Minutes of New Town & Broughton Community Council’s ordinary meeting, held via Zoom, on Monday 10 March 2025 at 7pm
Actions and decisions are red italic. ND (‘no dissent’) means that no-one spoke or voted against a decision.
URLs have been added by the minutes secretary. Continue reading
See attached PDF or full text after the ‘read more’ cut.
We note the concerns made by the Old Town Community Council (OTCC) and fully endorse their comments, specifically “to put on record that the level of detail provided to stakeholders is completely unacceptable.”
Please see the attached PDF or the full text after the ‘read more’ cut.
In summary we consider that the consultation is a missed opportunity to understand the views of residents and explain the reasons for the proposed waste collection arrangements. We remain willing to work with the Council to address these deficiencies.
Please see the attached PDF, or the full text after the ‘read ore’ cut.
NTBCC Response To Draft Planning Guidance Documents
NTBCC has two general points for consideration.
- There is a need for greater consistency regarding decision-making on planning matters generally. At times decisions appear to be contradictory or are otherwise inexplicable. The Council should have in place systems that can provide internally and externally assurance that decisions have the necessary degree of consistency.
- There should be a tighter enforcement regime. The Council should review its approach to enforcement regarding planning decisions to provide reassurance that owners and developers are not able to disregard regulations and guidance without any consequences.
This article in the Herald (paywall) on 16 March 2025 covers the failure of Old Town CC to attract enough candidates — but more generally covers about the problems of community councils in Edinburgh as a whole.
The article quotes Professor Oliver Escobar at length:
Citizens have the capacity to be whatever you offer them to be. If what you are offering them to be is complainers, protestors, reactionaries, blockers, that’s what they will be. If you offer them to be problem solvers, collaborators, coproducers, thinkers that’s what they will be.
It was never meant to be just about supporting or blocking planning processes; it was meant to be a channel for communities to express themselves, to connect with local authorities in a meaningful way, to have representation that was not based in party politics but in community priorities.
In total, 8 of Edinburgh’s 47 community council areas (Craigmillar, Davidson’s Mains and Silverknowes, Firrhill, Hutchison/Chesser, Muirhouse/Salvesen, Old Town, Portobello, West Pilton/West Granton) are in this situation. So that’s 17% of Edinburgh’s hyperlocal democracy units that currently do not exist.
Notes of New Town & Broughton Community Council’s ordinary meeting, held via Zoom, on Monday 17 February 2025 at 7pm
Actions and decisions are red italic. ND (‘no dissent’) means that no-one spoke or voted against a decision.
URLs have been added by the minutes secretary.
Minutes of New Town & Broughton Community Council’s ordinary meeting, on Monday 9 December 2024 at 7pm
Actions and decisions are red italic. ND (‘no dissent’) means that no-one spoke or voted against a decision.
URLs have been added by the minutes secretary.
These minutes could not be published until they had been approved at the following ordinary meeting in February 2025. Continue reading