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 police station, which you can contact through the following email address: edinburghCPTcollintonfairmilehead@.pnn.police.uk

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.

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Note: Following on from a decision taken by 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 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 . 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.

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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. This was coupled with the addition of an extra morning duplicate journey operating from Fairmilehead Crossroads to the City Centre to help cater for the increased number of commuters and school pupils who are using the service in the Fairmilehead and Buckstone areas. We now have two duplicates in the morning peak which start from Fairmilehead Crossroads, one at 07:50 and the other at 08:04, which complement the main service coming from Hyvots, providing a total of 7-buses from Fairmilehead between 07:45 & 08:08. I appreciate that passengers in the Fairmilehead area would like to see more buses start from Fairmilehead like they used to in the past, but as you point out, buses coming from Hyvots are always busy, therefore, to ensure that we meet this passenger demand, we need to provide the level of service we do between Hyvots and Fairmilehead. This means that unfortunately we have less buses available to commence empty from Fairmilehead.

After feedback from passengers and our own drivers, we will also be introducing a new afternoon duplicate bus on Service 11 which is being timed to target pupils in the afternoon heading home from school who are travelling towards Fairmilehead from Tollcross and . We are confident that the addition of this extra bus will also help to alleviate capacity issues which we have faced in the afternoons of late. This new journey will commence from Monday 2nd November.

The changes to the 15/X15 were designed to try and provide faster journeys to and from the City Centre for the residents of Fairmilehead and Penicuik. At the same time, we’ve also introduced newer buses on to the route. The buses still continue to serve all stops from Penicuik to Buckstone Shops, as well as all stops through Morningside to Brunstfield Place, which means that most school children can continue to make use of the service, while for commuters and daytime shoppers, they can enjoy a faster journey. For any passengers wishing to travel to a stop no longer served by the X15, easy interchange is available on to the 11 at Fairmilehead, or with other services at Morningside Station. What we are aiming to achieve is to give the X15 service a unique selling point over the 11, as we’ve found over a number of years now that on many occasions the 15 simply followed the 11 to and from the City and did not uplift passenger numbers in sufficient numbers to allow the service to continue in that format on a commercial basis in the longer term. With the new format now in place, we are hoping to attract a new generation of bus passenger who have previously discounted the idea of using the bus because they perceive it to be a slow alternative to the car. While it is still early days post-change, the initial signs are that the new faster service is being appreciated by regular passengers, and we hope to build upon the level of patronage in the coming months.

Going forward, we are conscious that the number of houses in the Fairmilehead area is continuing to grow, therefore in the coming weeks and months, we will be conducting passenger analysis to ensure that we are providing sufficient capacity to meet demand. If we identify specific capacity issues which need to be addressed, rest assured we will do so at the earliest possible opportunity.”

Accident in Buckstone Terrace Following the tragic accident outside Charwoods, I received many complaints about the speed limit and enquiries about the crossing. The location for the proposed crossing funded by Cala and David Wilson Homes is under consultation. The current design is looking at a location to the south towards the Fairmilehead junction and should be installed early in 2016, depending on the outcome of the consultation. At the exhibitions by Cala and David Wilson Homes for the proposed development, I spoke to a large number of people, all of whom mentioned a reduction in the 40mph speed limit. I am circulating a newsletter asking for residents’ views. City Bypass I’ve been contacted about traffic noise from the bypass. Transport Scotland are responsible, even though it affects properties in CEC area. Site Visits I will be visiting Mounthooly Loan, Margaret Rose Avenue and Drive, Queen Margaret Close with our Roads Officer to monitor parking and TRO’s. Winton I requested that the roads and footpaths in Winton be reassessed. They have now been checked and no dangerous defects which require emergency repair were found. I will request that these streets are assessed by the Capital Team when resources permit.

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The following points were raised: Update on a possible crossing on Biggar Road as two people have been hospitalised as a result of accidents - Traffic surveys are to be undertaken at the locus and an update will be provided in due course Concern was raised about the response to the footways in Winton. Any repairs that have been undertaken are poor.

A thank you was made to Councillor Aitken for intervening with matters of the Youth Groups visit to the Panto, ensuring children could attend.

The Secretary circulated copies of Councillor’s Lewis’ report. Remit City Art Centre I was delighted to open the autumn/winter exhibitions at the City Art Centre last week. The first exhibition is William Gear (1915-1997): The Painter that Britain Forgot. This exhibition features works spanning Gear’s career and is partnership with the Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne, where Gear was curator from 1958 to 1964. The second exhibition is Jagged Generation: William Gear’s Contemporaries and Influences. The exhibitions run through to the 14th and 7th February respectively. The Artist and The Sea continues at the City Art Centre, which explores Scotland’s long and complex relationship with the sea. Further details at http://www.edinburghmuseums.org.uk/Venues/City-Art-Centre/Exhibitions/Current- Exhibitions Scottish International Storytelling Festival The latest festival opened last week and I was lucky enough to be asked to speak at the launch. Stories without Borders is the theme of this year’s Storytelling Festival and looks at how stories have the power to positively change opinion but also negatively create division. The festival brings together stories from Scotland, Europe and the Middle East across the ten days packed with activities. This continues until Sunday 1st November. Further details at http://www.tracscotland.org/festivals/scottish-international-storytelling-festival Mhairi Hogg Dance School It was a privilege to be invited to the showing of the dance school’s DVD on their trip to Disneyland Paris and performance at Cinemagique Theatre on Bastille Day. The girls from Mhairi’s dance school had to go through auditions to be part of the Disneyland Paris Performing Arts programme 2015 so it was fantastic to hear about their experience and performance in front of a 600 strong audience in Paris. Congratulations and well done to all involved.

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Colinton Mains Park – young people’s survey I asked officials in Children & Families Department to carry out a survey of young people in the , Oxgangs and area on their views of Colinton Mains Park. This was in response to a petition I received from young people asking for a skate park in Colinton Mains Park. The survey was carried out during the summer and the results of the survey are attached. I have met with officials from across the Council to look at the next steps to progress this project and the next phase will be to complete a feasibility study on developing a skate park in Colinton Mains Park. I will keep you posted as the project develops.

CMP 200715.pdf

Culture & Sport Committee The latest Committee meeting took place on 20th October and we had performance reports on Edinburgh Leisure and the Jazz and Blues Festival. We also had an update on encouraging live music in Edinburgh and the evaluation of the recent free swimming programme.

The Secretary read over Councillor Rust’s report:

Apologies for not joining you this evening, I am at Primary School Parent Council.

By way of report:-  Residents have been in touch regarding the 40mph speed limit and issues with the crossing near the Scottish Water site. Elaine is also aware of the background here.  I have asked questions around devolved school management budgets given large overspends in some schools and write offs in others and have a briefing with officials to ensure better scrutiny and monitoring of school budgets.  Thanks to Fairmilehead CC for their submission to the Local Government Boundary Commission. Depending on the considerations of the Commission following the 12 week public consultation (which closed 22nd October 2015), it has an option to develop revised proposals and bring these to the public for consultation, with the possibility of local inquiries between December 2015 and February 2016. These are only options and possibilities - the Commission could reach its conclusions from the initial public consultation.  There is a planning application in relation to the Shell at Dreghorn Link and I am in discussion with residents in relation to this.  I am awaiting confirmation that I have been successful in obtaining housing account funding for works at Swanston Village to treat damp etc.  I will be laying the wreath and giving a reading at Colinton Parish Church on Remembrance Sunday.

7. Pentlands Neighbourhood Partnership The Secretary reported on the recent Partnership public meeting where there had been a discussion on natural neighbourhoods. Chief Inspector Dolan had also given a presentation on Policing in Edinburgh Pentlands. The presentation can be found here http://www.fairmileheadcc.org.uk/Police/PNP%20Presentation%20Oct%202015/NP%20presentatio n%20Sept%202015.pdf

Tom Strathdee gave information on the Community Safety Action Group which he had attended the previous evening. He noted PC Howie had covered a lot of the content, but Tom voiced concern over the deployment of the police as you never see a police officer in the area. In terms of anti- social behaviour, there have been few incidents. On Guy Fawkes night there shall be officers around to ensure safety.

The Chair left the meeting at this point for business reasons and Cllr Aitken assumed the chair.

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8. Planning and Environment Colin Anderson presented the following points. He firstly stated that in future there will be a written reports tabled at the meetings.  Cala – Frogston Road West In relation to the appeal which was with the Reporter the agent had disputed some of the information that had been provided by Historic Scotland about the history of Winston House and in relation to its grounds, there are plans which go as far back as 1821. It is hoped a there will be a decision by 11 November which will be circulated.  Hermitage Golf Course An application for a mountain bike trail and other associated facilities was submitted on 26 September, the deadline for comments being the end of this week and there have already been around 60 comments made.  The Royal High School Development: A 6 star luxury hotel is proposed for this and the period for objections has passed, Colin assured an objection had been one submitted on behalf of the community council. The hearing date of this proposal will be mid-December. The council have signed a very long lease with the developers conditional on planning permission. There has been a fully funded proposal made to move St Mary’s music school, which will not happen until a planning decision has been made. Downfall of the move, pupils of St. Mary’s sing 2-3 times a day in the cathedral and would have to be bussed back and forth. Accommodation may also be necessary at the back of the Royal High School; however, this would only be 2 stories tall.

 The review of planning by the Scottish Government can be found on the following website: http://www.gov.scot?topics/built-environment/plans/reviewofplanning

A query was raised regarding the proposed hotel at the ski slope: A lot of the trees at Calderstones wooded area would need to be felled to accomodate the hotel. Despite objections the council have given permission subject to conditions such as staff accommodation use of the three proposed houses. There are around 1000 trees on the site, which are not covered by TPO, some trees would need to be taken down to gain access to the site by road however, and replacement planting had been assured. Colin noted the current trees are all of the same height, and age and still of reasonable condition.

9. Transport a) Winter preparations The Secretary said this item had been requested by the Chair. It was forecast that we are supposed to have a long hard winter. An appeal was made for snow wardens and also if you have a grit bin on your street ensure it is filled, and if not contact the council. b) Closure of Buckstone Terrace Due to the recent fatal accident outside Charwoods Police Scotland had closed that section of Road for over 16 hours. As this was a major route into and out of Edinburgh the closure had caused considerable traffic problems in the area and it appeared that little consideration had been given to traffic control or setting up proper diversionary routes. It was to be noted that Lothian Buses had appeared to have been on the ball and put their diversions on their website and social media. A lot of the traffic was diverting via Fairmile Avenue and the Caiystanes. These were residential streets with residents vehicle parked in them restricting the traffic flow. Residents could have been asked to put their vehicles in their drives where possible to try and alleviate the situation. A female member of the public reported that although the actual locus which was taped off was at Charwoods and there was access to the new Waterfield estate she had been refused permission to get access to her house with her vehicle. This was at 10pm and she was alone. When roads are closed for traffic collisions or investigations then the police should not take a blanket approach but should use some common sense and think about the knock on effects.

The Secretary said that if anybody had any constructive comments to make they should be sent to him and he would forward them to Police Scotland.

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10. AOCB a) A member of the public raised the issue of the lack of fibre broadband in the area unless you had a service from Virgin. Originally BT/Openreach had publicly stated that it would be available in our area in the middle of 2015. Fairmilehead exchange was already enabled. The earliest date now being quoted was October 2016 to March 2017. It appears that the effort and funding was going into providing superfast broadband rural areas rather than suburban areas in the capital city. b) A comment was made about the overhanging and over grown trees in Mounthooly Loan making it difficult to walk on the pavement. c) A couple attending expressed their concerns regarding a problem with getting permission to install a drive over a pavement into their property. Waterfield Road was still to be adopted. They were advised to go back to Gavin Pope of Cala and speak with him again about the matter, as it was not a community council issue. The couple expressed they had the necessary consent, but were told they needed the consent of the community council.

11. Date Of Next Meeting

This was arranged for Tuesday 1 December 2015 in Fairmilehead Parish Church.

Forthcoming Meetings:

Tuesday 5 January 2016 Tuesday 2 February 2016 Tuesday 1 March 2016

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

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Appendix A

Submission to the Local Government Boundaries Commission

20 October 2015

The Local Boundary Commission for Scotland Thistle House 91 Haymarket Terrace Edinburgh EH12 5HD

Dear Sirs,

Proposals for The City of Edinburgh Council – Colinton/Fairmilehead Ward 8

Fairmilehead Community Council is grateful for the opportunity to respond to the Commission’s consultation on the local government boundaries and in particular the proposals to alter the boundary of Colinton/Fairmilehead Ward 8 of the City of Edinburgh.

Our community council area lies wholly within Ward 8 and we adjoin Colinton community council and share part of our boundary with them. We also sit with them on the Pentlands Neighbourhood Partnership.

At a recent meeting our community council discussed the proposals to change the boundary of Ward 8 and remove the Spylaw, Hailes and Lanark Road areas from Colinton. We could not understand the rationale behind this proposal as it would split Colinton in two and the centre of the village, Colinton Parish Church, would no longer be in Colinton but in Ward 2 .

It also appears to us that no cognisance has been taking of all the proposals for new builds in Ward 2 that are within the proposed local development plan which is currently with the Reporters. Further, no consideration appears to have been given to planning applications for major developments in Ward 2 which have already been submitted for Approval. There are also some applications in Ward 2 which have been refused by the Development Management Sub-Committee but which have been overturned on appeal to the Reporter. It should also be noted that applications for large developments in the so called ‘Garden District’ which lie within Ward 2 have just recently been submitted.

These developments will all increase the electorate in Pentland Hills Ward further but this electorate will have no connection with the existing long established communities of Spylaw and Hailes.

We fully support the submissions made separately by the ward councillor, Councillor Rust, and Colinton community council and trust that these, along with this submission, will be fully considered.

Yours faithfully,

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