New Town and Broughton Community Council
Minutes of the meeting held on Monday 7th November 2011 in the Drummond Room, Broughton St Mary's Church, Bellevue Crescent, Edinburgh at 7.30 pm
Present: Ian Mowat, Chair; Bill Dunlop; Judy Conn; Jonathan Finn; Gaby Holden; John Knight; Henry Sutherland; Alan Welsh, Iain McGill
Apologies: Anne Casson; Audrey Cavaye; Patrick Hutton; Jo Nove
In attendance: Cllrs Stuart McIvor and Alastair Rankin; Andy Conway, City of Edinburgh Council Transport Department; PC Derek Barbour
Member of the public: John Ross Maclean
1. Minutes of the last meeting held on 3rd October 2011. With one or two very minor corrections their acceptance was proposed by John Knight who was seconded by Bill Dunlop.
2. Police report: PC Derek Barbour provided crime statistics for October for the area of the city centre relevant to the Community Council:-
Housebreakings to businesses 2 unsolved
Attempted housebreaking to dwelling house 1 unsolved
Vandalism to businesses 4 (1 solved/3unsolved)
He confirmed that the police were in regular touch with the Occupy Edinburgh protesters in St Andrew Square, that Essential Edinburgh was content for the occupation to continue in the garden for the moment and that to date there had been no trouble requiring action. He could provide no information about a recent stabbing in Rose Street.
3. Transport: Andy Conway from CEC Transport Department gave the CC an update on how the newly formed body which had taken over from TIE proposed to handle the tram route's terminus in York Place. The proposal, not yet subject to final decision, was for a cross over point to the east of Elder Street. Beyond this two tram lengths of space needed to be provided to allow emergency temporary parking if a tram had broken down. This arrangement would permit the creation of a tram stop at the east end of Yoirk Place.. A good business case could be made for this final stop and it could generate enough income to help meet the cost of the extended track. The cross over would still permit two lanes of traffic to flow in either direction in York Place. The bus stop on the south side of York Place would need to be removed as it could not safely be sited close to moving parts of the tram system. The bus stop on the north side would be unaffected. The pedestrian crossing at Elder Street would remain. A six minute service was projected. There was a great deal of discussion about the details of the engineering challenges involved in the tram's negotiation of the change of ground levels in the turn from St Andrew Square into York Place, and the traffci consequences of accommodating the tram on the City Centre’s main east west traffic route. Andy Conway was confident that these challenges could be successfully met. A vote of 6-4 indicated that the CC would prefer the tramline to termainate at St Andrew Square, but Andy Conway's explained that the changes needed to do this were not included in the Tram Act and the length of time required for the Scottish Parliament to consider amending the Act would create the kind of delay which would jeopardise the whole project. The Chair summed up saying that that if the York Place spur required to be built the community council supported the proposal for a York Place tram stop which would have benefits for Broughton. Andy said he would be happy to meet the CC again with more advanced plans and confirmed that he was the main point of contact within his department for any further queries or suggestions.
4. Planning: John Knight, Planning Convener, reported that since the October meeting he had considered 25 Edinburgh World Heritage Site cases and one non-EWHS case.
He commented that, perhaps as a result of the inauguration of a new planning portal, the planning department currently appeared to be experiencing a high level of confusion and frustrating inefficiency.
The application for a Sainsbury's supermarket in Howe Street had been withdrawn. It was concerning that the CC's letter had not been published on the planning portal. Nor had it been acknowledged.
The CC agreed that an objection should be made to an application to create an anomalous double light well at 28 Heriot Row.
Consent had been granted to the application for 28 Charlotte Square.
Travel Lodge had made an application to create a budget hotel at 31 Queen Street. JK deplored the habitual recourse of Travel Lodge to conspicuous banners since nothing of that kind currently existed in Queen Street. By way of the CC's response he proposed expressing the hope that all such advertising displays would be kept to a minimum.
JK was concerned about an application by Vodafone for new mobile phone antennae on the East London Street telephone exchange. The CEC Telecommunications Policy advice directive requires that mobile phone providers should furnish “plots which provide a visual representation of the beams of greatest intensity strength at various points within the area surrounding the mast, where proposals are in close proximity to schools.” This directive suggests that the CEC is aware that there is no firm proof that mobile phone antennae emissions do not pose a health hazard to the young. Despite the existence of St Mary's Primary School immediately opposite the telephone exchange the required diagrams of the beams had not been furnished by Vodafone. It was agreed that the CC should object on grounds that the CEC's important directive had been ignored in the application. JK encouraged CC members to lodge their own individual objections if they felt strongly about the issues raised by this application.
JK expressed disappointment over the application now lodged for Beaverhall Road as the plans differed markedly from those discussed at the pre application consultation. The application made no proposals for the existing tenement and one townhouse had been dropped from the plans. However, the main departure was the introduction of a road looping through the scheme, providing two entry and exit points and greatly reducing the amount of open space which had been an attractive feature of the previous plans. This major change seemed to make a mockery of the pre application consultation process. Instead of broadly welcoming the application the CC was now going to have to make a number of objections.
The CC had now received a copy of the CEC's Edinburgh Local Development Plan Main Issues Report (MIR), despite the fact that the South East Scotland (SES) - plan on which the MIR should be based was not yet publicly available. Comments were to be in by 27th January 2012.
Another consultation document was also to hand – the Edinburgh Lighting Strategy – and comments were requested by 31st December.
5. Environment: with regard to the possible adoption by the CEC of the Alternative Business Model (ABM) and the impact this could have on waste management within the EWHS Ian Mowat had written to Mark Turley, Director of Services for Communities, and Judy Conn had written to the clerk of the Transport and Environment Committee for circulation to all committee members. Both letters had requested that different methods of waste collection should apply throughout the New Town, respecting the wishes of the residents in individual streets, and that if a private firm was granted the contract this requirement would be written into it. The reply from Mark Turley had confirmed that this would be the case. It appeared that councillors were strongly divided on the issue of the ABM and a decisive debate had been postponed until the end of November.
IM had invited Alison Brown, City Centre Environmental Warden, to speak at the December meeting.
The CC noted the CEC's request for residents to volunteer as Snow Wardens in the event of
another harsh winter. The Snow Warden's task would be to flag up to the relevant CEC departments any spots where snow and ice presented particular dangers. They could also help to drum up hands on local volunteer support for snow clearing, helping vulnerable neighbours etc. The leaflet with the relevant information would be displayed in the CC noticeboard.
6. Licensing: It appeared that the longstanding dispute over late night noise between Hawke and Hunter in Picardy Place and nearby residents had gone through a mediation process. As a result Hawke and Hunter had commissioned an acoustic report although they did not seem to pushing for its delivery as a matter of urgency. They were appealing against a decision by the Licensing Board forbidding the use of their external premises on a Sunday.
No objection was found to a change of use to second hand dealership of premises in Broughton Street Lane.
7. Neighbourhood Partnership: the City Centre Neighbourhood Partnership Local Community Plan for 2011-2014 was now to hand. The four major targets for action were unexceptional and acceptable – cleanliness, community safety, improving roads, footways and public spaces and improving shopping and pedestrian experience. The CC regretted that the Plan made no mention of the EWHS and that in its list of “vibrant local centres” it had not mentioned Broughton Street. The next step would require consideration of Action Plans proposed to meet the designated targets.
8. Treasurer's report: Jonathan Finn, Treasurer, said that there was nothing of financial note to report. It was agreed he should order some CC headed writing paper and design, colour etc were discussed.
9. Chair's report: IM regretted that his suggestion of an autumn public meeting on the future of Princes Street, and featuring a representative of architects Jan Gehl, had not received an encouraging response from the firm. He proposed postponing any public meeting until the spring and asked for suggestions for topics.
He had attended a meeting about the opportunity plans to use the Abbeyhill sidings to store local train services as part of Waverley station improvements presented to re-open Abbeyhill Station whichh, which would usefully help to link east and west Edinburgh.
10. Activities of Local Street and Amenity Associations: the Drummon Civic Association's AGM would be held on 30th November and that of the Fettes Row Association on 21st November.
11. AOB: Nothing of relevance.
DATE OF NEXT MEETING: Monday 5th December at 7.30 pm in the Drummond Room, Broughton St Mary's Church, Bellevue Crescent.
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