Dear #SOSLeith supporters,

We wanted to announce the date, time, and location of the first #SOSLeith public meeting. This will be on Wednesday, October 31, 6.30 – 8.30 pm, at the Leith Community Centre Café. The main point of the meeting is to discuss where we are on cleaning detritus and trash from the basins, to seek updates on long-term planning, and agree on next steps.

Ben Macpherson MSP will be attending. This invitation has also gone out to our Councillors and Paul Lawrence, the City of Edinburgh Council’s Director of Place, who we hope will be able to attend, continuing to work with us in making our environment safe and clean. Also invited are representatives of basin owners, Water of Leith 2000, who we are very keen to hear from; as well as Forth Ports.

Part of the meeting will focus on different forms of legislation we can use to enforce maintenance of the basins, an issue we are discussing with Deidre Brock MP on October 4. On this topic we are grateful to the Leith Harbour and Newhaven Community Council(LHNCC), which is supporting our initiative to invoke the Scottish Land Commission’s published protocols on Community Engagement.

Today, LHNCC wrote to Paul Lawrence, with cc to our elected representatives and the directors of Water of Leith 2000 noting ‘The group [SOSLeith] have unsuccessfully tried to meet with the directors of Water of Leith 2000 to discuss their responsibility regarding maintenance and waste management now and in the future and how they propose to address the current dire state of the Basins. This lack of involvement is very unprofessional and does not meet with the Scottish Land Commission’s published protocols on community engagement.’

Please come to the meeting and let’s discuss where we are and how we keep momentum going to clean The Shore.

Best wishes,

#SOSLeith