City Centre Neighbourhood Partnership

Minutes of Clean and Green Sub Group

6:00 p.m., Thursday 4th February 2010

SNP Room, City Chambers

Attendance:Cllr David Beckett

Gordon Wylie, West End Community Council

David Hill, West EndChurches

Julie Logan, OldTown Community Council

Ron Dymond, Services for Communities

Dave Sinclair, Services for Communities

Claire Ironside, Services for Communities

Apologies: Janine Fawns, Services for Communities

Alan Dean, Services for Communities

Anne Casson, New Town & Broughton Community Council

Mark Stolarek, Lister Housing Co-op

Welcome and apologies

Apologies noted above

Minutes of previous meeting – 13 August 2010

Oxgangs Community Flat - DB advised that he had not visited the flat as yet but will update the group after his visit.

Action: DB to visit the Oxgangs Community Flat

Local Capital Programme – it was noted that there was a paper to be tabled under AOCB

Street cleaning/waste – DS to look into the supply of black bags for the old Town and New Town areas. It was also suggested that the next edition of Outlook could have an article included in it that suggested people should hang their black bags on the railings of their properties as to stop seagulls and fixes from ripping the bags open.

Action: DS to look into the supply of black bags

CI to look into running an article in Outlook

ENVAC – DS explained that the suggestion to use ENVAC as a means to remove waste in and around Princes Street was now no longer going to go ahead as it could not cope with glass.

Waste Update

DS explained that a report on containerisation went to TIE committee in Dec 09 and this sets the scene for our colleagues in Waste to start consulting with residents in the City Centre on the possible roll out of containers. He confirmed that there had been some discussion with Planning and Historic Scotland and that the next stage will be consultation with the residents.

GW stated that he was personally in favour of the bins but felt that his local Community Council would not approve. He also said that he felt that the design and look of the bins were extremely important and he thought that it may be acceptable if the bins were more elegant in design. He also suggested that any bins should be emptied sufficiently often to avoid them smelling and over flowing.

DH concurred with the view of the potential mess that could develop around the bins and raised the issue that no one seems to have responsibility to clean it up after the bin has been emptied.

JL said that therecent containerised trials in the OldTown appeared to have worked well especially on Cranston Street. She suggested that a possible location for under ground bins could be under the arches on Market Street which would be directly below Jeffrey Street. She also stated that JeffreyStreetmay be a possible area to trial the containers as they were fed up of the black bags being ripped open by seagulls. She suggested that DS could contact John Thompson to discuss the possibility of a trial on the street.

Action: DS to contact John Thompson to discuss possible trial location

JL also stated that recycling facilities in the closes would be welcomed, inparticular facilities to recycle glass. She acknowledged that some people have concerns over the potential noise that may arise from such facilities but residents may accept it depending on the location of the facility. She suggested that potential locations for recycling were the space under the bridge on Market Streetand next to the Canongate Venture.

Action: DS to look into both suggestions and report back at the next meeting

National Spring Clean

DS explained that he was looking for suggestions of areas to take part in the National Spring Clean. DB stated that he felt that it would be good to aim for one clean up per Community Council area. CI agreed to circulate an email out to all the Community Councils asking for clean up suggestions and volunteers to get involved in the programme of clean ups.

Action: CI to email Community Councils re clean ups suggestions and for volunteers

JL said that she thought the idea of the clean ups was good but she would also like to see bins on New Street/Calton Road. It was agreed that DS would investigate.

Action: DS to look into getting new bins for New Street/Calton Road

DBrequested information on the clean ups so that he could hand it out when he was meeting the students at his regular monthly.

Action: CI to forward clean up info to DB once prepared

Priorities for 2010

Green Flag – DS explained that each neighbourhood is committed to putting a forward a park for a green flag assessment and the City Centre had decided to put forward LondonRoadGardens. He also mentioned that on the 18th Feb there would be a half day event for stakeholders regarding the development of the Management Plan for Calton Hill. DS confirmed that at present the City Centre has no parks that have been assessed as meeting the Green Flag criteria.

Appearance Matters – CI outlined a number of topics that will be addressed this year. It ranged from tackling graffiti, developing a smoking strategy as well as the roll out of the performance monitoring system GLEAMs. CI confirmed that were also looking into the possibility of a graffiti wall within the centre as the one at Potterrow was going to be coming down shortly and there was concern that this may lead to an explosion of graffiti in the city centre.

Neighbourhood Agreement – CI explained that she was looking to develop Neighbourhood Agreements for the city centre. She explained the end product would be a joint statement that would be worked up by between the Neighbourhood Team and for example a Community Council and it would set out what the Council would do in the area and also what local residents would do i.e report fly tipping etc. She also explained that a similar document could be worked up with local traders associations. She went on to state that she was looking for volunteers to work up the draft Neighbourhood Agreement.

Action: CI to prepare a draft proposal for discussion at the next meeting

Carbon Club – DS explained that the idea behind the carbon club is to carry out a health check on the amount of carbon that we produce. As the Council is a major service provider in the city he thought it would be a good idea to track the amount of carbon that we produce and set out some steps to reduce the amount.

Action: DS to work up a proposal for discussion at the next meeting.

At this point in the meeting DB asked about progress with seagull proof bags for the City Centre. DS explained that our colleagues in waste were willing to work with us on a trial but it was unlikely to progress any further due to the current work to rule situation. GW stated that he did not think that the seagull proof bags were the answer to the problem and he preferred the solution of black bags being hung on the railings. DB stated that a commitment had been made to carry out a trial of the bags and he wanted an update on this at the next meeting.

Action: DS to contact colleagues in waste to see if they would carry out a trial

At this point of the meeting JL asked to discuss the Council paper on Greening of Development sites. She understands the Council’s position re having no money to fund this work but there was a £100k bond in place for the site at New Street to cover the cost of temporary landscaping. She went to explain that SOOT had already offered to work with the Council on a proposal for the site. JL stated that the bond could be accessed either via Planning or by the Neighbourhood Partnership. .

DB suggested that at the next Neighbourhood Partnership meeting a motion could be tabled asking that the money should be drawn down and used to temporary landscape the site. CI also explained that the report was not discussed at a Partnership meeting but instead it was discussed at the Partnership Board meeting. The reason for the change was that at the December Neighbourhood partnership meeting it was agreed to try and make the Partnership meetings less formal and more interactive andthis would mean that a lot of the papers that were usually forwarded for discussion at the meetingwere now being discussed at the Partnership Board meeting.

7.AOCB

GW raised the issue of party flats and explained that he had now received advice that these properties were treated as businesses and any matters/issues relating to them should be taken up with the Procurator Fiscal. DB asked that someone from Planning should be invited to attend the next Neighbourhood Partnership meeting to discuss this issue. He also stated that he was aware that Mike Penny, Neighbourhood Manager was looking into the issue.

Action: DS to contact a representative from Planning to attend the next Neighbourhood Partnership meeting

DS tabled a paper on the capital roads programme, he explained that each Neighbourhood Partnership received 100k to fund schemes that would not be on the normal capital list. DB asked why we were not given any options to select a programme of works from as it was his understanding that was the process that was being taken in other neighbourhoods. DS explained that the focus had been concentrated on schemes that could be delivered in the area considering design team availability and possible conflicts with Tram works. DB asked DS to look at the original list of schemes and prepare a report for the next meeting explaining whythey have been removed from the list. He also stated that it was the role of the group to discuss and agree future capital programmes.

Action: DS to prepare a paper for the next meeting re the capital programme

Lastly there was a discussion about the potential use of bollards at the entrance at Old Fishmarket Close as a mechanism to stop vehicles entering the pedestrian area. Both JL and GW stated that they had concern over blocking up the city centre streets.

8.Date of Next Meeting

6:00 p.m. Thursday 25th March 2010, SNP Room, City Chambers