June’s meeting centred on one roundabout in particular – the one in Groathill Road North. Drylaw Telford community councillors are unhappy about the money that was spent on ‘environmental improvements’ to this roundabout and the meeting on 27 June was an attempt to resolve the dissatisfaction.
The saga began last year when Inverleith Neighbourhood Partnership’s NEP (Neighbourhood Environment Programme) allocated almost £13,000 to make environmental improvements to the roundabout, which was then surrounded by fencing. It was decided that the fencing was no longer required and that the money should be used to remove the fencing and to landscape the roundabout.
Drylaw Telford Community Association (Drylaw Neighbourhood Centre’s management committee) successfully bid to manage the piece of work, but four contractors later the roundabout is looking sadder than ever.
Drylaw Neighbourhood Centre worker Thomas Brown joined local Roads Manager Neil MacFarlane at last month’s meeting to establish what had gone wrong and to forge a new road ahead (!)
The main problem identified by the Community Council was that the design for the roundabout planting was not of acceptable quality. Neil McFarlane said that the design had been produced by Drylaw Neighbourhood Centre’s Gardening Group and that the Council will not accept responsibility for the roundabout’s maintenance as the original project is considered to be unfinished.
Thomas Brown said that there had been problems with contractors almost since the very beginning of the project, and the current contractor was the fourth to take on the work.
After a discussion it was agreed that a report will go Inverleith Neighbourhood Partnership when contractors finish remedial work next month. In the meantime a small working group of community councillors, Drylaw Neighbourhood Centre staff and council officers will look at reworking the landscaping design to come up with practical, low maintenance – and affordable – alternative before the council takes ownership of the site in August.
Neil MacFarlane said: “This was the first scheme in Inverleith where local people actually did the work and delivered the scheme. We have got to learn lessons from this project as we do not want to make the same mistakes again”.
Drylaw Telford Community Council chair Alex Dale said: “It’s clear that mistakes have been made, but what’s in the past is past – it’s time to move forward and to try to resolve this”.
In other business, Councillor Nigel Bagshaw reported that he had been able to establish a list of all the owners of premises in Drylaw Shopping Centre. The dilapidated state of the shopping centre has been a concern for the community council for many months now – leaking canopies, run-down shop fronts and cracked and broken footways have been raised consistently at meetings over the last year. Now, with a list of current owners, the community council hopes to work with Inverleith councillors and local shopkeepers to improve the local shopping area.
There was also a flying visit from Mike Clark, who stepped down as chair last month. Mike was presented with a token of appreciation by Alex Dale (above, pic John Stuart).
Drylaw Telford Community Council has a month off now and doesn’t meet again until Wednesday 29 August at 7pm in Drylaw Neighbourhood Centre. As always, all welcome.