Minutes 18th January 2024

CRAMOND & BARNTON COMMUNITY COUNCIL

Incorporating Cramond, Barnton, Cammo & Quality Street (West)

Minutes of Meeting held on Thurs 18th January 2024 in

Cramond Kirk Millennium Hall

Present: Sally Chalmers (Chair), Ian Williamson (Secretary), Dianne Stein, Hamish Barrie, John Howison, Michael Dick, Robert Bruce, Gena Wyle and Percy Feketey. Also in attendance, Councillor Lousie Young and 4 members of the community. 

Apologies: Apologies included John Loudon enjoying a well-earned holiday and Peter Scott, who had undergone an operation on his broken ankle earlier in the day. The Community Council agreed that the best of wishes should be sent to Peter for a full and speedy recovery.

James Hancock was also not in attendance having resigned as he and his family were relocating to Devon. Again, all best wishes were to be extended to him and his family along with special thanks to James for his work on the Cramond Foreshore Project and in his pursuit of remedies to the road safety issues at Braepark Road. Apologies were noted from Councillors Lang, Younie and Work.

Sally Chalmers as Acting Chair welcomed those attending especially those members of the public, some of those who were attending for the first time.

Police Report

A late prompt chasing the police report had not secured the January report in time for the meeting. It would be circulated in due course.

Development of Local Place Plans and Place Based Investment Funds

In Peter’s absence, discussion on these two items was postponed. However, it was confirmed that the Community Council is in favour of developing a Local Place plan, notwithstanding the fact that it is a onerous task. Considerations about the Fund were linked into these Plan considerations.

Update On Various Issues

The substance of these issues are covered in the Report. However, some additional points were made. On the application regarding the Herringbone restaurant, Peter Scott had drafted a reply, the substance of which is recorded in the report. It was commented that social media reported significant support for such a new restaurant.

There were concerns about the existing parking pressures and the added pressures that might arise. There were mixed views on the scope of outside seating given the constraints of the street frontage. One comment questioned the need for the restaurant given the recent approval of an application for a bistro on the old Bank of Scotland site. However, market forces would decide.

In conclusion, it was agreed that Peter’s response should be issued but while it should highlight concerns about the scope of outside seating, it should not seek the removal of such an amenity. It should, however, stipulate the need for planning officers and transport officers to discuss the application against the background of developing transport plans covering the locality. Related to this, Councillor Young agreed to find out when a traffic survey had last been conducted. (NB: A few days after the meeting, the CBCC received notification that the restaurant application had been withdrawn.).

Turnhouse Road

On the proposed storage park at Turnhouse Road, Peter Scott was waiting for answers from the developer on the details of what was in prospect. The secretary expressed his view about the scale of the potential volume of traffic that looked to be destined for Craigs Road between Turnhouse Road and Maybury Road. The planned bus gate at the southern end of Turnhouse Road would require all private and commercial vehicles to exit along Craigs Road.

The secretary explained the rationale behind the 10 issues offered as topical discussion matters for future EACC meetings. The Secretary of the EACC had asked for suggestions regarding future meetings, especially when these began to get back to meetings in the City Chambers.

It was agreed that all 10 issues had merit and while all should be offered to the EACC some prioritisation of the top 5 or 6 may be better received by the Secretary. Members were asked to offer their prioritisation of the issues.

Councillor Young advised that Councillor Younie continued to try to press SG Energy Networks for a more reassuring response to the concerns about the incident of the open inspection cover in Cramond. The programme for replacing inspection covers was rolling out to priorities that were not going to see communities such as Cramond attended to for some considerable time yet.

Cramond Campus

Sally Chalmers referred to notes that John Loudon had provided. John had brought his concerns about the scale and height of the residential development proposals to the WG meeting on 27 November 2023. The latest AMA report of 10 January confirmed that the project was now moving into the design and planning stages. AMA expects to develop the sporting facilities in the first phase of any work. Carlton Planning was to lead on the development aspects; PMR on the sporting and recreational elements. It was agreed that the CBCC should seek to secure a further public meeting as soon as possible to ensure community discussion of the plans before submission of the PAN.

There will be a further working group meeting prior to the submission of the PAN and design development and discussion with planners will be held. We have been assured this will be very soon. Penny Lochhead has asserted that “everyone will see the plans and have the opportunity to comment on everything before anything is lodged with the planners.”. This needs to be soon (Feb/March) otherwise, it is too far into the PAN process for real change to be possible.”

Sally reported that the latest AMA update had sparked little interest on social media. Contamination of the site remained an issue of concern requiring attention, given that much of the remaining land was to be used for sporting and recreational purposes. The secretary reported that he had witnessed an unmarked lorry of the type used for clearing drains, etc. parked up adjacent to the hoarding on the north side of the site. This was confirmed by one of the members.

It was claimed that the scale of the potential development on the remaining part of the site remained a matter of concern. A concern was expressed that the outcome of further residential development on the remaining undeveloped portion of the site was unrecognisable from the original commitment to playing fields and a pavilion. Councillor Young responded that the emerging plans were receiving support of 80% from the public. She agreed that a public meeting in February with a presentation from PMR would offer a deep dive into the details of the plans.

Edinburgh Airport

Dianne Stein offered an update.

There was much speculation around about the sale of the airport; a number of venture capitalists were understood to be interested. Dianne stated that it was not expected to impact the operation of the airport.

The number of night flights had tapered down in recent weeks, although it was recognised that these would ramp up as we moved towards the summer season.

The airport had run a number of workshops designed to help improve the understanding of the various laypersons who held positions on Committees. Dianne had recently attended one on noise management.

There were regular Community Funding initiatives albeit the numbers of applications always exceeded the funding available, leaving many disappointed applicants. The Sick Kids Hospital had received a generous award. One from the CC area had been rejected and a question was raised about the criteria as the Sick Kids Hospital, although a worthy cause, cannot be viewed as a community initiative. Dianne undertook to inquire about the criteria used.

On the concerns about de-icing run-off and pollution of the Gogarburn, Dianne said that SEPA had been assessing the matter. Dianne said she would try to obtain a copy of the report.

At the last meeting, Councillor Lang had undertaken to obtain information on the number of flights operating, including a breakdown to show scheduled night flights. It was noted that this information should also seek to breakdown the flights for the coming season/year. One lady commented that the disruption to her was such that she did not attempt to settle down to sleep until after a 1:00am flight had passed and was invariably woken by another at 4:00am. Councillor Young said she would check with Councillor Lang as to whether he had received the flight data from the airport.

It was again emphasised that the airport had various mechanisms by which people could raise complaints/concerns. There were very few coming from the local community.

It was noted that a substantive discussion was to be held at the March CC meeting and that that should be used as the forum at which to strive to ascertain exactly what the attitude of the community was the Airport, the flightpath, night flights, noise, etc.

Councillors Report

Councillor Young said that the Transport and Environment Committee were due to meet w/c 22 January at which meeting it was expected to receive recommendations concerning the proposed subsidised Cammo Meadows bus service.

AOB

Gena Wylie said that as she would be unavailable for the next, February, meeting, she would move to finalise the Annual Accounts. Members seeking to reclaim any expenses should let her have the details urgently. She also advised that a small grant earmarked for the Quarterly Update needed to be spent by the end of March

Date of Next Meeting

Thursday 18 January 2024