community engagement – Page 33 – The NEN

Communities: get stuck in to the Big Lunch!

The Big Lunch encourages Scots to get numbers climbing and boost community spirit!

Organisers of the UK’s annual get-together for neighbours are calling for at least 10% of Scots to get stuck into a day of food, friendship and fun on Sunday 7 June.

The call to action was launched on Thursday – the ‘100 days to go’ mark before the big day. It is hoped that millions of neighbours across the UK will again be getting together in an effort to boost community spirit where they live. A massive 4.83 million people took part in the lottery funded initiative in 2014.

Emily Watts, Communications Manager for The Big Lunch in Scotland encouraged more people in Scotland to get involved this year. She said: “C’mon Edinburgh! We want to see the number of people taking part in Scottish communities climbing to 10% of the population. Year on year, feedback from previous participants is very positive, with people feeling more connected to their communities after a Big Lunch. People start new relationships that continue after the day too.

“We know Scots are friendly but we all recognise the feeling that we could make more effort with our neighbours. The Big Lunch is an excuse to chap the door and ask if they’d like to get together.”

The Big Lunch, partnered by Halifax and ASDA, is now in its seventh year. Big Lunches can be big or small, take place on a street, park or community venue and be as simple and inexpensive as you like. There are no rules to getting involved besides that people are the key ingredient!

In 2014, thousands of communities from all across the country took part in the big event. Lou, who organized her street’s first ever Big Lunch street party in Edinburgh last year, said: “Before our Big Lunch I knew the neighbours near our house to speak to, but not further up the street. Now we all know each other and feel able to stop and say hello, which I wouldn’t have done before.

“Our neighbours really got into the spirit of contributing something on the day, bringing lovely food to share and helping with party tunes and activities for the kids. This made it really easy and inexpensive to pull together. Looking back, it felt like a day from a bygone era and I’m glad we put the time aside to get to know our community better. I really recommend getting involved in 2015!”

Edinburgh neighbours who are interested in getting involved this June can register for a free pack, now available from www.thebiglunch.com or on 0845 850 8181. Packs include invitations, posters, recipes and activity ideas, as well as lots of information to get events off the ground. All pack materials are undated so communities can have Big Lunches when best suits them if they can’t join in on Sunday 7 June.

Footage from previous year’s Big Lunches: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=un-ooSya828

The Eden Project started The Big Lunch in 2009 with the belief that we’re better equipped to tackle the challenges we face when we face them together.

The Big Lunch is led by the Eden Project, funded by the Big Lottery Fund and supported by Halifax and Asda.

Find out more about The Big Lunch at www.thebiglunch.com

Granton Community Council rejects marina plan

Granton & District Community Council Meeting has opposed the latest plans to redevelop Granton Marina. At their February meeting the community council agreed that the revised plans will not best serve Granton residents and they also called for improved community engagement.

Their response to the application reads:

“This community council notes the planning application by Granton Central Development.

Whilst we recognise that the Granton harbour area does require to be developed for the betterment of the local community we do not consider that the current application does this. In particular we are concerned about:

Density and scale of the housing that does not provide a sense of place
Lack of green space for children to play
Insufficient transport modelling with a focus on car use
Centralisation of retail outlets

We believe that achieving an environment in which people are encouraged to participate in the community and enjoy the city’s streets has a number of secondary long-term benefits of immense importance – for example, increased economic activity, better health from more active lifestyles and enhanced sense of personal safety and community. The current application does not do this and we agree to formally object to the current plan.

We further call on the Planning Department of CEC to arrange a Charettesplus community planning event. Charretteplus builds upon the traditional charrette model of engagement, promoted and supported by the Scottish Government through their Charrette Mainstreaming Programme. Charretteplus delivers more, to a greater number of people and provide the whole community input on what they would like to see in their community.”

The meeting discussed a wide range of issues as well as the marina planning application – on a busy agenda 20mph zones, the waterfront development and the city council’s budget were all discussed; see below for the Secretary’s report.

Secretary Report_Feb2015_v01

Dave Macnab (Secretary)

Granton and District Community Council
http://grantonanddistrictcommunitycouncil.com/

Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/GrantonDistCC

Calling the local voluntary sector: complete the survey

Can you please take a couple of minutes to complete the survey linked below? Many thanks to those who have responded already …

The Forth and Inverleith Voluntary Sector Forum would like to carry out a short survey to ascertain what day and time best suits the majority for the Forth and Inverleith VSF meetings.

Can you please take a couple of minutes to complete? We want to ensure that we are having these meetings at a time most convenient for the majority.

Many thanks

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/7WLVMS2

Trinity CC February News

‘Without intervention traffic and parking in Trinity will rise’

See below for the latest news from Trinity Community Council, whose latest meeting focused on parking, an issue of concern raised by several residents …

Do you have an opinion on traffic and/or parking issues in Trinity? Please share your thoughts with Trinity Community Council, who would be interested to hear your views.

To get in touch, email tcc-comms@outlook.com

1502 ebulletin

Inverleith Neighbourhood Partnership meets on Monday

Come join us on Monday at Inverleith Neighbourhood Partnership at Blackhall Library, 6.30pm, on Monday (23 February).

Hear about ‘Edinburgh Living Landscapes’ and have a say in creating, restoring and connecting green areas of the city. There will also be a presentation on local roads and pavements budgets – come find out how much we have and how we decide where it gets spent!

Finally, see a display of plans for Fet-Lor Youth Club’s new building, Drylaw Skatepark, and hear decisions by Board on our Community Grants Fund applications.

We’d love to see you! Full papers are now available here: http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/meetings/meeting/3608/inverleith_neighbourhood_partnership

Elaine Lennon, Partnership Development Officer

City of Edinburgh Council – Services for Communities
8 West Pilton Gardens, Edinburgh, EH4 4DP
Tel: 0131 529 5270

Community Chat Cafe opens next week

The Community Chat Cafe invites you to share food, language and culture. Join us for our free, friendly, sociable lunches and practice your English – all welcome!

Wednesday 25 February

Wednesday 11 March

Wednesday 25 March

12.30 – 2pm at Pilton Community Health Project, Boswall Parkway

A creche is available but must be booked by calling Rachel: on 07891 525663 or Julie on 07958 540 438.

chat cafe poster

Community Chat Cafe is organised by the Living in Harmony Group and North Edinburgh Timebank

TRIM: just a minute …

From the board at Tenants and Residents In Muirhouse please find attached our Minutes for Meeting on 10 February 2015 (below).

10.2.15 TRIM MINS

Tenants & Residents In Muirhouse (TRIM)

Website – http://muirhouseresidents.co.uk
Find us on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/trimgroup
Also on Twitter – http://twitter.com/MuirhouseTRIM

Trinity CC talks parking tonight

Trinity Community Council meets tonight at St Serf’s Church at 7pm. The main item for discussion is local parking.

Is it really a problem in Trinity or simply confined to a few streets?
If it is a problem, what might be done about it?
More yellow lines?
The introduction of a Priority Parking Area in some or all of Trinity?
Should we mount a survey of residents through Trinity Spotlight?

Local residents are invited to come along and have their say tonight

agenda-february-2015

visit trinitycommunitycouncil.wordpress.com for more information

#StrongerNorth: Working together for the community

FACENorth is working for the community … in all weathers!

Over the last three months FACENorth (Focussing on Alternatives to Crime Edinburgh North), in partnership with POP (Preventative Opportunities Programme) have been working with a core group of eight to ten young people running a series of work parties at Towford Outdoor Centre, the bothy owned and managed by Muirhouse Youth Development Group and MYAdventure. As well as working at Towford the group has painted the café in PYCP and bag-packed at Sainsbury’s in Craigleith to raise money for MYDG.

This group of young people has been helping get Towford ready for use by the wider community whilst gaining real work experience, working as part of a team, following instructions, preparing and cooking their own meals, preparing a dinner table, washing up after themselves, showing respect for themselves, their environment and for others, planning and implementing ideas, conservation training, learning about their own and a new environment and most importantly putting something back into their own Community.

When we started, there was no heating or hot water in the bothy, few lights downstairs and very basic cooking facilities, so with some nights dropping to below freezing the warmth of sleeping bags at night with a meal and hot drink were very welcome!

So far the group has removed an unsafe, old mouldy shed which had stood unused for a number of years and turned the space left into to a temporary car parking space. They have also planted trees, removed old wood from around the site, cleared work areas, helped to create a temporary road surface at the entrance to the Centre, dug out trenches to create a drainage system to stop the access road from flooding, removed root systems around the trenches and carried out general labouring work.

With the Centre being surrounded by over 17 acres of ground including hills, forest and a large pond, the group intends to return to dig more trenches and create a proper road drainage system using underground pipes etc., create a new access road to the centre with an asphalt/concrete surface, clear an old deforested area to help create a football pitch/camp area, assist in the planning and creation of a bike and walking track, clear and drain the pond area and re-route part of a river to run through the pond to allow this to be used for fishing, canoeing and wildlife area!

Once plans are finalised for the remembrance area for Mikaeel Kular the group is keen to contribute to getting this ready so that whole community of North Edinburgh has somewhere to spend some quiet reflection time.

At Pilton Youth and Children’s Project the group has painted the café area (above), creating a brighter more user friendly area for centre users to enjoy and the group will shortly be taking part in a conservation project based on the local cycle paths.

Power to the Pupils!

Broughton S2 group looks at local democracy

As S2 pupils at Broughton High School we undertook an inter-disciplinary learning (IDL) course as part of our S2 elective subject choice called ‘Power to the Pupils’ which was run by Callum and Stephan from Community Learning & Development (CLD).

The course – called Power to the Pupils – has been great as it has had a local focus which has allowed us to gather and identify issues that directly affect us as young people growing in the north Edinburgh area. We had great debates and positive discussion and of course great fun as well deciding which were there most important topics that we could address!

Our top issues were:

Negative stereotypes given for young people need to be challenged
Cyber Bullying
Free bus passes for all young people
Reduce the amount of bullying/name calling in Edinburgh
Reduce the cost of bus travel of young people
Young People should have more of a choice in the curriculum
Young People are unable to use some words (e.g. due to PC issues/double standards/they’re inflammatory etc.)
Dog fouling in the streets/parks which young people use
Young people not having a vote
Edinburgh should have a theme park like M&Ds
Cinema prices are too expensive.

Since coming to ‘power to the pupils’ we have been involved in some trips out to places like the City Chambers (above)and the ‘main cooncil headquarters’ where we learned about democracy, how decisions are made and who makes them on our behalf.

We even got to meet a real councillor – Nigel Bagshaw, who represents the Green Party in this area (Inverleith ward) in Edinburgh. He was really great! He listened to our concerns and he also gave us some fantastic advice on how we could take our issues forward. We also saw lots of famous people in some of the paintings that are hanging on the walls in the council building.

After visiting the city chambers we realised we should lobby on a more local level so we had a visit to the local Neighbourhood Partnership office based in North Edinburgh (above).

We raised several concerns that we had identified as being important to us. Negative stereotypes of young people, dog fouling in public spaces were just a couple of subjects we raised. The staff were great they listened all our questions and gave us some really positive feedback. They agreed that they were very important issues that needed tackling and gave us brilliant advice on methods to take our campaigns forward which was good.

We have learned some great new techniques and various methods to make our voices heard. Having the opportunity to access politicians with our issues by lobbying council officials as well as on a more local level with the North Edinburgh Neighbourhood Partnership has been fantastic and we all hope we have influenced them in a positive way.

The course has allowed us to learn new skills which will help us in the future there has also been lots of great discussion, debates which was interesting and above all it was great fun!

Here are some quotes from members of our group:

“The stuff we have learned will be useful in the future” – Harry Hunter S2

“Visiting the city chambers was really interesting it is a very old building with lots of traditions and history” – Simran Singh(S2)

“We hope we can make a difference and change people’s opinions of young people” – Chloe Carr (S2)

“It has been an amazing course and interesting” – Gabriella Borges (S2)

“I have made new friends as well as learnt some new skills” – Kyle Crooks (S2)

Power to the Pupils!