Blue sky thinking: Granton Improvement Society calls for real community planning
The idea of “community regeneration” certainly is not new but at this time in Scotland, with new Scottish government legislation on Community Empowerment, the time is now better than ever before for communities to take more control of assets. We can shape our community involving all who live, work and play within it. Now that would be real community regeneration!
Politicians talk about regeneration but do they deliver? What does that mean for the residents of North Edinburgh? We have a badly needed housing development in Muirhouse but without complementary services. The rest of the locality is left to decay with budget cuts making it harder for politicians (the council) to regenerate the larger area.
The people of the area know what is needed to regenerate their environment and it is not just housing. The Granton on Sea project can be the corner stone of such development. A project that provides benefits across a wide spectrum of issues that have been unresolved over the past 20 years – even though the area was designated as a major regeneration area within the City of Edinburgh.
A community regeneration project requires the assets of the community to be in total, outright ownership of that community: this is not in place.
Why then, when Scottish government policy is to transfer assets to communities have EDI, chaired by Councillor Frank Ross who is also convenor of the Economic Development committee, denied the project Granton on Sea the opportunity to begin one of Scotland’s largest and most ambitious regeneration plans?
The EDI Finance Director and Waterfront manager both recommended that Granton Improvement Society be given a two year period where it would fully develop the project with the Lottery’s Growing Community Assets unit. After eighteen months it would begin to provide employment, training, tourism opportunities, visitors and more economic benefits to North Edinburgh.
How will the project bring benefit?
The acquisition of the land by the Granton Improvement Society will see the development of 54 luxury houses stopped and replaced with an International Garden Festival and create artisan studios in green space on the adjoining plot of land.
The proposal will provide upwards of 100 permanent full time and part-time jobs, training and education in horticulture and other professions and trades. It will be an opportunity for local people to start up business in affordable workspaces. The unique visitor attraction of the International Garden Festival where each year it is different will ensure returning visitors to the project. That influx of tourists both national and international will see their spending retained in the local economy.
The real main benefit that the Granton on Sea project will bring is a local charity The Granton Improvement Society, whose main objective is the regeneration of the North Edinburgh area. It will manage the income from the artisan village and the Garden Festival for the benefit of other projects throughout the North Edinburgh area.
What do we need from you, the community?
This community has waited for regeneration benefits for decades with the community being told that the benefits are coming, this has clearly not happened. We are not giving up! We are asking you to join the Granton Improvement Society and create a place for people to live work and play!
Application forms for the Granton Improvement Society can be downloaded at
https://grantonimprovementsociety.wordpress.com/
and are available from the secretary, email
info@grantonimprovementsociety.org
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It is surely better to have the Granton Improvement Society as the Anchor Regeneration Charity for North Edinburgh, assisting the community directly by devising, delivering and expanding on projects such as the proposed Granton on Sea project for the historic walled garden site. Currently owned by EDI, an arms length development company for the City, this garden was previously owned by John Smith and run as a market garden and before that the site was the grounds of Royston Castle which no longer stands. At present, this garden and other sites in the area lie derelict and abandoned. Visualising how the area could be from a perspective which is not purely driven by commercial factors is often the missing link in so many regeneration proposals. The Granton Improvement Society. The Granton Improvement Society endeavour to be proactive by taking a holistic approach with an understanding that housing, shopping and health centres alone, although essential, cannot make a place. People make a place along with the physical attributes of the surroundings. In this aspect Granton and North Edinburgh generally has much to offer. GIS is working hard to form a base to be proactive from, and to relocate from the Pilton Community Association where they currently have an office to a larger space where they can undertake a wider scoping exercise of the area where the GIS intend to create a new and robust People & Place centered Vision for North Edinburgh. This can only come about with the positive input of local people. We need your support. We want your ideas and your direct input. We wish to know your skills, ambitions, needs and desires so that we can build up a wish list for the local area. This will help GIS form a blueprint that can be discussed as part of the planning process which is essential to the progression of any built proposal and to make funding applications to various sources to take People & Place Vision of the area forward as part of a phased development plan for the area. Of course GIS need to be recognised by the City of Edinburgh Council as having the capacity to do such work. Did the last organisations such as North Edinburgh Trust NET deliver for you? The Granton Improvement Society believe we can do better, a lot better, a whole lot better, and we have been working towards this for quite some time already in a voluntary capacity. Let us try to offer another approach that local people can genuinely be part of if they choose to be. Our first aim is to help local people. Our wider aim is to attract national and international visitors to the area. Regeneration happens everywhere else, why not this part of Edinburgh?