Minutes of the Leith Harbour and Newhaven Community Council ordinary meeting, held at Custom House, on Tuesday 22 August at 6:30pm

Actions and decisions are red italic. Nem con means that no-one spoke or voted against an item.

1 Introductions and apologies for absence

1.a Present

Elaine Dick	LHNCC	Douglas Tharby	LHNCC	Arthur Young	LHNCC
Don Giles	LHNCC	Neil Tulloch	LHNCC	PC Chris Casselden	Police Scotland

1.b Apologies for absence

Jim Preacher	LHNCC	Cllr Chas Booth	Leith ward
Bruce Ryan	minutes secretary	Ben Macpherson MSP	Edinburgh Northern & Leith

2 Declaration of interests

none

3 Minutes of June 2023 meeting

Approved as (proposed Arthur Young, seconded N Tulloch, nem con)

4 Matters arising

Item	actor	action	status
6.a.i	Cllr Faccenda	organise site-walk about signage	Held over – Cllr Faccenda not present
6.a.ii	Cllr Faccenda	pursue better cycle-spaces on trams	Held over – Cllr Faccenda not present
6.a.ii	Cllr Faccnda	update LHNCC about asylum-seeker matters	Held over – Cllr Faccenda not present
8.c	J Preacher	Forward details of electricity substation to Cllr Faccenda	Held over – J Preacher not present
8.c	Cllr Faccenda	Pursue this matter	Held over – Cllr Faccenda not present
12.b	E Dick	Draft LHNCC’s support for tree-protection order	Done

5 Residents’ issues

5.a Piledriving at Western Harbour

• E Dick: the hours during which this occurs are being reviewed, in response to complaints.

5.b 5G mast at ASDA

• E Dick: a document was missing from the planning portal, so a resident has complained widely. I invited him and relevant others to this meeting but they have not come.

5.c Bridge next to Teuchter’s Landing

• A Young: there are concerns about wheelchair access here.
  • E Dick: there are similar issues elsewhere caused by pubs blocking paths with whisky barrels and tables and chairs.
  • There was discussion of licensing and equality of access matters.
  • Action: PC Casselden to look into this. (PC Casselden later reported that Teuchters is amenable to moving the barrels to enable access, and emailed CEC licensing about disabled access at Victor Hugo.)

6 Police update/response to issues raised

• See Police report on LHNCC website. These reports are very much appreciated by LHNCC.
• PC Casselden noted that
  • Leith suffers from relatively few hate-crimes, compared to the city centre.
  • There are around 280 calls per month, and similar patterns each month.
  • That missing-persons persons calls take up a lot of police time.
  • There is also a lot of work on theft of bikes and vehicle break-ins.
  • The controlled parking zone has not led to extra work, but some specific streets (e.g. Dalmeny) have caused issues.
  • Police are working on issues around drivers taking banned left turns from Leith Walk.
  • Police now have more powers to act on illegal supply of vapes.
  • There have been some incidents with parked cars blocking the tram-route, but I have not been involved with these.

7 Standing items and updates

7.a Planning

7.a.i Dalton’s Scrap (Salamander Street)

• N Tulloch: there are public consultations on this. A Orr or Orbit has been in communication with LHNCC on this topic.
  • D Tharby: because this site is in LLCC’s area, we could have a joint meeting with that CC.
  • Action: DT to contact LLCC to arrange this.

7.a.ii Seafield

• D Tharby: I attended the event at the Ripple about the Seafield developments.
  • N Tulloch: there will now be meetings between planners, CEC and the Seafield group to thrash out details of the development. There is ongoing public consultation. There have also been meetings with SEPA: developments have to be at least 6·28m above sea-level. This may be changed by CEC plans, but these will not come out for ~3 years.

7.b Licensing

• No matters raised, but see police report.

7.c Transport

7.c.i Trams

• D Giles: there will be a CCTT meeting on 28 August. I will continue to represent LHNCC on CCTT.
  • E Dick: CCTT did not seem to engage with residents.
  • D Giles: it held the trams team’s ‘feet to the fire’

7.c.ii Buses

• D Tharby: the Bernard St bus stop has been replaced.

7.d Environment

7.d.i FoWLB meeting

• E Dick/D Giles: FOWLB met with Cllr Faccenda, to update her on FOWLB’s work. FOWLB is also campaigning on sewage discharge, river walls, heritage issues, trees. Ben Macpherson is also to meet with FOWLB.
• D Giles: there is progress on restoration of the Paolozzi mural.

7.d.ii Trees and green spaces

• E Dick: I attended the FOWLB meeting, raising the issue of trees along the tram corridor. Trees are not being looked after, and some are dying. Inappropriate species have been planted, and there is an overall loss of trees. I will soon meet with senior trams officials, and show them the issues on the route. Cala had installed turf properly in Waterfront Plaza, Stevedore place etc, but this has been removed, leaving rubble and other issues. I will report back to LHNCC and FOWLB.
  • I will also pursue similar issues in Ocean Terminal.
  • Western Harbour residents have compiled a great database of the wide range of biodiversity in that area. People should check out Save Western Harbour Ponds on Facebook.

7.e Heritage

7.e.i Cobbles/sets on the Shore

• E Dick: The cobbles are very badly deteriorated, despite this being a tourist area.
  • D Giles: potholes have made the area quite dangerous.

7.f Community

7.f.i £eithChooses

• D Tharby: The 2023-24 instance is inviting funding applications. Trams to Newhaven has added £8000 to the available funding, which is for constituted organisations. There will be an help-session for applicants on 20 September 2023, and in-person voting day on 27 January 2024 at the Kirkgate [as well as online voting].

7.f.ii North East Locality Community Planning Partnership

• D Tharby: NELCPP has been very active on the locality improvement plan. There is wide consultation on the area’s priorities. (The current priorities were set in 2016, then reviewed in 2019, so now may well need revision.) The new LIP should have KPIs, which will be reported on. NELCPP and its equivalents elsewhere provide participation routes, and enable involvement of the ‘third sector’. CCs can also contribute skills and knowledge.
  • D Giles: the recent meeting highlighted the issue of poverty. Much work is needed to tackle it, e.g. tackling living conditions, racial ‘dumping’. CPPS are a route to pushing CEC about such issues.
  • E Dick: LHNCC needs to engage better with the community on such issues.

8 Community Councils scheme review (and EACC survey)

• D Tharby: B Ryan and I attended relevant meetings with CEC, which looked at CC boundaries. There should be CC elections in 2024. The whole CC system is quite weak.
  • E Dick: I responded to the EACC survey, nothing that LHNCC is ‘unhealthy’
  • D Tharby: only four of the north-east Edinburgh CCs did so. 3 (of 46 in Edinburgh) CCs are in abeyance. The results of the survey are interesting.

9 Councillor/MSP/MP responses and updates

• No councillors, MSPs or MP present – no reports (unless these are trapped in the LHNCC secretary in-box).
  • E Dick: Ben Macpherson MSP is willing to help LHNCC find a secretary.

10 Key diary dates ahead of next meeting

• No firm dates noted.

11 AOB

• D Tharby: I have submitted LHNCC’s 2022-23 accounts to CEC, and am working on changing bank account signatories. LHNCC has now received its annual grant. The current balance is £1124·28.
• A Young: how will LHNCC now deal with planning?
  • D Tharby: LHNCC needs to reinvigorate its planning committee.
  • D Giles: no notice is taken of all the input CCs make: decisions are made before ‘consultations’.

12 Date of next meeting

Tuesday 26 September 2023