Fairmilehead Community Council Minutes of meeting held on Tuesday 3 November 2015 in Fairmilehead Parish Church Present: Dennis Williams (Chair); Norman Tinlin (Secretary); Fiona Simon (Treasurer); Colin Anderson; Johanna Carrie; Barbara Dick (Buckstone Association); Carol Lonie (Buckstone Youth); Audrey Ryan; Tom Strathdee Ex Officio: Councillor Elaine Aitken, PC Graeme Howie In Attendance: Will Garrett, Built Environment and Place Making Manager, CEC. Ashley Brolly (Minute Secretary) 10 members of the public Apologies: Alison and Ian Elfick; Councillors Lewis & Rust; Ian Murray MP; Ann McCutcheon; George Symonds The Chair welcomed Ashley Brolly who was going to be the Minute Secretary. 1. Police Report PC Graham Howie introduced himself, pointing out the police’s priority has been, house breakings, theft of property and hate crimes. He reported there had been 5 housebreakings over the course of October, however no reports of violence. On the 2nd of October a house breaking was successful, and a car was stolen however it has since been recovered. There have been 7 minor road traffic incidents on the city bypass. PC Howie went on to inform that he would be meeting with the head teacher of Buckstone Primary School regarding parking around the school and traffic issues. Buxton Primary are looking to implement “School Streets” a programme which restricts parking around the school area at certain time periods, the schools first application has been rejected however, this does not mean to say it will never go ahead. PC Howie finally reported that there had been no hate crime or anti-social behaviour. Points/Comments raised: The Chair asked to know more on house breakings in particular - PC Howie said vehicles are hot property just now and advised to keep car keys and belongings in a safe place. You should contact the Police if you see anything suspicious, groups of young people at night with hoods up for example, if in emergency call 999, and if not an emergency on 101. PC Howie also welcomed questions at Oxgangs police station, which you can contact through the following email address: [email protected] People are coming from other areas to commit these crimes, which areas are they coming from and is the increase in house breakings in this area part of the general increase? - PC Howie reported that the police cannot pin-point which areas these people are coming from, but can assure it is not from this area. He said that generally the number of house breakings has come down due to the hard work of the police. Would the police advise using house alarms? - Yes of course, when possible. If you have a two level house considering leaving valuable items upstairs. Also might have to have a zoned alarm depending on circumstances such as children or pets moving about the house. 1 © Fairmilehead Community Council Note: Following on from a decision taken by Police Scotland the community officers attending our meetings were no longer able to provide printed or e-mail copies of their reports. Only verbal reports would be given. This situation is being pursued with Police Scotland. 2. Place Making Standard – Will Garrett. Built Environment and Place Making Manager, CEC. Will Garett gave an informative presentation and illustrated it with some examples. Place making is being promoted by the Scottish Government and NHS Scotland. Placemaking is a creative, collaborative process that includes design, development, renewal or regeneration of our urban or rural built environments. The outcome should be sustainable, well- designed places and homes which meet people’s needs by harnessing the distinct characteristics and strengths of each place to improve the overall quality of life for people. Worthy of noting from the presentation is that for the first time in Edinburgh issues in an area are being identified. These are then thought about and solutions can be made. This is not supported by mainstream Government, but by the council. There were also questions for Will Garrett: Someone has to pay for this kind of programme, and who is this? - Current household contributions would be used, but rather than using these contributions for certain things such as education or transport in particular, the needs of the community as a whole can now be identified and these contributions can be put to more meaningful projects. In an area such as Fairmilehead, what can you do for us? - The waterworks site has already made plans made however if this programme had been put in place before hand, they could have identified the types of housing needed and identify other needs. Plans are underway to introduce this programme next year in the Southside area. Could there be possible inconsistency in what people say collectively compared to individually when running this programme? - This may be true, collectively people would like less cars on the road, but individually do not want to stop using their own car. The priority is pedestrians, then cyclists, and then drivers. If there is a good network there for pedestrians it can make it more difficult for people to use cars. It is mainly middle class people attending these programme evaluation meetings, what about unrepresented groups of people? - This is a fair point, but assured they had appointed different days of the week and different times and provided prime opportunity to anyone who wanted to come along, including the use of school children. It has been considered to be put up online, but Will expressed the importance of discussion. Chairman, Dennis Williams noted that the council would like to keep updated and can see the programme is truly looking ahead, and advised to keep in touch with Colin Anderson. Further information on place making can be found at: http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Built-Environment/planning/Policy/Principal-Policies/Place-Making 3. Minute Of Meeting Held On 6 October 2015 These were approved by the meeting after a couple of typing errors were corrected.. 4. Matters Arising: a) Local Government Boundaries Commission Consultation The Secretary handed out the submission he had made on behalf of the Community Council. A copy is attached at Appendix A. 2 © Fairmilehead Community Council b) Bus Services The Secretary said that this would be covered under Councillor Aitken’s report. 5. Correspondence a) CEC Licensing – Liquor licence applications for November Board (None in area) b) Marie Curie Blooming Great Tea Party – 7 November at Meggatland. c) Budget Question Time - Monday 23 November 2015, City Chambers d) Further budget information can be found at: http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/budget e) Oxgangs Library – Invitation to Oxgangs Library 25 birthday celebrations – Friday 27 November 2015 at the library. f) CEC – Consultation on Street Traders and Market Operators – Closing date 15 November g) CEC Waste Services –Information on final phase of recycling rollout h) Latest edition of Pentland Beacon – i) http://www.pentlandhills.org/pentlandhills/download/downloads/id/133/pentland_beac on_44.pdf j) CEC Planning - Consultation on draft revised student housing planning guidance – closing date 20 November 2015 k) SESPlan – Comments to recent MIR consultation published online – l) http://sesplan.objective.co.uk/portal/mir/mir?tab=listGordon McDonald MSP – Press release on 30th anniversary of Care & Repair m) CEC – Invest Edinburgh magazine – October to December 2015 edition. 6. Councillors’ Reports Councillor Aitken handed out copies of her report. Path to Buckstone Howe The new storage container will be delivered shortly which will allow the equipment to be moved into it and the old containers removed. This will then enable the work on the path to start. The installation should take 3 to 4 weeks. Refuse Issues Again, collections have been missed in Biggar Road and problems were experienced with food waste collections in Buckstone. The street bins at Buckstone shops were also overflowing. I requested that the bins be emptied on a more regular basis. High winds are causing problems in Margaret Rose Avenue scattering refuse from blown over bins. The current arrangements will be reviewed. Schools Parking at Pentland Primary School - Inconsiderate drivers have been causing problems in Oxgangs Brae. I will be attending with our Roads Officer and Police Officers. Buckstone Primary School - The school is planning to take part in a programme with pupils, Parksmart, which looks at parking in the roads around the school. I am having a meeting at the school with PC Howie and a Police Road Safety Officer. Changes to 11 and 15/X15 Bus Services I received many complaints following the changes and raised them with Lothian Buses. The Commercial Planning Officer responded: “I am disappointed to hear that you have had a number of complaints since the most recent set of route and timetable changes. The latest changes are part of a longer term strategy to improve the level of service we offer to the Fairmilehead area. Over the past 3-years, we have significantly increased the level of service we operate on the 4s, and 11s in particular. In terms of the 4, we’ve increased the Monday to Friday frequency from every 20-minutes to every 15-minutes, and added earlier morning buses to and from Hillend on all days of the week. On the 11, we’ve added extra buses at peak times, and doubled the level of frequency in the evenings from every 30-minutes to every 15-minutes. The Sunday frequency has also been increased from every 30-minutes to every 12-minutes. After a trial of operating the N11 over the summer last year, we have now decided to continue operating this service on an all-year-round basis. 3 © Fairmilehead Community Council At the most recent change, we improved the frequency on the 11 between the City Centre and Hyvots during the evening peak period by adding another bus to the service.