Fairmilehead Community Council

Minutes of meeting held on Tuesday 6 December 2011 in Parish Church

Present: Dennis Williams (Chair); Louise Maguire (Vice Chair); Norman Tinlin (Secretary); Alison Elfick (Treasurer); Johanna Carrie; Barbara Dick (Buckstone Association); Richard Hinton; Sandy Macpherson; Tom Strathdee; Pam Wight (St Fillans)

Ex Officio: Councillors Elaine Aitken and Eric Barry; PC Kenny Welsh;

In Attendance: Phil Pritchett; Gordon Lee; Andrew Wilmot and Dario Alolzo for Item 1; Alastair McClung for Item 2; Inspector Stephen Dolan for Item 3

11 members of the public

Apologies: Ian Murray MP and Councillor Jason Rust

1. Fairmile Inn Proposals Phil Pritchett from Pritchett Planning Consultancy introduced himself and his colleagues Andrew Wilmot and Dario Alolzo from Oberlanders Architects. He also introduced Gordon Lee of Craigdon Mountain Sports, Inverurie who had just bought the Fairmile Inn.

This was just an introduction as they had arranged to attend the January meeting to give fuller details of the proposals.

The existing building would be demolished and replaced with a multi use facility as an outdoor and mountain sports centre. It was hoped to work in conjunction with the Pentland Rangers and the Snow Sports centre and possibly provide workshop facilities.

There would possibly be 3 flats on site for family members and staff. A café was envisaged for the upper floor and there was the possibility of a Rangers Station.

In response to questions it was stated that there could be the possibility of 5 to 10 posts for local employment opportunities. It was thought that a likely date would be 2013 for completion. The present building was not listed.

2. Swanston Farm Proposals Alistair McClung from Swanston Farm introduced himself. He said that there were 6 years left on the lease for Lothianburn Golf Course and he was making submission to the SESPlan review as well as the current consultation on the new Local Plan.

This was in relation to proposed uses of the land for sporting purposes. There were 125 acres in total and the woodland and agricultural uses would remain. The leisure facilities could be such things as adventure sports, mountain bike trails, running and pony trekking.

There could also be associated development along both sides of Biggar Road with a hotel. It was hoped to achieve an area of excellence for Lothianburn.

Mr McClung promises to keep the Community Council abreast of the proposals.

3. Police Report Inspector Stephen Dolan from Police Station introduced himself to the meeting and apologised for not being able to stay but he and PC Welsh had to leave to attend to operational matters.

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PC Kenny Welsh gave the crime figure for the area for November. There were 27 in total of which 6 were solved. 14 were in relation to dishonesty, 6 vandalisms, 2 violence, 3 miscellaneous and 2 road traffic offences.

The housebreakings related to 4 houses (Frogston, Winton, Swanston and Caiystane) and 6 garden huts and were believed to have occurred during the day possibly in the afternoons. Small items were stolen from the houses and entry was gained by breaking rear windows. Padlocks were forced off garden sheds and garden equipment and cycles stolen.

Shed alarms were available for £10 through the Community Safety Panel or Oxgangs Police Station.

The Chair thanked Inspector Dolan and PC Welsh for their work during the year.

4. Minute Of Meeting Held On 1 November 2011

These were approved by the meeting.

Matters Arising: a) 28 Frogston Road West The Secretary reported that he had circulated draft objections to this change of use to a nursery to the members. It was intended the premises would serve 60 children with 23 staff members. The main concern was the likely increase in traffic. He would incorporate the comment she had received into the final document and submit it before the due date, 15 December. b) Boundaries Commission Review The Secretary reported that he had represented the Community Council at the public hearing on14 November 2010 in front of Sheriff Principal Stephen regarding the proposals to change the Westminster Parliamentary Constituency Boundaries. The changes would mean that that part of the Community Council area which at present lay within Edinburgh South would come under Edinburgh South West. The Edinburgh South constituency was being abolished.

He had stated that the Community Council were in agreement with the proposed changes which would align the constituency boundary with the Ward boundary. This meant that for Westminster the whole of the Community Council area would be in the one constituency. This tied in with the existing boundary for the Holyrood constituency and the neighbourhood partnership. c) Budget Consultation The Secretary reported on a city wide budget consultation event he had attended on 3 December. The panel had included the Chief Executive and representatives of the police and fire service, NHS, Chamber of Commerce and the voluntary and education sectors. Details of the event can be found here: http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/downloads/download/1828/budget_engagement_2011- citywide_summit The presentation slides can be found here: http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/downloads/download/1830/budget_engagement_2011- financial_presentation_and_results

Details of other information and meetings can be found here: http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/info/695/council_information_performance_and_statistics/1314/ council_budget_201114 d) Edinburgh Local Plan – Main Issues Report This would be on the agenda for the next meeting. The closing date was 27 January 2012.

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5. Correspondence a) Thank You card from Sheena Robertson b) The Lord Provost – Inviting nominations for the Edinburgh Award 2011 c) Planning Department – Permission with conditions granted for vehicle access at 226 Braid Road d) Licensing Department – Licensing Lists for December Board (None in area) e) Planning Department – Consultation on Lighting Strategy – closing date 31 December 2011 f) Friends of the Pentlands – Annual Report and Reminder re membership renewal (Agreed to renew membership (£14) and make a donation of £100)

6. Councillors’ Reports Councillors Aitken and Barry handed out copies of their annual reports and the Secretary read over Councillors Rust’s.

The Councillors highlighted various aspects and took questions.

Copies of the reports are attached as appendices to these minutes.

7. Pentlands Neighbourhood Partnership The Secretary reported on the Business Meeting which had been held the previous week. There had been the usual sub group updates and an update on work financed by the partnership through Fairer Funding in connection with the impact of army deployment on families. This was still at the draft stage and a full report would be issued in due course.

The next public meeting was the following week when the main subject would be the local winter weather plan.

Tom Strathdee reported on the Community Safety Sub Group. There had been 3 break ins to sheds in Pentland Drive. In a recent survey 56% had been concerned about cold calling so this was being looked at. Parking at or near schools was continuing to be looked at. There were no youths in the area involved in the tracking system. The sub group were experimenting with using the twitter/facebook facility set up by the neighbourhood partnership.

8. Planning and Environment a) SESPlan Proposed Plan consultation. The closing date for this was 19 December 2011 if anybody wished to submit any comments.

9. Transport The Secretary said that the gritting routes for the area had been re-scheduled. Details along with grit bin locations could be found at: http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/info/1291/roads_and_pavements- adverse_weather_plans/361/winter_road_and_pavement_maintenance/1

10. Youth Report Margaret Walker gave a brief report. 60 youths were turning up to the youth club and project and an outing was being arranged for the pantomime. She had arranged for a few to come along at the end of the meeting and give a small musical interlude.

The meeting thanked Margaret and the youths for all their work in the area.

11. AOCB A member of the public said that they had problems with the installers who had installed their roof and wall insulation. They had been told that as this had been free they should not expect too much. Cllr Aitken said she would pursue the matter.

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Johanna Carrie gave details of the Transition Edinburgh Pentlands AGM on the following Thursday.

The Secretary said that the refurbished Morningside Library was being opened the following Thursday. A Library and Information Services Strategy was due to be published for consultation soon. He would circulate it when it became available.

The Chair thanked all the members and office bearers and wished everybody a merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

After the meeting was formally closed entertainment was provided by members of the Buckstone Youth Project.

12. Date Of Next Meeting This was arranged for Tuesday 10 January 2012 in Fairmilehead Parish Church.

Forthcoming Meetings: Tuesday 7 February 2012 Tuesday 7 March 2012 Tuesday 10 April 2012

Contacts: e-mail: [email protected] Website: : www.fairmileheadcc.org.uk

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Appendix

Annual Report for 2011 - Councillor Elaine Aitken

Roads and Environment: Last winter, we experienced more difficult and treacherous conditions for a prolonged period. On behalf of residents, I submitted a number of suggestions for improvements for this year. Fairmilehead Community Council has also contributed constructively to the new strategy. This has resulted in an increase in applications for grit bins, which have now been installed, more snow clearing equipment and new gritting routes.

Letters had been sent to householders in Pentland Gardens, Oxgangs Road and Buckstone Terrace and Road regarding overhanging branches informing them of the problem and asking them to cut them back.

Buckstone Drive and Crescent – residents were consulted and agreed that the replacement of speed cushions with road width humps should go ahead. Although the 3 sets of speed cushions in the Drive will also be changed, this has been delayed to next May to allow road surfacing work to be done at the same time. Also in Buckstone Drive, when the new lighting was installed, it was erected on the opposite side from the church only. This has proved to be inadequate and I’m having this checked.

Fairmilehead Park - new play equipment was installed. Funding was also allocated to build a fence round the children’s play equipment following representations by me and a petition organised by a local mum which had attracted 400 signatures.

The Scottish Water roadworks required for the new pipeline link to the Glencorse water treatment plant have caused increased traffic and speed through Swanston and Caiyside. Residents in Mounthooley experienced significant delays and I’ve brought this to Kenny Naylor’s attention.

Refuse and recycling collections have been missed because of the ongoing dispute or crew error. On a number of occasions, I have reported refuse vehicles emptying bins in the vicinity of both Pentland and Buckstone Primary Schools when the children are walking to school.

Double yellow lines are being considered on the approach roads to Buckstone PS and at the corners of Buckstone Bank and Buckstone Crescent because of problems with parked cars.

Planning: During this year, The Fairmile Inn came up for sale again because the company which owns it had gone into administration. The planning permission which was originally in force for flats had expired so any new development would require to be started from the beginning. I have had a meeting with an interested party. Since the closing date for offers, our Planners have been in discussions with a preferred bidder for mixed use of the site. A representative of the purchaser will attend the December meeting of Fairmilehead Community Council to report on possible plans.

The RSG Edinburgh City Control in Buckstone Grove was advertised for sale. The site is 2.07 acre site but only one acre was actually available due to restrictions. Cala were the preferred bidder and, as a result of discussions with the immediate neighbours, they propose to submit plans for 5 houses next year. Cala will be undertaking some further investigatory works including tree surveys, Site Investigations and the line in the New Year with a view to lodging a detailed planning application around March 2012. These dates are indicative. FCC and the wider community will be involved in any consultation.

226 Braid Road - I attended the planning committee to request a site visit prior to making a decision. This was agreed and planning permission was refused to build a house on the property. However an appeal against the decision was lodged with the Scottish Ministers which was successful. The decision stipulated that no work could be done until a TRO was agreed to move the time limited parking spaces and the spaces relocated. Planning permission was also granted for vehicle access.

Scottish Water are still looking for a developer for the Fairmilehead site. Glencorse is on schedule and should be starting to serve the city shortly. A pre application was recently made for housing on the Alnwickhill site but was complicated by the fact that the water tanks are listed.

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28 Frogston Road West - the initial application for change of use was withdrawn because of lack of information and a new application was submitted. I made local residents aware that any comments will have to be made again in respect of the new application.

Morton Mains - Miller Homes are in discussion with Planning officials so have delayed submitting the planning application until mid/late December.

The public toilets at the crossroads were offered for sale. Unfortunately, CEC had to re-market the former WC premises following withdrawal of the party nominated as preferred bidder. The under- bidder also declined to progress. A new closing date of 30 November 2011 was set.

Walkabouts: A meeting to discuss the Walkabout Review was held on 18th October. Issues discussed included advertising, flexibility, attendance and feedback. A report and recommendations will be available before presentation to the Council Senior Management team.

Schools: The entrance to Pentland Primary School at the Oxgangs Bank side has been changed slightly to try to eliminate indiscriminate parking. It was also made pedestrian only.

Problems crossing Oxgangs Road by the children walking to Pentland Primary School from Swanston have been raised and I am meeting with parents and a Roads Officer to discuss this.

I had the pleasure of opening the bank for Primary 6 at Buckstone Primary School which was a Royal Bank of Scotland initiative.

A possible site has been purchased for a new Boroughmuir High School. The parents of the school and feeder primary schools will be consulted on whether to build a new school at or refurbish the existing school buildling in the New Year.

Community: I’ve attended a number of meetings with representatives from NHS Lothian, Health and Social Care and the local community about the proposed Health Centre.

Police: I have had meetings with Inspector Dolan at Oxgangs Police Station. I’ve also started holding a regular joint surgery with PC Welsh at Oxgangs Library.

I had a meeting with Chief Superintendent Gill Imery, Commander for the City of Edinburgh, regarding the police and neighbourhood watch newsletter pointing out the lack of information available since the publication stopped. It had been stressed that the newsletter was useful to the local community

The Pentland Neighbourhood Partnership Community Safety Sub Group has set a number of priorities and actions for the area. It continues to promote joint working between the police, the community safety team and environmental wardens for the benefit of our community.

Also, the Community Safety Panel produced new leaflets for distribution at local Action days.

The Police Safety Day, held on 14th September, was attended by 10 groups of P3 pupils from 6 local schools. This was well organised and the children listened to talks by environmental and community safety officials, the army and fire service.

Buses: From 3 April, the number 11 bus no longer travelled up Biggar Road to the Fairmilehead terminus and all services turned right at the crossroads to go up to Hyvots.

The new contract for the off peak 18 bus services was awarded to First Bus, saving the Council just over £21,000. However, the lack of integrated ticketing has caused issues for pupils who would have to use their Lothian passes on the way to school but would require to pay fares on the way home. This would also apply to others who travelled at off peak times.

Meetings/Events Attended: • Parent Council meetings at Buckstone. Pentland and Primary Schools and Firrhill and Boroughmuir High Schools. 6

• Meetings with NHS and Council officials regarding the proposed new Firrhill Health Centre. • Buckstone Association AGM. • Buckstone Youth Project AGM • Buckstone Community Fun Day • Pentland Community Centre AGM • Firrhill Community Council meetings • Colinton Amenity Association meetings • Another successful My Shop, Your Shop week run by Dennis and Linda Williams. • Art in the Park • Pentland Neighbourhood Partnership Conference • Buckstone, Pentland and Colinton Primary School Fairs • Buckstone Dance Group appearing at Churchill Theatre • Mhairi Hogg School of Dance Concert. • The Tryst Quilting and Patchwork Group Exhibition in celebration of its 10th anniversary. • Oxgangs Care AGM, at which I accepted a cheque for £1,000 from The Tryst Quilting and Patchwork Group. • Braidburn Valley Park Family Fun Day

Update of current issues:

1. School Fairs: • Buckstone PS Christmas Fair raised an astonishing £3865! • Pentland PS Christmas Fair was also a great success • Colinton PS Christmas Fair will take place this Saturday 2. Toilets in Buckstone Terrace – I can confirm the closing date was last Thursday and four bids were received. Discussions are now happening with the preferred bidder and the respective solicitors are progressing the legal documentation, which is not subject to planning consent. Due to the proximity of the closing date, the deal has yet to be formally concluded, however, we would expect date of entry to be early January 2012 taking into account the festive period. 3. Morton Mains – we expected a submission last Friday but this was delayed until, possibly, this Friday. This would mean that the consultation period is over Christmas. Extra days will be added to take this into account. Possible reason for this timescale is to ensure that a decision is made before the Planning Committee breaks up before the election. 4. Scottish Water site – SW organised a meeting with potential developers and interest was shown. Still about 8-9 months away from any deal. 5. I have received a number of complaints about the roadworks and queuing traffic. Roadworks will be reinstated over the Christmas period and final works completed by the end of January. 6. 18 bus – A report was discussed at the transport, Infrastructure and Environment Committee last week and my colleagues asked questions, on my behalf, about integrated ticketing. 7. Boroughmuir HS – Council agreed to purchase land at Fountainbridge, part of which will be considered as a site for a new school. The consultation will start in the New Year and will include the possibility of refurbishment of the present school as well as a new build. 8. Volunteer Snow warden training tomorrow at 6pm in Oxgangs Library 9. Frogston Avenue Double Yellow Lines – I arranged a site visit with our Roads Officer and residents following complaints about inconsiderate parking in Frogston Avenue resulting in the road being blocked. Double yellow lines on the side of F. Avenue opposite the Church and the extension of the existing lines on the corner of F. Avenue and Frogston Road West on the church side were proposed. I have also discussed this with Rev. John Munro. 10. Camus Avenue – I arranged to have it inspected and repairs done but a long term solution is needed. 11. On behalf of Cllr Jason Rust and myself, I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and thank you all for your help and support throughout 2011.

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Final report for 2011 by Eric Barry, Labour Councillor

Dear Fairmilehead Community Council members and attendees,

There seems little point in a full year’s log because your minutes record what I have reported monthly. This has been a year when the corruption within the Council was finally exposed and the wasteful ways the Council handles your tax money became obvious to all.

For each year I have been one of your elected representatives, I have watched as budgets were cut, for schools to do the nice things and voluntary groups to do the necessary things while money for vanity projects and driver hating measures seems to come from a bottomless pit.

This is the very first year that the Council has had a reduction in its government block grant but to have listened to the Shylock-like hand wringing since the Lib Dems and SNP took over the Council, you would think all government money was stopped in 2007. Nothing could be further from the truth. In 2010 the city received almost £200 Million more than it did in 2006.

This city has got used to growing numbers of houses each year, all adding extra Council Tax into the coffers so the City has complacently expected this continual above-inflation increase in funds to continue to fund a complicated management structure no business could.

Where cost cutting has happened it is not where it should have; From every £100,000 of a schools budget, £85,000 goes on teachers’ salaries. The rest covers classroom assistants, office staff, books and equipment. So when you keep taking 4% a year from a school’s budget it can’t come out of the teachers 85% (you still need one per class) it hammers the small percentage for school outings, music, art, books etc. etc..

This year all your councillors agreed the one budget when the Labour Group was joined by the Conservatives in putting forward an alternative to the damaging, cutting budget of the Administration. Be honest, who among you forecast that would ever happen.

One of the ways the Council has managed to waste your money was £8Million fighting the Bin Men for two and a half years rather than talking to them. Other Councils across Scotland were able to settle their similar negotiations very quickly. We went down the route of threatening privatisation, wasting another £3+Million of your money on the tendering process. I am delighted that privatisation was defeated at the October Council Meeting. Not that I want to see the inefficient ways of the past continue. I want to see back sides kicked to ensure that you get a good standard of service delivery and our managers manage our staff more efficiently.

When you sell out your bins and maintenance services to a private contractor it is too difficult to return to an “in –house” service. They know you will have horrendous costs to try and start up what you once took for granted, so the prices in the next round of tendering rocket. I am against privatisation because of the problems I have seen in the PFI/PPP schools building program and because of what I have seen with the privatised cleaning services in our hospitals. Price not quality of work is all that matters once you privatise essential services. While my son was in an isolation room in the Sick Kids he caught C. Diff to add to his woes. The main ward had these tumble weeds of hair/dust/dirt blowing around the floor every time a door was opened or someone walked by and the internal glass was filthy. I complained about this filth to the nursing staff. They said they didn’t have time to clean and when they had confronted the manager he said “I am happy with the price”. That for me is privatisation. Show me an NHS hospital which is cleaner because cleaning services were contracted out and I might reconsider.

A New Boroughmuir High School Between 1998 and 2006, 34 new or fully refurbished schools were commissioned by the City. Since then nothing, despite promises from the current City Chamber incumbents to match the previous building program “brick for brick”.

I was therefore delighted when, just like the buses, three new school plans came along, one of them being Boroughmuir. Couldn’t be this sudden burst of activity because there’s an election coming up?

I welcome the Council buying the Scottish Brewer’s site at Fountainbridge from Lloyds TSB, at a price much lower than the Scottish Water site would have been and I welcome the Council’s good intentions but with a number of reservations.

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The Council are looking to sell on most of the site for housing etc. and the school looks like it is being squeezed into a rather small site with limited safe access. Sandwiched between the canal, Kwikfit and a planned development of student flats for Napier Uni. it does seem the new school will be on an even smaller site with no direct bus routes and no increase in facilities. It is a long walk from Bruntsfied Place to Dundee Street on a wet morning. I shall be working with the Parent Council to try and bring about their wishes for the new school’s educational and sporting facilities

Cycling on pavements The latest whizz is “shared pavement use”. Plans have been put forward for cycling on various pavements. From to Braidburn the pretence is this is for children travelling to school but it will be available to all ages, abilities and speeds at all times. I don’t know what genius thought it would encourage people to walk by you having to dodge mountain-bike missiles. Even Bonkers Boris in London currently has a campaign on the go for the Police to prosecute cyclists on pavements. In London, for years you have had to dodge the courier lycra-louts.

20MPH everywhere Protesters from village, where traffic has increased because we the Council have tinkered with the lights at Jock’s Lodge to the detriment of traffic flow on the A1 and done the same with the other route to the east through Niddrie. Surprise! Surprise! Traffic has started going through the Park and Duddingston. The protestors complained that traffic was backed up 300 yards to Windy Ghoul. So to cure this, the answer is 20mph in the park? For goodness sake, if it’s backed up it doing 0mph. The real solution is to sort out the junctions that the driver-haters redesigned precisely to make driving as unpleasant an experience as possible. At 20mph a car uses almost 50% more fuel than at 30. So much for air quality!

Tourist tax A room tax is proposed for Edinburgh where room rates are among the highest in the country. Representative organisations have been bleating that this was an attack on their members’ livelihoods and would deter tourists. I pointed out that one of their members was advertising a room rate of £259 one night and £39 the next and told them who I really thought was exploiting the tourists. (The dates were 31 Dec and 1 Jan).

Tram The latest contract does nothing to protect the Council Tax Payer and indeed they are already finding more costly problems with the section East of Haymarket. For four years I have been reassured by Directors and Convenors that the contract protected the public purse from any rises. This was downright wrong. We must have a public enquiry now. How could the lawyers, DLA Piper, who drew up the contract, get it so wrong? We must have an immediate enquiry because DLA Piper have already been paid £3Million for work on the new Forth Bridge contract. You couldn’t make it up.

Eric

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Annual Report from Councillor Jason Rust

School Fayres I was pleased to attend both and Pentland Primary School Fayres last Saturday. There was an excellent turnout at both and a great end of year/term atmosphere.

Street Lighting The Secretary noticed the report to the last Transport Committee listed Buckstone Avenue, Grove and Gardens on the proposed capital street lighting programmes for next financial year, but pointed out that both the Avenue and the Gardens have had their concrete lighting columns replaced within the last 2 years with the latest design metal ones. Regarding the Grove they also have recent metal columns, apart from the a single concrete one that still remains. I took this up with the department and the response was as follows:-

Councillor Rust,

I thank you for your e-mail and would confirm that the the Street Lighting Priority list included in the Roads and Footway Investment committee report incorrectly included previously completed schemes in the Buckstone area and Spring Avenue.

This error was caused by the lack of synchronisation between our Structural Testing database and our Works Management database.

We are presently working on this synchronisation issue however as the list is collated on a priority basis, if a scheme has been wrongly included, it will not be done and the allocated funds will cascade down the list to the next priority scheme.

Sorry for any inconvenience caused by this administrative error however please be assured that all available funds will always be directed to schemes on a priority basis.

Regards

This would seem to me to be quite concerning and I am following up regarding the systems used and how often incorrect information has been contained in such Committee Reports.

Colinton Mains Community Centre I arranged a meeting between the Chair, Secretary and Treasurer of the Management Committee and Council officials including the Auditor and Senior Managers in Children and Families. The officials apologised for the delays in keeping the Management Committee informed as to developments and lines of communication will now be improved. A basic procedure for inspection and maintenance of the building will now also be established. The Police Inquiry is ongoing, but progressing well.

Number 18 Bus The Transport Committee considered a report on this last week. Minor timetabling issues will be discussed with First Bus. Continuing feedback on the service is welcome.

Swanston - Lothianburn Golf Course I attended a meeting with Alistair McClung along with Elaine Aitken regarding proposals being put forward by Swanston to SESTRANS and to the Edinburgh and Local Plans. Alistair is brieifng the Community Council on his plans and I shall be pleased to receive feedback too.

Neighbourhood Partnership The next public meeting of Pentlands Neighbourhood Partnership is on Tuesday 13th December, 6.30pm for 7pm at Community Centre. Mince pies have been arranged!

The Business Meeting took place last week. Current information is now available on school leavers destinations.

Thanks Congratulations to Dennis Williams and Committee for all of their hard work throughout the year. The local elected members greatly appreciate the support of the Community Council and those residents who give up their time freely to attend. Best wishes to all for a Merry Christmas and a peaceful and prosperous New Year.

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