HOUSING AND THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT ACTION GROUP
ACTION NOTES – 22 OCTOBER 2009
No. / Item / Notes / Action1 / Attendance and Apologies / Attended: Nicky Sherry, Katie Ward, Jim Scanlon, Sgt. John Griffiths, Alan Birnie, Ruth Stanley, Alastair Tibbitt, Stuart Blaik.
Apologies: Helen Phillips, Steven Cuthill, Mark Rodgers, Loraine Duckworth, Matt Wheatley
2 / Action Notes of Previous Meeting / Accepted as correct record
3 / Matters Arising / CCTV was debated but the group agreed to go with the existing system as it carries no future revenue costs. The group would be interested in a visit to the CCTV centre monitoring facility if one could be arranged. / Loraine Duckworth
4 / Fort House / Marjory Wilson, POLHA, advised that at the beginning of October, CEC agreed to demolish 157 flats. Demolition is due fro 2012/13. POLHA will be involved in rehousing many of the residents. They are building in Western Harbour and this is an opportunity for rehousing.
Plans were shown for the Western Harbour site where thousands of houses will be built over the next 20 years. 102 units at Newhaven Place are being built now (7 blocks in a quadrangle, 1,2, and 3 bedroom properties, 18 1 bedroom properties, 8 with wheelchair access and 16 amenity properties for the over 50s. All ground properties are main door. Ground source heat pumps for all ground floor properties and will have no heating bills. Handover is due from January to June 2010. The internal quadrangle will be designed when all the tenants are in, taking their views into account (e.g. play equipment for which ages?)
POLHA wish to help in putting facilities in place for youth. E.g. having the mobile football pitch in the area regularly.
Alastair Tibbitt e-mailed POLHA about cycle storage in the back green.
Tenants are selected through an assessment process, including one-to-one appointments with Fort House tenants to discuss their housing needs. Tenants who have lived in Fort House the longest will be given the highest priority.
Estate management will be a high priority. There will be a money advice worker and a designated housing officer.
POLHA would be keen to involve police in the final design stages to design out some of the issues that could arise.
Fort owners have met Katie Ward to discuss their options. They have high common charges at present, so are happy to be relieved of that. / Marjory Wilson
5 / Projects Update / Coalhill Phase 2 – Walls in, trees in and fencing ordered.
Pirniefield Bank play area – drawings require alterations by Halcrow – no cost to CEC.
New Projects:
Easter Road – Cycle way, path and chicanes. Estimated cost is £15,445. The project is to upgrade the area. A site visit will be done to ensure everyone is happy. Agreed.
McDonald Road – temporary pinch point. There is now a proper design. It would cost £1,000 to put in temporary barriers until the permanent design is put in place in late 2010. Agreed.
Proposed projects:
Trees at Lorne area streets. Some work was done to remove guards and more work intended to improve the condition of the trees. Some guards to be removed in Balfour Street. If Steven Cuthill’s team haven’t been able to carry out the remainder of work, this could be done by NEP. Alan has not had a chance to discuss costings with Steven but this could be around £15,000. Costs could be split across 2 years. Phase 1 would be carried out in this financial year with phase 2 immediately after in the new financial year, with no gap. Agreed that Alan should have costings for next meeting in January, ready to start in February.
Coalie Park – a project to prevent parking in this area, which is not a car park. Ask the Roads team to start a TRO proves, which will take about 18 months. Look at which budget it comes from later. Bollards could be put in to prevent parking, or a lockable barrier. Jon Griffiths will ask local CBO to speak to car owners to suggest they shouldn’t park there. / Alan Birnie
Alan Birnie
Alan Birnie
Alan Birnie
Alan Birnie
Alan Birnie
6 / Police and Community Safety Update / · Crime down, but youth calls up.
· Housebreaking down and solvency up.
· Vandalism has had a low solvency rate, but it is generally hard to catch them. May dedicate 2 officers to this.
· Youth hotspots – Giles St, Sandport Place, Hermitage Park.
· Adult drinkers at Water of Leith. Stuart Blaik advised that drinkers have returned to Dalmeny Park.
· Ruth Stanley met with the Temporary Accommodation team to discuss management of B&Bs.
· Sex workers – there is to be a joint meeting between Council, police, elected members and politicians. Date to be arranged.
· Pedal cycles – thefts are up across the city. Symtom of the popularity of cycling and lack of safe parking places. NAU are doing a preventative exercise and will be using Bluetooth to send out a message to phones nearby.
· Lots of daytime break-ins to flats at the waterfront.
· Bonfire nighte – NAU doing visits to shops with Trading Standards. Extra resources put in for the night – concierges and sommunity safety officers removing unsafe bonfires and checking on safety.
· Graffiti is bad on Dalmeny Street. Many tags on Leith Walk – definitely one tagger. Police officer will look at this. / Jonathan Griffiths
7 / Leith Links Masterplan / Project Group is meeting on 30 October 2009. / Martin MacAulay
8 / Leith Neighbourhood Partnership / Loraine will give update at the next meeting. / Loraine Duckworth
9 / Leith Town Centre / Regeneration Fund – First round of funding was unsuccessful. A bid is ready for the second round for Leith Walk which consists of repainting all the shop fronts on Leith Walk that request it, exploring options of establishing a business hub to support existing and new businesses, dressing and branding vacant units to detract from fly-posting and working with Edinburgh World Heritage to re-establish heritage features in Elm Row. The Leith Walk bid was merged with the initial Leith Central bid and submitted jointly. We should find out if the bid has been successful in November. Total value of bid is £630,000, plus £200,000 of match funding from Heritage Lottery Funding.
Stuart Blaik advised that he is happy with what is happening but 214 Leith Walk (old rubber mill) is derelict and nothing is happening. He is raising this with his community council. There was a similar issue with the former janitor’s house at Leith Walk primary school. CEC got in touch with the owner and they are now doing work. Could the same be done?
Leith Townscape Heritage Initiatie Stage 2 report – noted. See 3.7 – Is there money for this? Group to be e-mailed. / Martin MacAulay
Martin MacAulay
Loraine Duckworth
10 / Any Other Business / Alastair Tibbit advised that a feasibility study for a hydroelectric screw on the Water of Leith is being done.
Alasdair Tibbit advised that South Edinburgh have put funding into cycle hoops – they attach to sign post at a cost of £250 each. NEP to put in 20 in Easter Road, Leith Walk etc. – Form to be submitted. This would need to come from Roads funding. This helps to stop bikes being parked in inappropriate places. Alasdair will send a web-link. Could match funding be given by TIE?
Alastair advised that £20,000 funding has been secured for design work for the cycle path from Portobello to Leith Links. CEC Roads Dept. are doing the design. / Alastair Tibbitt
Alastair Tibbitt
Alan Birnie
11 / Next Meeting Dates / Thursday, 14 January 2010
Thursday, 18 March 2010
Thursday, 13 May 2010