LCCC February 2023 minutes

Minutes of Leith Central Community Council meeting, at Nelson Hall, McDonald Road Library, on Monday 20 February 2023 at 7:00pm

Actions and decisions are red italic. nem con means that no-one spoke or voted against a decision.

1 Welcome, introductions, attendance, apologies

1.a Present, apologies

Jun

(AGM)

 Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May
Voting members Zoe Curry NA No meeting NA No meeting NA P No meeting P P
Alan Dudley A P P P A P
Charlotte Encombe A P A P A A
Pierre Forissier P X P P P P
Nick Gardner P A A X P
Sheila Kennedy P P P P P A
Ian Mowat P P P P P P
Alex Ortiz NA P P A X P
Harald Tobermann P P P A A P
Lucy Wood-Watters P X P X A A
John Wilkinson P P P P P P
Non-voting members Bruce Ryan P A P P P P
Cllr Jack Caldwell P P P P P P
Cllr James Dalgleish P P P A A P
Cllr Amy McNeese-Mechan A A A A A A
Cllr Susan Rae X X P A A P
Ben Macpherson MSP X X A X X A
Deidre Brock MP A A A A A A
Number of residents/visitors attending 9 4 8 8 A

P = present, A = apology, X = neither present nor sent apology, NA = not applicable

Police Scotland representatives were PC Clark and PC Sadlik.

1.b to note: declarations of interest in any items on the agenda

  • Cllr Caldwell is a member of Pilmany Youth Centre (item 5 below)

1.c to agree: order of business below

  • It was agreed to take the police report (item 4) ahead of matters arising (item 3).

2 Approval of minutes of the ordinary LCCC meeting on 16 January 2023 meeting

Accepted as-is (proposed I Mowat, seconded J Wilkinson, nem con)

3 Matters arising from previous minutes (and not included on agenda below)

This section records actions from the previous meeting that are not yet closed or have notes to record. Outstanding actions are recorded in item 0.

Item Action Notes
3 (row 3) Cllr Dalgleish to follow up about unlicensed short term let at 11 Pilrig St An investigation is in progress, but it has been paused while a retrospective planning application is in progress.
3 (row 4) J Wilkinson to forward his report on the short-term let meeting to LCCC Closed, but see report in appendix 1
3 (row 5) H Tobermann to ask CEC for numbers of existing STLs being granted retrospective planning permission. A freedom of information request is in progress, so HT will report next meeting.
3 (row 6) Cllr Caldwell to continue searching for relevant Easter Rd traffic-change data See Cllr Caldwell’s report in appendix 2
3 (row 8) CCTT to take up resident’s questions about noise and vibration with trams team (in February)

Cllr Caldwell to chase this asap.

 No satisfactory answers/information have been provided yet. Trams team is chasing the contractor.
3 (row 9) C Encombe to check with N Gardner about his non-attendance of LCCC meetings CE has not yet received a reply.
3 (row 11) C Encombe to engage with A Ortiz about him potentially becoming LCCC’s engagement officer, to come to a suitable arrangement. AO has yet to respond to CE
8.a N Gardner to organise a public meeting to get volunteers to reconvene FoPP No apparent action by NG, so J Wilkinson to chase him

4 Policing Matters

4.a to note: local (ward)l Police Report/s April – June (not previously received), July – September (not previously received), October – December 2022 (not previously received)

See also PDF of report on LCCC website or text of report in appendix 3. PCs Sadlik and Clark reported

  • PC Sadlik compiled this report, and will compile future reports.
  • The number of calls in the report is the total of calls to 999 and 101 for the LCCC area. The individual statistics are those which PC Sadlik believes to be most relevant to LCCC.
    • It was noted that the number of calls may be greater than the number of instances of each class of ‘activity’.
    • It was noted that different officers may classify calls differently, but police strive to report as accurately as possible.
    • 1 week’s notice of meetings is sufficient for compilation of police reports, so they can be circulated with agendas.
    • It was noted that some of the report’s content is not amenable to screen-readers.
      • Action: B Ryan to ensure that relevant police email addresses are on LCCC’s email list
  • Police have undertaken much work on licensed premises.
    • It was noted by LCCC that the Spey Lounge is outwith LCCC’s area.
    • Neighbour disputes, which may not be criminal activity, have been a large part of police work, in concert with CEC.
  • Volunteer officers (who have other jobs) have been helping with traffic-checks. A vehicle was seized during these checks.
  • Numbers of complaints about Brunswick Rd and London Rd have reduced but these issues are not yet resolved. Police are working with CEC on this.
    • Tickets have been issued.
    • There were also police actions on traffic in other areas.
  • The police are undertaking community surgeries to make ‘human contact’. The range of advice available here is widening.
    • It is difficult for community officers to advertise such events via social media – police social media work is undertaken by a different team. The officers would like to advertise the events well in advance, on posters, but cannot always commit to advance dates.
  • Police are taking part in partnership working for Ukrainian refugees, e.g. at MV Victoria.
  • Police are organising an ‘emergency services day’: 25 March 2023 at Victoria Quay.
  • Police are campaigning against scammers and ‘doorstep crime’, and promoting Neighbourhood Watch Schemes.

5 Planning

5.a to note: hearing on 15-03-23 regarding 22/00745/FUL (Conversion of bowling club and bowling green to residential dwelling and garden @ 54 Rosslyn Crescent, Edinburgh, EH6 5AX) following LCCC protest

  • LCCC had objected to how the planning process had been implemented. Cllr Caldwell was thanked for his intervention.
    • Actions: P Forissier to brief J Wilkinson, J Wilkinson to attend hearing; LCCC to encourage residents to attend hearing.

5.b to agree: LCCC stance toward 22/06210/FUL (Leith Walk by Balfour Street) and 23/00140/FUL (Leith Walk by Brunswick Street) removal of BT phone boxes and replacement by ‘BT Hubs’

  • H Tobermann: the first of these would replace a very dishevelled phone-box but the pavement is very narrow here.
  • A resident: many of the rejected applications for these hubs are being approved on appeal.
  • No LCCC member spoke in favour of the hubs, so decision: LCCC’s stance is against them.
      • Action: H Tobermann to write to Leith ward cllrs, stating LCCC’s opposition to these hubs.

5.c to note: status of current planning applications in our area (February 2023)

  • P Forissier: LCCC has submitted 3 objections:
    • Ashley Place student housing, due to a boundary shift
    • Shrub Place (application 1), due to building empty attics which may then become student housing.
    • Shrub Place (application 2), due to extension of student housing.
  • P Forissier: 139 Leith Walk was due to be decided at DMSC, but the decision was postponed to allow a hearing, LCCC is working with residents to inform CEC planning committee about facts that are not in a relevant executive summary. LCCC is helping residents to draft submissions.
  • P Forrisier: LCCC will object to a development on Arthur St: permission had been granted for residential housing but the developers now wish to create student housing.
  • P Forrisier: because CEC did not determine an application for Eyre Place in time, the developer has appealed directly to the Scottish Government reporter.
    • It was suggested that that determination periods should not start until deficiencies in applications have been remedied, and that CEC enforcement of complete applications is poorer than enforcement by other councils.

5.c.i Q&A

  • LCCC has objected to planned student accommodation at Meadowfield (near Shrub Place). Cllr Rae stated that management reports show that the owners are allowing their current properties to fall into serious disrepair.

5.d to note: any other Planning matters relevant to LCCC area

It was noted that CEC is ‘juggling’ to fit in planning hearings.

6 Transport and clean streets

6.a to note: minutes of LCCC’s Transport & Clean Streets Committee (13-2-23)

6.a.i Windsor St and Montgomery St

  • A resident stated that R Armstrong of the Trams team has been helpful. She agreed that if Elm Row can start accepting delivery vehicles, the problems should be significantly reduced. However she fears these streets becoming a rat-run, leading to damage and danger. She does not want big design changes, but traffic-calming and safety measures.
  • Another resident stated that there had been space for loading on Elm Row before tram-works commenced.
  • Another resident spoke against closures that prevent traffic going east from Leith Walk.

6.a.ii Brunswick St

Action: LCCC to maintain a watching brief, and observe if there are difficulties with deliveries following completion of tram works

6.a.iii BT hub on Balfour St

See item 5.b.

6.b to note: recent response to joint-CC email to local MSPs (25-11-22) to encourage them to accelerate prohibition of pavement parking

It was noted that legislation is in progress, but will not be in place until late 2023.

6.c to note: update on SP Energy Networks upcoming works in Dryden Gait (Shrubhill Substation)

It was noted that information was provided to LCCC very late. (See LCCC website.) SPEN has promised no road closures.

6.d to agree: LCCC stance towards planters on Leith Walk

  • It was noted that these are being installed by the Trams Team, and that H Tobermann had informed the trams Team that the planters may attract much litter, and that that no CEC department is tasked to maintain them. This stance was agreed.
    • Cllr Rae stated that results of consultation were in favour of greenery, but that local opinion was against this form.
    • Cllr Caldwell: real trees cannot be planted because they would interfere with below-ground utilities and concrete.

6.e to note: tram works issues for local residents

  • A Dudley: continuous pavements, lacking tactile crossing points, are very dangerous. This issue has been raised via Edinburgh’s access group.
    • H Tobermann: this point was rasied when the whole route was walked through by CCTT with TT staff. R Armstrong was due to have collated and respond to the points raised, but has not yet done so.
    • A resident: even sighted people may be endangered by these conditions. I have convinced a CEC councillor of this.
  • A resident: at pedestrian crossings, signs say ‘look left’ but trams come from the right.
    • Action: Cllr Caldwell to raise this with trams team
  • A resident: signage in parking bays is so high it requires people to stand in the tram tracks to read it.

6.f to note: tram works issues for local businesses

  • Cllr Rae: a local packaging company has an issue with a loading bay being filled with parked cars.
    • Cllr Rae: enforcement on pavement parking is now starting
    • H Tobermann: only where there are double-yellow lines.

6.g to note: any other Transport & Clean Streets matters relevant to LCCC area

  • Cllr Caldwell: markings for phase 1 of the controlled parking zone will be installed in late March. Phase 2 will be delayed to allow observation of the impact of phase 1. Information will go on CEC’s website shortly.
  • H Tobermann: Cllr McNeese-Mechan is pursuing bin-collection problems. LCCC should keep watch for, and report, issues.
  • H Tobermann: a resident has requested that Cambridge Avenue is stopped, as it had been previously.
    • Cllr Caldwell: this was done this morning. Traffic can now entre Arthur St from both ends.
    • Action: Cllr Caldwell to alert CEC waste about these changes.

7 Parks and green spaces

7.a to note: any Parks & Green Spaces matters relevant to LCCC area

  • P Forissier: local parks look sad and abandoned – fallen trees are not being replaced.
    • A resident: this could be tackled by active friends’ groups.

8 Licensing

8.a to note: any Licensing matters relevant to LCCC area

H Tobermann: there is a Scottish Government consultation on fireworks: registration here. There is also an online workshop on 31 March.

9 LCCC Governance

9.a to note: any governance and IT issues

  • See B Ryan’s suggestions in Appendix 4.
    • Action: B Ryan to progress this work
    • Action: Cllr Caldwell to find out when the next annual charge for LCCC’s Microsoft account is due
  • A McIntosh: those advertising in the printed edition of Broughton Spurtle will now get online advertising for free.
  • I Mowat: given the impending financial year-end, invoices should reach me asap.

10 Open Forum (local residents)

  • A resident: will the landscaping work on the trams route be completed in June 2023?
    • H Tobermann: in theory, yes, but design fixes (e.g. at Elm Row) will not be done by then.

11 AOCB (LCCC members)

No items raised

12 Future ordinary meetings (usually 3rd Monday of the month) and meeting topics/presentations

12.a to note: future meetings on 3rd Monday of each month at 7pm (except July and December):

2023: 20 March, 17 April, 15 May (AGM), 19 June

13 Appendix 1: J Wilkinson’s report on short-term lets meeting

This was a short term let consultation, on line, on the 27 October.

Lead by David Gavan and Alan Moonie

This is a subject that the council has been grappling with for years

This was one of three consultations:

  • 1 with residence of Edinburgh
  • 2 with hospitality
  • 3 with owners of property

It is thought to be 12,000 properties that could be short term lets at the present time. This exercise is to find out, with a licensing scheme. Costing £600 to license a property for short term let.

The members of the public were generally not happy with the situation at the moment.

The lack of control, the taking of housing out of circulation

The people from Cramond highlighted the proliferation of short term lets in their village.

Some ideas were that there should be no short term lets in stairs, one was one too many.

It was thought £600 to register was too little. But this has been set by the Scottish Government.

The consultation finishes on the 22″ December

Note: Having been to previous consultations on this subject | can say there will be vigorous opposition to any idea of controls in this area. Watch this space.

On the 17″ November | attended a talk held by the Cockburn Annual Lecture, on the Edinburgh Common Good Fund.

The Common Good goes back to James IV in the 1400s

It is an interesting subject

There is a Common Good Register to be found online if you wish to follow this up.

14 Appendix 2: Cllr Caldwell’s report

  • Item 3: still ongoing regarding new traffic data for Easter Road as due to reported traffic issues with Dalmeny Street I’m pressing quite hard for that to also be included along with what clearly needs to be actual traffic calming along Dalmeny Street. Roads are apprehensive to make a “special case” for Easter Road in the Autumn 2023 ATCs but I’m being quite firm given the circumstance and have a requested a meeting onsite. See online Excel spreadsheet from 2019 which was mot actually measure the “new” 20mph rollout a few years back. You need Excel to run the macros.
  • Item 3: vibration still ongoing. Chris from TTN is chasing subcontractor SFN re final locations of vibration measurement.
  • Item 4.a: Met with the operations team at Leith Police Station (Edinburgh North East division) and we discussed the importance of CC reports and officer presence at CCs as it’s a very good source of information for the officers themselves on local news. Sent another gentle reminder tonight but not sure if there will be a report this month due to us not putting it in writing when we met.
  • Item 5: Sent Bryan’s details to Sheila – after a prompt. My bad!
  • Item 7b: Ongoing. Discussed with Robert and TTN who is studying the issues and will email resident# directly.
  • Item 11: Met with Cllr Arthur and discussed the London Road left turn. Made it clear the community council’s position as stated in last meeting and we brainstormed ideas such as ANPR, bus lanes etc. Also met with TTN where it was extensively discussed. Have requested data from the camera now up there. Put more feelers out to other Cllrs and am now 100% certain putting it to a vote again the ban would remain. As I said I’m trying to be pragmatic and now have 3 tests before June. If the ban fails my 3 tests when TTN wraps up and the area settles I will be able to point to the following negative “car-free” impacts to fellow Cllrs and officers. The tests are on Pedestrian Safety, Brunswick Street and Buses using the gyratory.

15 Appendix 3: text of police report

15.a Welcome to your LCCC Newsletter for February 2023

15.b Calls of interest to the Police in Edinburgh Leith Central area 23/01/2023 – 19/02/2023

Total number of calls between 23/01/2023 & 19/02/2023 – 660

  • Disturbance calls 40
  • Crimes of Dishonesty reports 73
  • Drugs misuse reports 9
  • Public Nuisance / Anti Social Behaviour 75

15.c Community issues

15.c.i Anti Social behaviour

Police officers identify and attend protracted neighbour disputes in the relevant areas. They triage and advice reports accordingly and link with City of Edinburgh Council FHS department or housing associations to resolve reported issues.

Number of licensing issues were raised around Spey Lounge pub on Leith Walk. reported around Ongoing work of local community officers with Police Scotland’s licensing department and the Licensing Board resulted in a review and change of operating hours of the pub.

15.c.ii Road Traffic matters

Local community officers continue to monitor complaints from public regarding traffic restrictions around Brunswick Road and London Road. Proactive patrols continue to be carried out.

Special Constables, volunteers working as part of our team, have carried out a number of road traffic initiatives last month within Leith Central resulting with a number of traffic, and other, offences being detected. Most recently they stopped a vehicle driving without insurance driven by a person wanted on a court warrant.

15.c.iii Community support

Community officers continue to engage with local communities via the community surgery meetings. Locations of the surgeries are McDonald Road Library and Dalmeny Drill Hall.

Local community officers continue to engage and support Ukrainian community hubs located across Leith Central area and Leith Docks. Extensive work is underway between Police Scotland and the Ukrainian community in the planning and preparation phase to mark the first anniversary of the conflict in the Ukraine.

An event is planned for 25/03/2023 – Emergency Services Day. The event aims to bring various emergency services working across Scotland closer to the local communities. Final planning stage is underway to deliver a safe and positive event for all.

15.d Notable community engagements in the Central/South Leith area:

Local community officers in partnership with Places for People held a community surgery at McDonald Library, Mcdonald Road, on 29/01/2023. The surgery is an opportunity to speak to your local “bobby” about issues in your neighbourhood. Next community surgery is planned for 29/03/2023 at the same location.

A warrant was executed in the Leith area last week. A number of controlled drugs was seized totalling over £25.000. One person was arrested in relation to the incident.

15.e Shut out scammers

(This page contained images of campaign leaflets.)

15.f Neighbourhood Watch Scotland in local wards

(This page contained images of campaign leaflets.)

15.g About Us

Local Area Commander: Chief Inspector Kieran Dougal

Leith Community Policing Team based at Leith Police Station: Inspector Colin Fordyce, Sergeant Samantha Rose, plus 8 officers dedicated to community issues in Leith

15.g.i Contact Us:

16 Appendix 4: LCCC tech: Bruce’s thoughts

All costs in the following are annual financial costs. They do not include time-costs for set-up and maintenance.

16.a Current tech

16.a.i A Google spreadsheet to record all passwords

This works well but is (I believe) on H Tobermann’s Google Drive. Unfortunately not all the email passwords have been recorded on this spreadsheet.

16.a.ii MailChimp for mailings

This works OK, but has the disadvantage that only 1 admin (Bruce) can log in to add people because the third-factor authentication messages come to me. (People can add themselves to the mailing list via the link at the top of the website.) When someone self-enrols, Bruce has to manually tag them as ‘resident’. Harald somehow manages to email agendas etc for dissemination.

16.a.iii A domain

This provides the second halves of the website address and email addresses: www.leithcentralcc.co.uk and (for example) minsec@leithcentralcc.co.uk.

LCCC’s domain is provided by 4UHosting: anyone with the password to this account can log into it to maintain it. As with anything else that doesn’t require multi-factor authentication, this is insecure if the passwords spreadsheet is shared inappropriately.

16.a.iv A WordPress-based website

WordPress has a proper system of admins, editors, authors, followers (i.e. different levels of authority), each with their own login details. The content of the website is currently hosted on WordPress servers at leithccc.wordpress.com, but WordPress links this to the domain so users see the website at www.leithcentralcc.co.uk. The current cost is £11 for linking the WordPress presence to the domain plus £25 for advert-removal = £36 per year.

16.a.v Email addresses and online/hybrid meetings (Teams) provided by Microsoft/Office365

  • The advantage of this is that police, council members and staff can use Teams but not other online meeting channels (e.g. Zoom, GoogleMeet) on their organisational devices. In practice some councillors get around this by using personal devices.
  • The disadvantages of this include
    • The back-end (administration portal) has a very complex and confusing user interface.
    • Microsoft does not provide good customer service in my experience.
    • Multi-factor authentication via MS Authenticator is needed to add email accounts to computers, phones etc. My.experience is that users need to have already authenticated via MS Authenticator to set up MS Authenticator, i.e. there is a barrier that is hard to get past.
    • MS stuff is very costly! (£300)

16.b What does LCCC actually need?

16.b.i A good, up-to-date record of all its tech and passwords

  • Bruce’s recommendation: stick with Google Drive but one owned by an office-bearer identity, not Harald’s personal Google Drive.
  • Justification: Google Drives just work, but if Harald fell under a tram LCCC would lose access.
  • Actual cost £0
    • Increased cost over current arrangement £0.

16.b.ii Mailing list(s), with separate lists (or segments of a single list) for voting members, ex-officio members, others

  • Bruce’s recommendation: move from MailChimp to three separate Google Group mailing lists:
    • voting members
    • ex-officio members
    • ‘externals’, i.e. LCCC residents and other contacts.

Office-bearers and Bruce would be members of all three groups, so they can all easily email to the groups as needed. (Each list would have two or three ‘managers’: Bruce and one or two office-bearers, e.g. LCCC’s engagement officer.)

  • Justification: Google Groups are much easier to maintain than MailChimp lists, while still being GDPR-proof. This is because there can be several managers for any Google group. Only the link to join the ‘externals’ group would be public (as the link to join the MailChimp list is now), so people self-enrolling would not need to be manually tagged.
  • Actual cost £0
    • Increased cost over current arrangement £0.
  • Alternative: stick with MailChimp, continuing to work around its inconveniences.

16.b.iii A domain

Costs in this section are for just the domain.

  • Bruce’s recommendation: move from 4UHosting to Ionos.
  • Justifications
    • Ionos provides great customer support, in my experience. (4UH is not unresponsive, though.)
    • By combining domain provision with email address provision, there would be less chance of the domain provider blaming the email address provider (or vice versa) for faults
  • Actual cost £1 + VAT (for the first year), £10 + VAT for subsequent years
  • Increased cost over current arrangement £6.

16.b.iv A WordPress-based website

  • Bruce’s recommendation: Stick with WordPress, but maybe move WordPress hosting to Ionos. Do not even think about moving to other platforms.
  • Justifications
    • WordPress just works, but our current deal only allows a limited set of plugins.
    • Ionos provides great customer support, in my experience.
    • By combining domain provision with WordPress hosting provision, there would be less chance of the domain provider blaming the email address provider (or vice versa) for faults
  • Actual cost £36 per year for the current arrangement
    • Increased cost over current arrangement £0.
  • Actual cost if moving to Ionos:
    • £48 + VAT for a deal that includes a domain (thus negating a separate domain cost) and 1 email address
      • Increased cost over current arrangement £38 + VAT
    • £96 + VAT per year for a deal that includes a domain (thus negating a separate domain cost) and 5 email addresses
      • Increased cost over current arrangement £86 + VAT
    • £144 + VAT per year for a deal that includes a domain (thus negating a separate domain cost) and 10 email addresses
      • Increased cost over current arrangement £134 + VAT

16.b.v Email addresses

  • Bruce’s recommendation: Move email address provision to Ionos
  • Justifications
    • LCCC needs email addresses for its office-bearers that can be inherited by successors. No CC (no organisation) should be using personal email accounts.
    • LCCC needs to get away from Microsoft costs and admin difficulties.
    • LCCC needs to escape Microsoft’s charges and terrible customer service.
  • Actual cost
    • minimum £12 + VAT per email address (limit of 2GB storage per address), if not using addresses provided with an Ionos WordPress package. This package is based on Ionos mailservers.
      • Decreased cost over current arrangement £200.
    • £48 + VAT per email address (limit of 12GB storage per address), if not using addresses provided with an Ionos WordPress package. This package is based on Ionos mailservers.
      • Decreased cost over current arrangement £0.
    • £96 + VAT per email address (limit of 50GB storage per address), if not using addresses provided with an Ionos WordPress package. This package is based on MS Exchange.
      • Increased cost over current arrangement £300.

16.b.vi Online/hybrid meetings

  • Bruce’s recommendations
    • Close LCCC’s Microsoft/Office 365 account.
    • If online/hybrid meetings are ever needed, use a Teams account belonging to a member, the free version of Zoom[1], GoogleMeet, FaceTime – anything but Teams!
  • Justifications
    • While current conditions prevail, LCCC does not need an online/hybrid meeting facility.
    • LCCC does not need the complexity (i.e. user-unfriendliness) of Teams.
    • Police etc rarely attend online meetings anyway.
    • Significantly reduced costs
  • Decreased cost over current arrangement £300.

[1] Free Zoom meetings are limited to 45 minutes, but this is more than enough for a remote presentation.