Introduction
There has been a great deal of activity in the city since our last Newsletter in January but many of the items which concerned us then are still on our agenda and are commented on below to bring you up to date. Our city is changing at a great rate and keeping up with all the initiatives is difficult. The expansion of the population of the city from 550K to 600K by 2030, and onwards to 750K by 2050 will put immense strains on the historic infrastructure. The Scottish Government and the City of Edinburgh Council are in the vanguard of those initiatives. There are many influences being imposed on us in the shape of sustainability and the pressures of maintaining Scotland as a pleasant place to live and work. The preservation of clean air and water are already assuming a major significance with the demise of diesel-powered transport and the introduction of measures to ensure atmospheric pollution is arrested. All those factors will devolve down to street level and it is up to us individually to do our bit to make our influences felt by making our opinions known.
20mph Limit
The roll-out of the 20mph limit was completed in the spring and there is evidence that there has been a slow down in traffic flowing through our streets. There are still a great many drivers who have not taken on board the need for adherence to the new limit and a considerable number have been prosecuted for speeding, sometimes multiple times. Pressure has been maintained on the police to show a visible presence, but they can only devote a proportion of their time to this element of their duties. The Police have asked the CC to identify streets where speeding occurs.
Tram Extension to Leith
Following concerns on the consultation process for the first phase of the tram project a coalition of Community Councils affected came together to form the Community Councils Together on Trams (CCTT). The Joint Statement is available on the New Town and Broughton Community Council (NTBCC) website at http://www.ntbcc.org.uk/cctt-meetings-with-trams-team/. The cost of this phase is estimated at £165.2M and the programme requires the business case to be approved by the Council in November, with Final Approval to the whole scheme in December. That would permit a start on site in Spring 2019.
Air Pollution
The Scottish Government in its Programme for Government committed to the introduction of Low Emission Zones in Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow between 2018 and 2020. A consultation was carried out last year and the positive response to that was to move towards the establishment of LEZs. The ongoing Central Edinburgh Transformation Project and the City Transport Strategy encompass countering traffic pollution. London is already on track to introduce a central Ultra-Low Emission Zone by April 2019 with a £12.50 charge on top of the existing £11.50 congestion charge for polluting cars with buses, coaches and lorries following by 2020. Expansion to the north and south circular is proposed by 2021. Schemes for Scottish cities are at an advanced stage with Glasgow likely to be first to have an LEZ.
Council Budget 2019/20 – Play Your Part
Last year the City of Edinburgh Council (CEC) promoted a programme to ask the citizens what their views were on how to spend the city’s budget for 2018/19 and have repeated that offer for the next four years. Now is your chance to make your views felt at Planning for Change Delivering Services at https://consultationhub.edinburgh.gov.uk/bi/change. There is an online planner to assist you and an online survey to enable you to express your opinions on where the money should go.
George Street and New Town Design Project
There have been a series of public consultations and other engagement activities on the concept design for George Street and the First New Town. The Final Design by the consultants is programmed to be available August to September with a Public event to launch it in late November. Committee approval should follow in Spring 2019. Two consultation meetings took place to which Community Councillors were invited.
Central Edinburgh Transformation Project
A report titled, ‘Edinburgh: connecting our city, transforming our places – public engagement’, on the City Mobility Plan, Low Emission Zones (LEZ) and City Centre Transformation, went to the Transport and Environment Committee on 9th August. This long-winded title represents a comprehensive roll-up of the three principle strategies of the Council, The City Mobility Plan, Low Emission Zones and Edinburgh City Centre Transformation. You will already have seen the first activities resulting from this proposal, with a car free day in the City. There will be further vehicle-free days as the first met with public acclaim. On the same vein the Open Street initiative is also being rolled out where streets are closed to traffic for a day and returned to the local inhabitants to use for their leisure.
CEC set out its ambitions for Edinburgh in the 2050 Edinburgh City Vision and last Autumn produced a scoping report on the proposed Transformation in a paper presented to the Transport and Environment Committee on 5th October 2017. This medium-term action plan set out proposals for the improvement for the public realm for completion by the end of this Council. I recommend that you read this paper as it is not short on ambition and encapsulates many of the concerns about the future of our City.
I mentioned the LEZs above and the Council has taken an ambitious approach with proposed geographical and vehicle-type restrictions. This will affect us all.
Picardy Place
The reconstruction of Picardy Place forms part of the agreement for the St James Quarter and consists of around £15M worth of works including the removal of the existing roundabout, renewal and diversion of utilities, creation of three new signal controlled junctions, forming widened high quality natural stone footways, segregated two way cycle ways and ‘creating a better connected and accessible environment than the present layout’. The latter provided the most intense discussions between the many bodies who will be affected by the substantial changes. Works commenced in June this year and have included the relocation of the Paolozzi Sculptures to Hillside Crescent, the removal of the Sherlock Holmes Statue and the felling of existing trees. The realignment of the roadways and pavement is underway, and completion of the project is envisaged during 2019. Changes to accommodate the proposed extension to Line One of the trams is included to minimise the possibility of future disruption.
The haste with which the project was pushed into action has caused much concern to all of the parties who will be affected by the new layout. The need to create a quality entrance to the city from this eastern gateway has been the focus of much of the discussions. The first proposal to place a hotel in the centre of the roundabout was eventually rejected and the actual scheme is still not completely apparent.
The last Business Meeting of the Community Council took place in the offices of TH Real Estate, the developers, who had offered to provide a venue for the meeting. The view from the windows overlooking the St James building site confirmed the immense size of this project.
The Previous Royal High School – Planning Appeal
The Inquiry is now ongoing and over half way through a very complex process with an enormous quantity of documentation presented for examination (1,000 documents). Following the appellant’s decision to take the refusal of their second Planning Application to the Scottish Government the Cockburn formed a coalition with Edinburgh Heritage and the Community Council and along with other interested bodies such at Historic Environment Scotland and the Royal High School Preservation Trust set out to support those who rejected the developers proposal to convert the listed building into a 5+ star hotel.
This saga is a perfect example of how, under present Planning law, developers can ignore a local authorities’ rejection of a scheme by taking it to the Scottish Government and over-riding a substantial body of objections. Hopefully the present amendments to the Planning Bill, before Parliament may be able to change this balance but the Scottish Government’s rejection of third-party rights of appeal were not a good omen. The Reporter’s report is not made public but is passed directly to the Scottish Government who can accept or ignore its findings.
Royal Bank of Scotland Site – Dundas Street/Eyre Place
After raising the temperature of many of the residents and causing much work by the Council and the Community Council, RBS withdrew their application to demolish their existing building and build new blocks of flats on the site. RBS have now put the site on the open market without planning permission leaving it to potential buyers to make their own decisions on what may be acceptable to the city and its residents.
Pedestrian Crossing Survey – Albany Street at Dublin Street
The new pedestrian crossing at the junction of London Street and Drummond Place has been approved and is likely to happen during 2019. The crossing at Dublin/Abercromby is now on the Council’s action schedule at number 38.
‘A’ Boards & Tables obstructing the pavements
The nuisance posed by the many ‘A’ boards cluttering up our pavements came to an end on the 5th of November 2018, as the Council has banned their use. This has been welcomed as an improvement to pedestrian safety, particularly for those with sight impairments and mobility difficulties. The Council is working with businesses to explore alternative solutions to their need for advertising. The introduction of the ban will coincide with other initiatives to reduce street clutter like signage, bollards and bins in connection with the new Edinburgh Street Design Guidance information and wayfinding strategy. Road signs are still in use and overtures are being made to deal with those also. Members of the public are asked to report any stray ‘A’ boards spotted by emailing aboards@gov.co.uk.
Short Term Lets
The problems generated by the rapid proliferation of AirBnB in Edinburgh and throughout Scotland is now being contained by new legislation to require property owners to obtain planning permission for a change of use when introducing short term lets into a family home. The phenomenon of AirBnB has caused a large reduction in the availability of suitable properties for residents to rent. Some businesses have adopted short term letting with multiple beds being crammed into city centre accommodation, with resultant problems of anti-social behaviour and noise from a procession of visitors coming at all times of the day and night. The lack of regulation is detrimental to regulated and licensed businesses in the holiday accommodation market, particularly small guest houses and B&Bs. The Council’s concerns are loss of community, anti-social behaviour, loss of available housing stock, spiralling property prices and rent increases, strain on resources, and non-payment of taxes from unregistered businesses. There are existing powers that can be harnessed, change of use planning permissions, Anti-social Behaviour Notices, and Trading Standards and Environment Health legislation. The Scottish Government have been requested to assist by passing legislation to give local authorities more powers, but to date progress has been slow with its Expert Panel consulting with ‘stakeholders’. That isn’t us but the many commercial interests.
Parking Action Plan
Parking was not commented in the last Newsletter but has remained a regular topic of conversation. The Council has carried out a further ‘Strategic Review of Parking’ which recognised the need for a city-wide approach for the management of parking and particularly where specific problems had been flagged up, Leith Central, Corstorphine, Shandon. Moredun, and south Morningside being some examples. A major part of those problems are exacerbated by commuter parking, where vehicles are driven into or across the city, parked for the day, and use made of Edinburgh’s bus services. The knock-on effects of the introduction of Sunday parking restrictions in the central zones, 1 and 2, will doubtless have a cascade effect for those of us who live in the adjacent peripheral zones as will the future introduction of low emission zones and street closures. The present Controlled Parking Zones were introduced in 1973 and extended in 2006. Problems have persisted in many areas with a shortage of residents parking spaces caused by an imbalance of permits and spaces allocated and erosion by the introduction of trade permits. I have represented the views of residents in our area at every opportunity, pointing out the detrimental effects of the many changes happening in our city and the effects on residents, trades people and visitors. It is essential that we keep up the support for our Council in their pursuit of a more strategic evaluation of parking requirements. That approach will address problems in West, South West, East, South East, North and other specified locations. You can access the report to the Transport and Environment Committee on the 9th of August 2018, Item No 7.6 for full information on this initiative.
IMPACT Scotland Concert Hall
Moving on now to more recent events, you may become users of this future development behind Dundas House on St Andrews Square. This is a proposal for a 1000 seat concert hall, rehearsal place and ground floor foyer/café which will provide a home for the Scottish Symphony Orchestra. The scheme by David Chipperfield Architects has received a broad acceptance with some reservations on the dominance of the drum of the concert hall and how it appears from different parts of New Town. The provision of a further high quality international and performance venue in central Edinburgh is welcome particularly as it is to provide a permanent home for the SCO.
West Princes Street Gardens and Ross Bandstand Project
The Gardens are a much-enjoyed asset for the public and the generous work undertaken by the Ross Development Trust, particularly the refurbishment of the Ross Fountain. Surveys have indicated that the most frequently admired elements in this public space are the green space, tranquillity, peace and quiet. The Gardens are an asset for the public and should be manged as such. The competition for a new pavilion attracted several schemes and was won by an American practice, wHY, who proposed an undulating pavilion with a café and visitor’s centre. There were deep concerns about the lack of consultation, and fears that the management of the Gardens would pass to an Arm’s Length Company (ALEO) with restricted or non-existent control by the Council. The consultation received a great number or responses from the public and from organisations interested in the city’s welfare with much comment about commercial use of this loved public space. Those concerns were brought into sharp focus by the Summer Festival leasing the park for two weeks of events which caused the erection of high boards along the railings to Princes Street to curtail non-payers seeing the show. The gardens were also closed early to accommodate the show. The Council seemed unaware of the scope of the activities proposed by the company and that didn’t help the opinions of the public. There has been a resultant hardening of attitudes to commercial usage of the gardens and the Council has now agreed that they should retain responsibility for the management and maintenance of the gardens.
East Princes Street Gardens
The National Galleries of Scotland applied for Planning Permission for alterations and extension in June 2018 and this included improved service and pedestrian access with associated landscaping to improve connections between the galleries, gardens and beyond. The application was approved, including the removal of a number of trees in the gardens. The NGS then instructed the removal of all the trees which caused a furore by members of the public. The row rumbles on and there seems to have been a lack of co-ordination between the Council and NGS and a complete lack of cognisance of the effect on the public. New trees are included to be planted but that will not cover the loss for many years.
Pedestrian Crossing Survey – Albany/Abercromby/Dublin Streets
The Council maintains a schedule of pedestrian crossing points which are assigned a priority by assessing them on defined criteria. There are over 40 possible projects on this list with a limited annual budget provision. The London Street/Drummond Place crossing was approved by the Council in August 2017 for implementation in 2018-2019. This will be the raised cushions type and there will be a consultation to agree the location and final design.
We raised the need for a crossing at Albany/Abercromby/Dublin also and this has now been added to the Council’s list for implementation in 2020-2021. It is number 38 at present. This junction is of concern to all the many pedestrians who use this main route into the city every day.
It is up to us, as citizens, to maintain our vigilance to protect our city as there is a move in some quarters to increasing the commercialisation of everything around us.
NNSA Committee
Our Committee Membership continues as previously with David Young taking Anna’s place. The Committee has met once on the 28th June to set the agenda for the next year.
At the meeting on the 28th June it was agreed to progress Local Interest Group status for NNSA and that was submitted to the Council at the end of June with myself as elected representative. No assistance from the membership on the website had come forward to build up the website so further professional help will be required. Membership was confirmed at 61 households and members were asked to try to recruit their friends and neighbours to join us. The Treasurer agreed to chase up non-payees and has been successful in that respect. After a detailed investigation of the banking options available to an organisation like ours which could offer us digital access we elected to stay with the RBS and we now have such access. The Treasurer reports that our bank balance is £1514.00 with minimal expenses outstanding and £20.00 in petty cash.
A Newsletter was proposed for August but that came and went, and this Autumn/Winter issue is the result. Too many other interests. The formation of a sub-group to examine traffic problems in our area, proposed by Committee, was agreed as a good idea but has not so far met.
The provisional date for the next AGM is proposed as 19th May 2019, please note that in your 2019 diaries or calendars.
There are difficulties with busy diaries in arranging Committee meetings and achieving a quorum (4).
11 Drummond Place – Polish Ex-Combatants Club
The Club obtained Planning Permission for their proposed refurbishment and modernisation of the premises and scaffolding went up on 17th November 2018. The operation of the Club will be as before with accommodation for visitors and facilities for events. I will report further when their plans are more advanced.
SOCIAL CHAPTER
Your Committee has discussed how we can generate more social interaction between residents of our areas. We have agreed to trial asking members to host small drinks parties to let residents meet their neighbours. Linda Rosborough has volunteered to establish your interest in this idea and you are requested to contact her on Linda.Rosborough@virgin.net to confirm your participation?
HELP!
The Chairman and Pat Hugh have made their best efforts at drawing up the data to be included on the new website which will hopefully be launched before the next AGM. Any members who can assist in this endeavour should make contact. Those who have already expressed interest do not need to do so again.
We would also appreciate some assistance with administration, minute taking, membership and organisation of the AGM. If anyone has a bit of spare time get in touch, my contact details are under.
If any member has a contribution for the next Newsletter please send it to me.
Committee
Jack Hugh – Chairman Nelson St
Janice Nisbet – Secretary Northumberland St
Iain Gordon Brown Abercromby Place
Paul Clark Northumberland Street
Sara Hornibrook Nelson Street
Peter Laing Northumberland Street
David Young Northumberland Street
Linda Rosborough – Treasurer Northumberland Street