Forum AGM Minutes April 2019 Green Spaces Forum AGM Meeting Minutes

Date: 09 April 2019, 6-8pm Location: The George Washington Browne Room in Edinburgh Central Library,

Present: Jeni Rowe Friends of Seven Acre Park (Chair) Sarah Tolley FOMBL and Greening our Street (Minutes) Barbara Knowles Friends of Roseburn Park Roger West Friends of Fairmilehead Park Neil Fisher Friends of Newington Square Andie Richards Friends of Newington Square Dan Smith Friends of Davidsons Mains Park Isobel Jones Friends of Easter Craiglockart Hill Caroline Gerard Friends of Warriston Cemetery Edward Duvall Friends of Morningside Cemetery Goff Cantley Friends of the and Friends of Midmar Paddock Lesley Skeates Friends of Wardie Playing Fields Imogen Forster Friends of King George V & Yard Parks Anni McLeod Friends of Wester Craiglockart and Greenbank Community Woodland David Jamieson CEC Linda Anglin CEC

Apologies: David Temperly Friends of Wardie Playing Fields Joan Carter Friends of Meadows and Heather Yang Friends of Newhaven Heritage Community Gardens Tim Parker Friends of Victoria Park Gordon Swann Friends of Hill John Kerr Friends of the River Almond Walkway Graham Beal Friends of Seven Acre Park

1. Welcome and Introductions Jeni opened the meeting by welcoming those present and the guest speakers. She explained that John Kerr was unable to attend, so she was chairing the meeting.

2. Future Parks Accelerator Programme - David Jamieson/Linda Anglin David Jamieson spoke about the Future Parks Accelerator programme, funded by the National Heritage Lottery and National Trust, in recognition of the financial struggles that parks services are experiencing.  The Edinburgh bid is now in the finalists lists and is applying for £11 million funding.  The task now is to pull data together as the budget for Edinburgh is being reduced by 1/3; the Parks have an annual bill of £5.2 million just to maintain existing structures, fencing, monuments, etc.  Investment is needed to supplement funding for park maintenance and the Future Parks Accelerator funding would provide a thinking space/expertise/time to consult.  Linda Anglin was introduced as one of lead managers of the Saughton Park project; she will be in charge of implementing the Future Parks Accelerator Programme.

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Forum AGM Minutes April 2019  She reported on the Saughton Park project; the cafe will open on 11 May, and the Park will have a Grand Opening on 22nd June. The key element in this successful project was working with the community over a long period.  For the Future Parks Accelerator programme, she will have two years in which to engage in a scoping exercise, involving Friends Groups, parks users, and potential parks users.  The aim is to discover aspirations, looking at technology and ecology as ways of justifying funding, and generating income.  With regard to governance, solutions applied in other cities will be studied and shared.  Linda is keen to frame a series of meetings to launch this programme.  Partner organisations are: The Scottish Wildlife Trust, Edinburgh and Lothians Greenspace Trust, Greenspace Scotland, Edinburgh University. The project is supported by National Trust Scotland.  Roger West: mentioned involving schools, introducing allotments and looking at trusts as a possible solution.  Dan Smith: mentioned good relations with the Council and the difficulty of involving volunteers.  Anni McLeod: asked how different parts of the Councils could be coordinated as part of this.  Sarah Tolley: proposed using the projected Forum website for coordinating green spaces in and around Edinburgh.

Linda Anglin and David Jamieson then completed their talk with an outline of the whole programme, which will result in a strategy to put before the Council, before being rolled out over a 30-year period. Climate change, health benefits and carbon sequestration will all be addressed.

Workshop to discuss how the Friends Forum could input to the project to be set up in June, once the decision has been made on whether they have the won the funding.

3. EGSF AGM a) Jeni explained that she was standing in as Chair for John Kerr, and went on to explain that the Committee consists of John Kerr, Jeni Rowe, Anni McLeod, Gordon Swann, Roger West and Sarah Tolley.

Edinburgh Green Spaces Forum is an umbrella group representing 46 green space groups, including Friends of Parks, Cemeteries and other groups. All green space groups are welcome to join the Forum.

The Forum holds 4 open meetings a year; John Kerr has been attending Council meetings, and Gordon Swann the Living Landscapes meetings.

The Forum became a signatory to the Parks Charter last year and works with the Council which is very supportive.

b) Financial Report for 2018 Approved by all present (nominated by Anni McLeod and seconded by Barbara Knowles)

c) Election of the Committee The serving members of the Committee were reappointed for 2019-20, approved by all present (nominated by Caroline Gerrard and seconded by Dan Smith)

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Forum AGM Minutes April 2019 4. Other FoP Issues a) The Minutes of the AGM in 2018 and the Annual Report for 2018 were approved by all present (nominated by Jeni Rowe and seconded by Anni McLeod)

b) Topics for future meetings  presentations about individual parks;  workshops to discuss issues such as recruitment, litter picking, accessibility;  overarching theme proposed: birds, bird habitat, etc.

c) AOB Promotional materials such as banners can be borrowed for park events, Lindsay to send a photo of the available material. A banner is a useful marker for park clean-ups.

Imogen Forster: asked for a template for setting up new Friends Groups; there are 175 green spaces in Edinburgh and only 62 have formed Friends Groups. It was noted that this does exist on the CEC website and was designed by the Friends Forum in conjunction with the Council. This should be more easily located – Council to review (Sarah Murphy - SM)

Can we put something on the Council parks website to say other friends groups can help with setting up groups and to contact the forum? To be discussed with SM

Edward Duvall: the Council website includes a guide for Friends, however it’s not clear that the Friends Forum is a separate group from the Council

Jeni Rowe: Forum has a Facebook account, which she keeps updated with useful information – please ask to join if you are not already on it. Furthermore, Sarah Murphy, [email protected], is the Council contact for new Groups.

Questions/Discussions included issues with databases, sourcing weatherproof signs, business cards, printing costs and funding opportunities.

5. Next meeting The next meeting will be in June and will be a workshop with Linda Anglin about input to the Future Parks Accelerator project. Date TBC.

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