Tag: Rolling Update

RM congregation has now joined that of Marchmont St Giles to form Blackford and Grange Parish Church. There is no longer public worship in the RM Church. T he joint Kirk Sessions are now submitting a request that the Presbytery of Edinburgh and West Lothian, and the General Trustees of the Church of Scotland, review the initial decision to close / sell the Reid Memorial buildings. The RM halls will remain open through 2026.

However, the major question arises as to what comes next. An important neighbourhood and community venue is at risk. The local Scout and Guide groups, along with badminton, yoga, various musical groups and Mother and Toddler groups may well be unable to find alternative accommodation and they could also close.

It’s too early to say, but the call is out from a few RM members for local residents who have any ideas on what to do next. A ‘community buyout’ is one avenue – Bellfield Church in Portobello is a precedent – but that is a mighty undertaking. Mr William Ivory is Group Lead Volunteer with 85 th Braid Scout Group at RM and he is opening this conversation, on a blank page.

The important step now is to begin filling it in, with any sort of workable ideas or proposals whatsoever. Mr Ivory will likely move to convene a public meeting and we will keep you posted on that.

In the first instance, contact Mr Ivory at mailto:gsl85thbraid@tusks.org.uk if you are interested in this community project. Let me know too at secretary@grangeassociationcc.org.uk . GPCC will look to assist on this project as it can.

We launched the Voice on 1 December. Cori Schwabe (a GPCC member) is promoter, producer and editor. Across the Grange, Blackford, Mayfield, Newington, Waverley and Prestonfield neighbourhoods and communities we want to bring together news on what's happening, what's going on and what's up. What you share grows elsewhere! Make a start by scanning this mobile camera code:

The Astley Ainslie Local Place Plan has now been officially registered with the City of Edinburgh Council Planning Department. This is a significant milestone and means that the sponsoring Astley Ainslie Community Trust’s vision for the future of the Astley Ainslie site is now formally recognised within the city’s planning framework. The Plan ‘reflects priorities identified through community-led engagement and sets out aspirations around green space, heritage, wellbeing, and long-term public benefit’.

The full Local Place Plan can be viewed on website below. If you would like further information or would welcome a conversation about the Local Place Plan and what it means in practice, please get in touch with the Trust by contacting jillian.simon@aact.scot

Local Place Plan — Astley Ainslie Community Trust

An accurate source of information for the public and interested organisations regarding future, ongoing and past works on Scottish roads. What is happening where, and why, in the locality and beyond. See the Scotttish Road Wroks Register website here:

https://roadworks.scot/what-we-do/performance/scottish-road-works-register-srwr

This is the proposed large PBSA development encompassing the Causewayside Lads Institute. CEC Planning refused the developer’s planning application which included demolition of the existing building. The developer has taken the matter to the Scot Gov Planning and Environmental Appeals Division (DPEA). A DPEA Reporter ‘has been appointed to consider the matter’ and a decision will be issued ‘in due course’.

Here is a useful link to Scot Gov guidance on the planning appeals process: https://www.gov.scot/publications/planning-and-environmental-appeals-division-guidance-on-taking-part-in-planning-appeals-and-other-cases/

LPP are a core element of City Plan 2040. They are at the heart of an invitation from the Council to community groups to describe how and where they would foresee improvements to local place, space and amenity in their neighbourhoods. A local group 'Banzai', centred in Bruntsfield, is leading a LPP initiative across 'Bruntsfield, Merchiston, Marchmont and Sciennes'. You can read a full description of what they have in mind in the link below. Note the invitation to complete a survey and to attend a series of 'People's Assemblies' on 31 Jan, 28 Feb and 28 Mar.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1v8g8mNu9loq1oZkPsGZtUOLS_D8BTAWU/edit?usp=drive_link&ouid=114749827647976879977&rtpof=true&sd=true

There has been an expansion of the 'Voi' E-Bike 'active travel' facility in the GPCC area, notably around King's Buildings and up towards Marchmont. Some of the early site selections for 'bike bays' (made in conjunction with Council officers) look 'awkward'. I would point to the Grange Loan / Kilgraston Road junction as an example. There are others. We want the hire scheme to work. It is going to expand further. At the same time, pedestrian and road users have to be safeguarded from bike 'clutter' and bike 'abandonment'. Report 'incidents' in the first instance via this link: https://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/roads-travel-parking/cycle-hire-scheme . Contact GPCC with cases of repeated bike misuse. (The contact point is at the top of the page.)

Work on this LDP has to be in good part complete by 2028. It's of fundamental importance. The plan will help shape the city from top to bottom as it grows, expands, changes, adapts. On Saturday 17 January, at Cameron Toll, from midday into the afternoon, you can take a look at the outline ideas and themes. It is well-worth patching in to what is going to evolve here. Try this link: https://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/local-development-plan-guidance-1/city-plan-2040

A PBSA proposal for this site had recently been declined, and an application to permit demolition of the existing building on the site had been submitted.

GPCC, among others, had asked the Council to issue a Building Preservation Notice (BPN). We’ve now received a response from the Chief Planning Officer, David. Mr Givan.

The Council does not propose at this time to serve a BPN.

The ‘proposed demolition’ is held to be ‘development’, ‘not permitted development’ and is so denied. Therefore, the building cannot be demolished at this time’.

A BPN is in abeyance.

The current consultation on detailed project proposals closes on 12 January . The Council’s Active Travel programme has the immense challenge of making ‘room for all’ across the city’s roadways, cycleways and footpaths. The quandary invites pressures for ‘elbow room’. You will be interested in the 29 December release by Living Streets Edinburgh (LSE) of its response to the proposals for the Dundee Street Fountainbridge cycleway connection. The LSE report illustrates the inherent conflicts in many aspects of urban transport design. It shows how such tensions can spill into confected mobility ‘solutions’ which in some cases undermine agreed core principles (e.g. on pavement width) and in other cases reveal the worst of all worlds in the shape of ‘floating bus stops’. Here is the consultation link:

https://consultationhub.edinburgh.gov.uk/sfc/dundee-street-fountainbridge-active-travel/