here are the pictures of the showflat with the various choices available to tenants:
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Muirhouse Community Council
Notes of Meeting, 4th of August 2009.
Present:
Betty Stevenson, Roy Douglas, Steve Bisset (police), Gill Geany (police)
Allan Jackson (CEC), Elaine Morris (CEC), Cammy Day (CEC)
Ulla Schott, Charley Fletcher, Malcolm Warrack
Apologies: Jimmy Butler (NET)
1. CORRESPONDENCE:
2. Matter Arising from Previous Minutes
P4. Betty Stevenson clarifies that it was the Harbour Housing Association and not the Port of Leith Housing Association regarding the point of New Structuring.
Ulla to get in contact with Jimmy: wormeries, Community Council Newsletter
Betty Stevenson could not attend the meeting, as she was double-booked. Elaine Morris reported back that the last meeting was about money allocation.
3. Reports from Neighbourhood Planning Action Groups
a) Health & Social Care
Lack of transport to Western General Hospital: Buses do not go directly anymore from Muirhouse to hospital; only bus number 24 goes via Pennywell Road.
Mental health issues continue to affect the community with a number of reported suicides amongst residents in the high rises. The action group talked about issues relating to funding adequate counselling services & service provisions for mental health problems and training for local workers such as council concierges in how to talk and engage with suicidal persons.
Due to the summer break the other Action Groups have still to meet. Report backs will be given at the next C.C. meeting.
4.Police Report
P.C. Steve Bissett is taking over as Community Beat Officer from Ian Matthews, he will take-up his post from first week of August.
Community councillors raised the following issues:
6.AOCB:
MCC is currently without treasurer. Current bank balance 3018,59 pounds
Community council elections are coming up on October 15th. Jimmy is distributing nomination forms, which should be sent onto our returning officer.
Charley Fletcher would like a memorial garden for Jenni Marrow in Pennywell. Betty Stevenson will take the issue back to the regeneration group. Ideas to ask NEAC for ground and PEP for help to set up the garden as they ave got experience.
7.Date of next meeting:
7pm Tuesday 6th October @ Muirhouse Millennium Centre
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Notes of
Muirhouse/Salvesen Community council, 7th April 2009, Muirhouse Millennium Centre
Present
Roy Douglas, Betty Stevenson, Ulla Schott, John Davidson, Billy Anderson Hugh Harkins, Martha Thom and Cllr Alan Jackson
Apologies
Malcolm Warrack, Cllr Cammy Day, Willie Adams, and Ian Matthews
In Attendance
Bill Wilson (Environmental Task Force Manager, C.E.C.)
Kirsty Rodgers (Community Safety Team Leader, C.E.C.)
Eleanor Hill (Pennywell/Muirhouse Owners Group)
Liz Innes (Pennywell/Muirhouse Owners Group)
Elizabeth White (Pennywell/Muirhouse Owners Group)
Jimmy Butler (North Edinburgh Trust)
1.Correspondence
(a) Edinburgh Community Representative Conference (ECRN)
ECRN will host a community conference under the theme ‘Community Engagement within Neighbourhood Partnerships, Rhetoric or Reality?
ECRN hope that Community Councillors can attend. The date is Saturday 25th April from 9.30 to 1.00. Venue: Melting Pot, Rose Street Edinburgh.
(b) City Community Council Elections
It is a requirement that all community councils elect their councillors.
The elections for all citywide community councillors to their respective councils (not the posts of chair, secretary and treasurer) will take place on 15th October 2009. Notice for elections to the community council has to be circulated around the community by 31st August, with close of registration for those seeking election on 14th of September. If there are more than the required number of registrations elections to the community council will take place on 15th October. If there are less than the total nominations required to make up the full complement of community councillors then all those who have registered for election will be invited to become community councillors.
(c) Forth Partnership: Public Question
The Forth Neighbourhood Partnership responded to a question raised at it public meeting regarding the inclusion of Muirhouse Housing Association (MHA) as registered social landlord on the planning group tasked with redeveloping the Muirhouse/Pennywell area. The community council believed MHA’s experience would be invaluable to this process. Kate Ward the City Councils Regeneration Project Manager replied to the question saying community involvement on the development group consisted of representation from tenants, homeowners, Craigroyston School, North Edinburgh Arts and the Community Council. Her reply went on to say that MHA’s Chief Executive was now attending the meetings but it would be the City Councils 21st Century Homes project that would be developing the area and not Housing Associations.
(d) Maternity Services Strategy
NHS Lothian is holding a public consultation on its draft strategy for Maternity services and would welcome people’s views and comments.
A consultation document can be found in the local chemist or doctors surgery or alternatively people can find and complete the document on www.nhslothian.scot.nhs.uk.
(e) Modernising Planning Procedures
Under new Planning Legislation developers submitting large developments and master planning process will be required to undertake community consultation in their pre-application phase.
This will ensure people will be better informed about developers plans and how these plans impact on the existing community. Jimmy will contact the Planning Department and request both further information and if possible a planning officer would be available to give the C.C. a presentation.
2. Minute of Previous Meeting (3rd February 2009)
Minute agreed by Roy Douglas and seconded by Ulla Schott.
3.Matters Arising from Minutes
(a) Community Council Internet Site and Communication Strategy
The application submitted to the C.E.C. Community Engagement Fund for resources to maintain the Website and create a newsletter has been successful.
(b) Election of Community Council Treasurer
This item is to be continued.
4. Reports by Neighbourhood Planning Officers
(a) Environmental and Recreational Report
The C.C. has for the past number of months raised concerns with the Neighbourhood Planning office regarding the estate management of the area. Bill Wilson the City Councils Environmental & Recreational Task Manager came to the meeting to give an update on estate maintenance issues. Bill spoke of not having the appropriate manpower resources to cover the recreational maintenance needs for the North of the City. He however informed the Community Council that there was a recruitment drive to employ a further seven staff to that will be allocated to North Edinburgh. The C.C. raised the issue of grass cuttings not being removed. Bill said this was because of the additional cost to remove the crass cuttings and send them to land fill quarries. He went on to say that the solution was to cut the large grass areas more frequently to stop the grass from getting to a length that creates the mounds when cut.
Other issues raised were the lack of evidence that Pennywell was included in any current estate maintenance plan especially around the demolition areas, despite residents still living there. Members of the Pennywell Muirhouse Owners Group put up a gallery of photographs exposing the current degenerative state of their community, which includes images of obstructed footpaths with household and building materials that have been fly tipped, overgrown grass and shrub areas and areas with large amounts of litter. The lack of litterbins at street level and in parks across the community is also an issue, one reason for this is the council replaced metal litterbins with plastic ones, these less robust bins have been vandalised and set of fire, the Community Council would like to see the metal bins reintroduced.
Bill Wilson said he would produce a community plan for the area that would include action to address the Community Councils (C.C.) issues. He will send the community plan to the C.C. for comments.
(b) Community Safety Action Week
Kirsty Rodger, Community Safety Team Leader inform the C.C. that the Neighbourhood Partnership would undertake a week of action in Muirhouse, Pennywell and Salvesen on the week starting 11th May. The week of action will see resources concentrated in these areas to tackle issues such as dog fowling, anti-social behaviour and street cleaning. During this week there will be an increased Police presences across the area supported by a mobile CCTV unit. The City Council will increase its dog warden patrols and cleansing department resources to clean up the area. This action will be further supported by joint walkabouts to identify hotspot areas. An initial walkabout will take place on April 14th.
5. Community Council High Rise Wormeries Project
The City Councils Waste Management funding programme has requested an evaluation and update of the progress of the project. It was raised that the project could form part of the areas wider climate change agenda currently being developed through North Edinburgh Trust. Jimmy will meet with Ulla and Danny to progress this issue
6. Reports from Neighbourhood Planning Action Groups
(a) Learning Employment (L.E.) Group
The L.E. is currently devolved into sub-groups that will work with a range of objectives such as developing and sustaining long-term training and employment access opportunities in the current downturn market. The sub-groups are tasked to report back to the full action group by August 2009.
(b) Physical Regeneration (P.R.) Group
It was reported that the master planners who will consult with the community over the redevelopment of Pennywell, Muirhouse and West Pilton Crescent have been appointed. It was suggested that the Muirhouse/Salvesen and West Pilton/West Granton Community Councils meet to discuss the community engagement agenda of the appointed Master Planners. Jimmy Butler will approach C.E.C. Housing Development and request a copy of successful tender document.
(c) Health and Social Care (HSC) Group
It was reported that a film night was arranged to show a programme about Women Supporting Women highlighting the issues that bring women to the project and the services they engage with. The HSC meeting revisited issues that were highlighted at the group’s community seminar in 2008. These issues included improving community information about health services and transport links that enable people to access these services. Councillor Morris informed the meeting that resources had been secured to positively progress the issue of community access to information.
7. North Edinburgh Trust Governance
The meeting was informed that North Edinburgh Trust (NET) was reviewing their governance structure, which consists of a Board of Trustees drawn exclusively from the areas Community Councils (C.C). Each C.C. nominates two representatives to sit as trustees, NET wish to include on the Board Trustees from the wider community who have knowledge of social enterprise.
They are proposing that one representative is nominated from each of the C.C.’s with the remaining Trustees selected through a yet to be decided community process. The C.C. will be kept informed of NET’s progress with this proposal.
8. A.O.C.B.
(a) Information Points
It was agreed that raising the profile of the C.C. and getting information out to the community is an issue that needs to be addressed. Jimmy Butler will make application to the Neighbourhood Partnership for community display boards to be setup. It was agreed as a priority that a community council information board is required for Salvesen, other areas will also be identified.
9. Date of next meeting
7pm Tuesday 14th May 2009 @ Muirhouse Millennium Centre.
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Notes of Muirhouse/Salvesen Community council, 3rd February 2009, Muirhouse Millennium Centre
Present
Roy Douglas (Chair), Ulla Schott (Secretary) Malcolm Warrack and Cllr Cammy Day.
Apologies
Betty Stevenson, Martha Thom, John Davidson, Willie Adams, Billy Anderson and Cllr Alan Jackson.
In Attendance
Hugh Harkins (Muirhouse Loan Resident)
Jimmy Butler (North Edinburgh Trust)
Ian Matthews (Community Police)
1. Minutes of Previous Meeting (16th December 2008)
Minute agreed by Malcolm Warrack and seconded by Ulla Schott.
2. Matters Arising from Minutes
(a) High Rise Wormeries Project
Ulla informed the meeting that an article appeared in the Edinburgh Evening News positively reporting the work. She is currently working on an article for publication in North Edinburgh News. To date 4 wormeries have been installed, she will report back on further progress at the April meeting.
(b) Muirhouse Linear Park
Steven Cuthill the North Edinburgh Community Partnership Environmental Manager was asked to attend the meeting and discuss a maintenance plan for the upkeep of the park. It is with disappointment that we report that Mister Cuthill did not attend.
Councillor Day said he would pursue the matter and report back.
(c) Redrow Development
It was reported that the gap between Muirhouse Park and Redrow housing as at last been bridged by a pedestrian and cycle gate.
(d) Fairer Scotland Fund
The issues affecting voluntary sector groups in there pursuit of Fair Scotland Funds to deliver community services has still not been resolved. Muirhouse Millennium Centre is still in discussions with C.E.C. Children and Families to develop a plan that can keep the centre viable. All other Muirhouse Salvesen projects affected will give presentations to the Inverleith Planning Partnership to secure financial resources as they provide services to residents of that area. It was also reported that the issue would be discussed at a future C.E.C. Policy & Strategy Committee. The C.C. will continue to monitor the situation.
(e) Community Council Internet Site and Communication Strategy
The C.C. Secretary has submitted an application to the C.E.C. Community Engagement Fund for resources to maintain the Website and create a newsletter.
3. Presentation by Community Renewal Capacity Building Project
The Community Council were instrumental in negotiations with Capital City Partnership to secure resources for the appointment of Community Renewal to bring their expertise in supporting local people improve their health, learning and employment opportunities.
Community Renewal presented the C.C. with an analysis of their outcomes for the first six months:
Residents contacted 650
Residents registered 183
Residents into employment 14
Community Renewal staff have supported registered residents build their own personal plan towards changing their circumstances through volunteering with community agencies, planning return to work routes and seeking educational and training.
A measure of Community Renewal’s success has been accomplished through employing local people to become community animators.
The role of the animators is to engage with the community they understand and knock on resident’s doors to introduce the service in a meaningful and positive way. This process helps build trust in away that local residents do not experience with government or local council agencies.
Community Renewal have began to develop a partnership arrangement with other community agencies such as Working Links and Granton Information Centre in order to provide the broadest possible service to residents.
Roy thanked the group for their presentation and hoped the project would continue to keep the C.C. informed of its outcomes.
4. Community Councils Treasurer’s Position
Gordon Davie has moved from the area making him ineligible to remain as a community councillor. The C.C. will therefore seek to elect a new Treasurer at the April meeting.
5. Community Police Report
Ian Matthews reported that he would be retiring from his post in June of this year. The new community police officer is appointed and will attend the April C.C.
Ian reported that crime figures relating to house breaking had reduced over the previous quarter. Car crime however had seen an increase, especially thefts from vehicles in and around the Salvesen area.
6. Reports from Neighbourhood Planning Action Groups
Due to the holiday period over Christmas and New Year there was no meetings of the Action Groups. Report backs will resume at the April C.C. meeting.
Roy reported that North Edinburgh Trust (NET) were reviewing their governance procedures and sought support from the areas C.C.’s to reduce the number of C.C. reps from 10 to 5 on their Board. NET’s proposal is to continue to have 10 board members by opening up their membership to the wider community. It was agreed this issue would be discussed at the April C.C. meeting.
7. Date of next meeting
7pm Tuesday 7th April 2009 @ Muirhouse Millennium Centre.
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The new January edition of the North Edinburgh News is being distributed from 13th of January onwards. The Muirhouse Salvesen Community Council has put in a report about last year’s activities and reported back on the progress of the Waste Action Grant to the community.
The NEN deadlines for 2009 are subject to continued funding:
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The Edinburgh Evening News carried positive articles about the latest activities of the Muirhouse Salvesen Community Council. The Highrise Wormeries Waste Action grant was prominently featured by Sue Gyford on page 3 of the Tuesday, 23rd of December edition; and the deputation to the EdinburghCity Council to protest funding cuts to local projects like the Muirhouse Millnenium Centre was highlighted in the Saturday edition of the 20th of December. Both articles carried positive pictures about the area and the local people.
The next Muirhouse Salvesen Community Council is planned for Tuesday, 3rd of February, at 7pm in the Muirhouse Millenium Centre.
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About seventy people attended the Edinburgh City Council meeting today in protest of the “Un-”Fairer Scotland Fund, which would hit North Edinburgh hardest with over 50% reduction in funds in Muirhouse alone. Amongst the groups and initiatives threatened with closure are brandnew buildings costing millions – which are now left with no funding to staff and open the resources like the Muirhouse Millenium Community Centre and the North Edinburgh Arts Centre. The North Edinburgh News, which has been running in this area for over 30 years is threatened with closure as the funding cuts of about 75% of the previous amounts would mean staff can not anymore paid.
Edinburgh City Council Public Gallery
Malcolm Chisholm, Member of the Scottish Parliament, opened the deputations with the remark, that the Forth ward sees the worst funding cuts in the 17 years he has been a representative for the area. He said that many of the projects grew out of activism of recognising a need in this area, like North Edinburgh Childcare. He warned that should these funding cuts go through, it would mean that other council services would need to pick up the pieces. He sounded astonished, that Edinburgh Council was the only council in Scotland who did not use the Scottish Index on allocating the funding, but a new “Edinburgh Index” which meant drastic funding cuts of 37% a year.
Dave Pickering, community representative to the Forth Partnership, pointed out that the cuts in the Forth area amounted to £700 000 (sevenhundredthousand pounds) and that seventeen projects are affected. He pointed out that the Local Neighbourhood Partnership gave reassurance at the start but that the promises of fair funding allocation never happened. He pointed out that the funding cuts are hitting the most vulnerable people in the community and that the Fairer Scotland Fund is penalising the poorest communities with the most deprivation in Edinburgh.
A user and representative of the Black Community Development Project talked about how the cuts are unfairly targetting the local ethnic minority people with a community of twothousandfivehundred residents. She asked: “Who will continue to address our needs?” and talked about how the BCDP was helping her and her family when they became vistims of racist abuse. She also called for the Fairer Scotland Fund to be more transparently and more equally distributed.
Nina Davies, a reader of the North Edinburgh News, stressed that as a self-employed professional the NEN is a vital link to the community. The funding cuts would close-down a community paper with a 30-year-old history.
Georg Pitcher from the Edinburgh Community Activist Representatives Network stressed that the Councillors would have a moral choice today. He reminded the Councillors that people placed their trust in them and that they should make a decision for the People and not their Party. He called for the Councillors to get a better understanding of the people who they serve.
A representative of the Pilton Youth Community Group stated that her organisation was the only organisation which provides an early intervention for under 12-year-old and that the speed of the drastic funding cuts being implemented meant that it was impossible to get additional funding as there was not enough time given to their project.
The Member of the Westminster Parliament for Edinburgh North and Leith, Mark Lazarowicz, called for options to make it possible for the projects to continue. He warned about the interconnections which were not yet considered by the funding cuts; like the cutbacks to funding youth projects will result in that teenagers and young people will have nothing to do and that will have consequences.
Peter Ecroy talked about the funding cuts to the Muirhouse Millenium Community Centre, which was opened in August 2000 with £800 000 in funding would have to close under cutbacks allocated via the Fairer Scotland Fund. He stressed that the criteria set up by the Edinburgh Partnership were all covered by the Centre and still a funding cut of 54% happened, making 7 local workers redundant and leaving the building empty. Over 30 different groups use the centre every week, he said, many of the centre’s users are the most vulnerable people such as older people, young single parents, children and unemployed. He reminded the Councillors, that the other community centre in Craigroyston is set to close with its relocation to Pennywell and asked:
“Where do the people who need these facilities go now?”
Roy Douglas, chair of the Muirhouse and Salvesen Community Council stated that the these cuts will effect the most vulnerable. He stressed that Muirhouse and Niddrie were found in a recent research by Glasgow University to be the most deprived communities in the city – with Niddrie receiving no reduction whatsoever in its funding allocation whilst Muirhouse suffered a reduction of more than 50% in the grant money which was aimed originally at tackling poverty and social exclusion. He stated that our community would look pretty much like 25 years ago – with empty boarded-up houses and broken street lighting, parks and green spaces neglected. He asked the Councillors to work with us and not against us, and reminded the SNP that Nicola Sturgeon declared her support for community led regeneration and called for Councillors not to endorse the axe blow.
The deputations finished off with Councillors given a 15 minutes period to ask questions. Councillors Lesley Hinds and Cammy Day supported the deputations and called on the Edinburgh Council to avoid the cuts. A banner was dropped and calls from the public gallery demanded that Elaine Morris resign as a Councillor for the Forth ward and as the chair of the Forth Partnership and as the convenor of the FSF Finance Group which implemented the cuts.
Muirhouse Millenium Deputation
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