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DRAFT MINUTES OF MERCHISTON COMMUNITY COUNCIL MEETING HELD ON TUESDAY 18 MARCH 2008 AT 7.00PM CHAIRPERSON’S
WELCOME Bridget Stevens welcomed everyone present,
including Cllrs. Alison Johnstone, Mark McInnes, Gordon Buchan, Andrew Burns
and Paul Godzik; Ian Doig, Kay Smith, Robin Morris, Frances Hawarden, Mairiannia
Clyde, William Mykura, John and Belinda Lennie and around 30 members of the
general public. Presentation
followed by a discussion on “How Planners Make Decisions” introduced by Nancy
Jamieson, Group Leader, Development Management Planning Service, The City of
Edinburgh Council She
outlined that planning was carried out at two levels; regional, and local. The
regional level is directed by the Structure Plan and the local level is
directed by the Local Plan. New developments have to be in accordance with
‘permitted development’ in these plans. Planners
check the application to see that all necessary paperwork and information is
supplied by the applicant to enable planners to make an informed judgement
about the proposed impact of the development. Proposals
are occasionally found to be deficient and are returned to applicants for
re-submission. Neighbour Notification is currently the applicant’s
responsibility and is simultaneous with the submission of plans. (This will change with the new 2006 Planning
Act. The Planning Department will in future be responsible for Neighbour
Notification). So it can happen that there are delays between Neighbour
Notification and the actual submission of correct paperwork and eventual
consideration of the proposed development by planners or the Planning
Committee. Other criteria relevant to neighbours are: ·
USE ·
DESIGN (new; last decade) ·
SUSTAINABILITY (new) ·
AMENITY There
are Planning guidelines on noise too, issued by the Scottish Executive and
enforced by Environmental Health. If
three or more objections are received from neighbours, the decision must be
referred to the Planning Committee, at which elected representatives including
ward councillors have a say. The recent proposal for 6b Those
interested in the details will find the presentation material gives a very good
overview of the current planning process within the City Council. A
lively question and answer session followed the presentation. Much
of it involved concerns over the approval of construction of new domestic
residences within conservation areas such as Merchiston. It was felt that more
attention should be paid to the impact of modern design in nineteenth century
villa settings. This does not imply criticism of modern design as such, but its
appropriateness in different site contexts. David
Rintoul (Tollcross CC) raised the rumour that HBOS had expressed an interest in
siting a new HQ complex within the Fountainbridge area marked for
re-development. Nancy replied that if
this were the case, any decision to allow HBOS to proceed would probably be
dealt with by the Scottish Executive. A
member of the audience referred to the existence of a third party right of
appeal in the Irish Republic, saying that he believed this right had had an
improving effect on both the quality of development applications, and the
degree of pre-application consultations. Bridget
thanked 3Ms
Café Project Elizabeth
Myles-Geddes explained that for the past two months she had been employed,
part-time, in a project to develop the proposed 3Ms Café. She spoke of its
future development and said that suitable premises were still being sought. A
survey had been conducted amongst local residents asking for their opinion on
this worthwhile project. 1.0
Apologies for Absence Alison
Elwell-Sutton, Jim Geekie, Ann Royden, PC Alan Hopper, Cllr Marilyne Maclaren 2.0
Minutes of last
Meeting
held on 19th February 2008 were circulated Mairianna
Clyde was thanked for producing these Minutes, the adoption of which was then
proposed by Frances Hawarden. 3.0
Matters Arising CPZ
development referred to under AOB below 4.0
REPORTS i.
Police Report In
the absence of PC Alan Hopper, the following are points of interest emerging
from a memo he sent to Bridget: Insp.
Tom Galbraith has moved and as of mid March will work from Fettes HQ within the
police Diversity Unit. Insp.
Richard Horan will take over from Insp. Galbraith. There
had been a robbery at Scotmid, Warrender Pk Rd in March and the police are
following a ‘positive line of enquiry’. There
has been a rise in break -ins (in barbers and hairdressers shops) in the centre
of Edinburgh by thieves looking for petty cash. In view of this, security advice has been made
available and a leaflet drop has been carried out. With
regards to youth/alcohol problems, a plain clothes operation has been carried
out in the Bruntsfield/Marchmont area. A
speed check was carried out by use of a hand held radar (speed gun) in
Merchiston Avenue and Spylaw Road. In
both cases speeds of numerous vehicles were recorded - with no offences
detected. In future, if residents
believe there are speeding issues, they should contact PC Hooper and he will
request further speed checks. For
all issues that cause concern, contact PC Hopper at St. Leonards 0131 662 5022. Mairianna
Clyde has agreed to take the lead in the Planning Group. John
Lennie had investigated this application. The proposal to insert 2, two-storey residences
into a space currently occupied by 1 one-storey building not only looks too
ambitious in principle in a site of this size, but the re- positioning of the
new building would greatly increase the shadow cast over the garden of
neighbours to the north. The proposal
also appears to contravene some Villa Policy guidelines, in particular those
referring to boundary walls. . A
neighbour present at the meeting, mentioned that a wall had already been taken
down. The
wall in question is the south boundary wall of the site which separates the
site area from a large villa in 10a
A
further application has been submitted, which introduces an amended proposal
for a boundary wall and gate to separate the access to the garage owned by No.
10 Greenhill Park from the remainder of the property. This amended proposal recognises the
difficulty which the original application would have caused the occupants of
No. 10, but only to a minimum extent. Immediate
neighbour Mrs Russell would appreciate any support which MCC could give in
obtaining an improvement to the amended proposal. Napier
University have submitted an application for a wind turbine on the
roof of their Merchiston
Tennis/Bowling Club Alastair
Cant spoke of the proposed flood lighting of the tennis courts at the above
club. It was also proposed to re-surface
the existing blaize courts with astro turf. The
proposed flood lighting would be restricted to no later than 9.00pm. Mr Cant would come back to MCC when the
planning application was ready for submission. iii.
Licensing Robin
Morris stated that the Licensing Board is now smaller and more effective. He
advised that he had been elected to the new CEC Licensing Forum last summer as
a one of five community/residents representatives out of a total of 18 members.
The other members of the forum represent
the licensed trade, police, legal profession etc. There have been three meetings of this Forum
to date, and a delayed meeting with the CEC Licensing Board is to take place on
14/4/08. Unfortunately as meetings are on Monday mornings, and one of the
community/residents members has died, sometimes Robin has been the only community
rep there, which is very disappointing. He
has copy of the Minutes of all the meetings which
can be made available to anyone interested. They are also accessible on the CEC website. Elections
for the new Forum (up to 20 members) from June 2008 will take place shortly,
and it is suggested that one community/residents representative each should now
come from the six Parliamentary constituencies in David Rintoul (Tollcross CC)
agreed that the new Licensing Board is more effective, but he did not agree
with the suggestion that election to the chair should be on a different basis. iv Treasurer’s Report circulated MCC
have sent St Michael’s Church an ex
gratia donation towards cost of heating their hall for our February meeting. £100
has been allocated for website development, in addition to the considerable
work Ann Royden has done Eric
Liddell Centre now charges £48.86 per evening for the use of the Chapel. MCC
are most grateful to Bridget
thanked v.
Chair’s Report Meetings/Events
attended by Bridget on behalf of MCC
Minutes
are available of all formal meetings. Papers
relating to City Council meetings can be found at http://www.Edinburgh.gov.uk In
addition to the above, MCC’s Planning group, Web Group and Agenda Group, plus
other ad hoc groupings of members, continue to hold regular, informal meetings
to discuss any action required between public MCC meetings Changes
to Controlled Parking Zone S3 Cllr.
Mark McInnes explained that on 30th November 2007 the Council had
written to the MCC informing them that there would be a statutory consultation process
before any changes were made to the CPZ. The implementation date for the changes was
now imminent but there had been no consultation. Ian
Doig and Bridget Stevens, on behalf of the MCC, had raised this at the last South Central Neighbourhood Partnership
meeting. Cllr McInnes, the NP convenor,
proposed an urgent meeting between the City Council and local residents to
allow them to express their opposition to the changes in person. Once a date for the meeting has been set, the
MCC will notify local residents. HMOs
.
This
too was an issue which had been raised by Bridget Stevens at the SCNP. It was understood that the question of
introducing a quota system for the granting of HMO licences had been dismissed
by the Chair of the Regulatory Committee recently as something in which he maintained
the public was not interested. MCC believes that there is considerable
interest in the question and that feelings are strongly felt, for and against
the introduction of a quota system. Through
the Neighbourhood Partnership, MCC was seeking a meeting with the Chair of
Regulatory Committee on this subject. Cllr McInnes explained that, whilst the
Planning Committee had already implemented a new policy on sensitive areas, the
Regulatory Committee, which is responsible for HMO’s of 3 to 5 people, does not
at present have such a policy. Miranda
Harvey, 6.00 Date
of Next Meeting Tuesday
20th May -AGM at The Eric Liddell Centre, Holy Corner |
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