Minutes of New Town & Broughton Community Council’s ordinary meeting, held at Broughton St Mary’s church on Monday 13 April 2026 at 7pm

Actions and decisions are red italic. ND (‘no dissent’) means that no-one spoke or voted against a decision.

This meeting was chaired by Richard Price, in the absence of Peter Williamson.

1 Welcome and apologies

1.a Attendance

Annick Gaillard	NTBCC	Martin McDonnell	NTBCC	Bruce Ryan	minutes secretary
Laura Graham	NTBCC	Susan MacInnes	NTBCC	Cllr Jack Caldwell	Leith Walk ward
Shaun Hodge	NTBCC	Masudun Nessa Mitu	NTBCC	Cllr Jo Mowat	City Centre ward
Simon Holledge	NTBCC	Richard Price	NTBCC	~7 residents/visitors
Joe McAdam	NTBCC	Gerry Wells	NTBCC

1.b Apologies

Fiona Banatvala	NTBCC	David Renton	NTBCC
Michael Birch	NTBCC	Peter Williamson	NTBCC
Pierre Forissier	NTBCC	Cllr Hal Osler	Inverleith ward
Stephen Hajducki	NTBCC	Cllr Margaret Graham	City Centre ward
Ken Lochrie	NTBCC	Angus Robertson	(currently not an MSP due to forthcoming elections)
Nick Reid	NTBCC

2 Declarations of interest

• Item 6.c: B Ryan’s wife rents an office in this part of Forth St, so he has an indirect financial interest.
• Item 6.d. L Graham’s family business is undertaking work on Jenner’s, but she does not financially benefit from this.

3 Approval of March meeting minutes and matters arising

3.a Approval

Approved subject to correction of very minor typos (proposed G Wells, seconded A Gaillard, ND)

3.b Matters arising and actions from previous meetings

See online register. Actions that are incomplete have a yellow background.

• Action: B Ryan to web-publish NTBCC views on 2025 CC elections.
• The engagement report is now published. It now needs to be implemented and disseminated (actions 35, 36).
• Action 41 (NTBCC’s position on TVL):
  • in February, CEC approved ‘envelopes’ of transient visitor levy revenue. While the advisory body can advise, CEC decides such matters. There will be specific projects, under CEC transport, culture and communities, and housing. Hence the relevant NTBCC committees should consider proposals from these CEC committees.
  • There was discussion of use of TVL funding (and previous CEC funding) for policing, and recruitment practicalities.

4 Police report

No report received

5 Chair’s report

5.a NTBCC AGM: Annual Report and accounts including Engagement Strategy

• AGM will be on June 8.
• Action: NTBCC office-bearers and convenors to produce annual report and accounts, including its engagement report.

5.b Princes Street and Waverley Valley workshop for key stakeholders – 8 June 2026 – expressions of interest

• NTBCC has been invited to attend this. It needs to confirm its attendance soon.
• Action: NTBCC members to advise NTBCC chair and secretary of they wish to attend.
• Action: NTBCC to decide its position and inputs in May.

5.c Edinburgh Association of Community Councils (EACC) – online meeting 30 April

This meeting will cover community engagement, community grants (a presentation by CEC community grants fund officer) and tram trains.

6 Planning matters

All points made by R Price unless otherwise noted.

6.a 39 London St (26/01010/FULSTL) – new application (current) (for information)

• This application aims to mitigate the reporters’ concerns about a previous application, mostly by adding 24/7 management presence. Comments can be submitted to 1 May.
• Action: R Price to ascertain residents’ opinions, then submit an objection if they wish.

6.b 125 McDonald Road (26/00794/FUL) – Class 4 offices to serviced apartments (current) (for information)

• This application is open for comments until Friday (17 April). NTBCC is likely to object be aue this is yet another potential change away from ‘community-useful’ uses to serviced apartments.
• There was discussion of how to oppose the spread of such losses and their detriment to residential accommodation.
• S Hodge/Cllr Mowat/R Price: cumulative impact assessments are absent from NPF4 and CityPlan 2030. Local Authorities now have to estimate needs for different types of housing/accommodation. Cllr Mowat to look into this.

6.c 16 – 26 Forth Street (26/00660/FUL) – offices to aparthotel & rear extension (for information)

• There have been 74 objections to this application, including one from NTBCC, and 23 supporting comments. Historic Environment Scotland has said that the LBC application raises issues, but has not yet put this in writing.

6.d 30 Princes Street – temporary scaffold advertisement (to discuss)

• Previously scaffolding shrouds would have pictures of the underlying buildings but now are hosting advertising. Shrouds tend to be in place for around a year. An advert on the Jenners building’s shroud has gained much concern.
• There is also an application for 70-74 Princes St that would have a shroud, with advertising.
• Cllr Mowat: advertising permission was granted for adverts of this size. This permission does not control the actual adverts. CEC undertook an investigation, and decided to take no action because there is no breach of conditions. Complaints about the actual adverts can only be made to the Advertising Standards Agency, not to CEC.

6.e Claremont Crescent – historic lighting (to discuss)

• Residents wish to approach CEC due to the current mishmash of lamp-post types in this area of listed buildings, unlike other areas that have heritage-style lamp-posts. NTBCC should support this.
• Cllr Mowat: other areas’ lamp-posts were funded by EWH grants and residents. CEC only approved the designs.
• Cllr Caldwell: it may be relevant that Claremont Crescent is in the new town conservation area but not the EWH area.

6.f STLs – misalignment between planning & licencing regulations (to discuss)

• Many appeals have been withdrawn, possibly because STL licenses have been obtained and agents have been paid.
• Cllrs Mowat and Caldwell: this will be scrutinised by CEC: a report is due in 2 or 3 cycles. The legislation is poorly written: it doesn’t make planning and licensing work together. Hence CEC has been chasing the Scottish Government.

7 Licensing matters

All points make by A Gaillard unless otherwise noted.

7.a Regulatory matters

• The meeting on 16 March focused on the taxi fares review, and civic licensing (public entertainment and/or late hour catering) for temporary venues during the FIFA World Cup. While the Licensing Board granted a general extension for licensed premises with televised sport listed as an activity, temporary venues who also wish to sell alcohol remain subject to occasional licences. There was concern that people would apply for consecutive temporary licences due to their low cost.
  • Cllr Caldwell: the approach was due to concerns that applications might not be determined quickly enough.

7.b Alcohol licensing

• A small number of licensed premises submitted variation applications to amend the operating plan to include televised sport, seemingly preparing for the FIFA World Cup.
• Board members requested a site visit at 11 Royal Terrace, leading to this application being continued to a future hearing.

8 Culture and Communities matters

No items raised. The next CEC C&C meeting is on 14 May, due to the election cycle and recesses.

9 Transport and Environment matters

See also convenor’s report. All points made by G Wells unless otherwise noted.

9.a St Mark’s Path closure

The path seems to be working, and the construction site appears tidy and organised.

9.b Communal bin review phase 6 update, 9.c George Street redevelopment, 9.d Dublin Street/Abercromby Place

See convenor’s report.

9.e Response to FOI request (Rose Street)

• See convenor’s report.
• Cllr Mowat explained the safety-based reasons for the report that will be produced in ~6 months. She suggested that the TRO process needs more funding to make it smoother, and that there are intra-officer tensions in the process.
• R Price: there are faults in the TRO process.
• M McDonnell: the TRO process is being abused by being used for more than waiting and loading issues, e.g. design discussions. However, TRO documentation tends to lack design information. (R Price concurred.)

9.f Coach parking

• See convenor’s report.
• S Holledge:

The lead council officer’s response to NTBCC’s concerns was I’ve been reliably informed that LEZ compliance for coaches is quite high across the city, over 90%, and obviously coaches accessing the city centre must be LEZ compliant and that includes probably most of those parked at Regent Road, and there is some monitoring around there as well. I would say that we are making progress on that issue with the exact intervention designed to tackle that in the city centre, which is the LEZ.

However Regent Road is not in the LEZ, and there is no air quality monitoring on or near Regent Road. As far as I know. all the coaches parked on Regent Road are diesel, not electric. Some may be more modern than others, but all cause some degree of pollution.

The concerns in our deputations were: 1. enforcement of engine idling restrictions, 2. lack of atmospheric emissions monitoring, 3. impact on bus stop at Carlton Terrace Brae, 4. turning of coaches parked on both sides of road, 5. narrow width of pavement on the north side of road, 6. lack of litter bins. None were answered at the meeting.

• There was discussion of what might be done with the coaches, and that they make emissions wherever they are.
• G Wells/Cllr Mowat: this is the beginning of the statutory process around development of CEC’s strategy on coaches.
• G Wells/R Price: given the lack of discussion of NTBCC’s written points, it may be advisable to approach CEC councillors directly and make spoken as well as written deputations.

9.g Local traffic improvement programme

• Two proposals in NTBCC’s area were agreed.
• Action: B Ryan to blog about these.

9.h Trams to Newhaven

• See convenor’s report. CCTT hopes to conclude its work in September 2026.

9.i East London Street

• See convenor’s report.
• Cllr Mowat: CEC’s budget for setted streets has been augmented with TVL revenue.

9.j Meadows to George St project TRO

• CEC’s statement of case is going to the reporter in June. NTBCC members should highlight any issues and advise if they can attend this hearing. NTBCC has been granted to 15 May to submit its concerns.

9.k Bin hubs

• A resident: we are very grateful for M Birch’s input – he advises that add relevant streets make a combined effort, but this leaves us somewhat dependent on him.
• L Graham: we hope for location meetings with the relevant CEC officer. Meeting dates are not yet available.
• A resident: the CEC officer has rejected all of our proposals.
• Cllr Mowat: I’ve repeatedly asked for CEC’s grounds for refusal of suggestions.
• There was discussion of the timing and process for the relevant TROs.

10 Engagement matters

• See item 3.b (point 3) above.

11 Any other business

• A McIntosh: the Spurtle is hosting a husting on 16 April (7:15pm) at Broughton St Mary’s church.
• S Hodge: there is an ‘epidemic’ of broken glass in the Leith Walk area.
  • Action: Cllr Caldwell to look into this matter.