Granton & District Community Council meets on Monday 27 October at 7pm in Royston Wardieburn Community Centre, Pilton Drive North.
Guest speaker is Total Craigroyston project manager Christine Mackay. All welcome.
For further information visit http://grantonanddistrictcommunitycouncil.com/
Neighbourhood Partnerships – Making it happen
Following extensive consultation, the Forth and Inverleith Neighbourhood Partnership’s new local community plans for 2014-17 will be launched on Monday 27 October!
These will be available online at www.edinburghnp.org.uk/forth or www.edinburghnp.org.uk/inverleith, from your local library or from your North Neighbourhood Office at 8 West Pilton Gardens.
Working with communities and partners, Neighbourhood Partnerships aim to tackle priority issues and make neighbourhoods a better place to live. They bring together the community, Police, Health, Fire, voluntary sector and elected members, and are supported by officers from the Council.
To find out how to get involved in your local Neighbourhood Partnership, visit one of our events, attend a Neighbourhood Partnership meeting or talk to us face to face. Please call 529 5050 or email jim.pattison@edinburgh.gov.uk (Forth NP) or elaine.lennon@edinburgh.gov.uk (Inverleith NP) for more information.
You can also contact us online – tweet us your thoughts @north_team or @Edin_NPs
The theme for this year is ‘increasing walking and cycling in Inverleith’ and we’d like to invite everyone living, working or travelling in Inverleith to have a say on how we can make walking and cycling easier, safer and more welcoming for all
Please come along and share your thoughts on how we can get people in Inverleith walking and cycling more, to pick up tips, advice and support and also to help us identify what the Inverleith Neighbourhood Partnership can do to make it happen.
Come join us on Thursday 30 October
from 6-9pm at Broughton High School
We’d also welcome local organisations to come along and display information on how you can help us achieve this!
Contact elaine.lennon@edinburgh.gov.uk for more info. or to book your place, email anne.brown@ea.edin.sch.uk
Regeneration’s back on the agenda as conference hears of ‘growing optimism’
It was one of Europe’s most ambitious regeneration programmes – an opportunity to clean up a massive brownfield site, create new communities and link Edinburgh’s city centre with the sea. Hotels, new homes, schools and small businesses were to be built on the old industrial waterfront, all served by a modern, efficient tram network. There was even talk of a floating island – but then came the recession …
That was six years ago, but the economy is recovering at last and there’s growing optimism that Edinburgh’s waterfront can now fulfil it’s undoubted potential.
Forth Neighbourhood Partnership and local community councils organised a community conference at Edinburgh College on Granton’s waterfront last weekend to inform local residents about what’s happening now and what plans are in place to regenerate the waterfront area. Around sixty delegates attended the ‘Buiding New Futures’ event and heard speakers outline plans that could see North Edinburgh transformed over the coming years.
It’s well known that Edinburgh has a severe housing shortage, and with growing pressure on Edinburgh’s cherished green belt the opportunity to build new homes on brownfield sites must be seized. Speakers from National Grid and the city council outlined plans to build thousands of new homes along the waterfront, and highlighted prospects of local employment opportunities as the regeneration gathers momentum.
A major house building initiative is already well underway in the area: as part of the 21st Century Homes programme, the Council is about to let their first new homes in a generation. Work is also underway on the former Craigroyston High School site which will form the first phase of plans to build over 700 new homes for sale and rent over the next eight to ten years in Pennywell and Muirhouse.
People living in these new homes will need services, of course, and health provision in the area is already under strain. NHS Lothian Partnership Development Manager Steven Whitton outlined the latest plans for a major new health facility, the North West Edinburgh Partnership Centre – that’s only a working title, mind, there’s got to be a catchier name than that!
The £12m Centre in Pennywell (above) will focus on child health and family support services and will house a new GP surgery, community nursing and midwifery services, dentistry, podiatry, physiotherapy and child health services. The centre will also provide facilities for social work and some voluntary sector organisations and is expected to open in September 2016.
Given the sheer scale of the regeneration project – the many different elements of the area’s development and the number of partner organisations involved – it was impossible to cover all aspects in minute detail, but the conference provided a timely update to local residents and Forth Neighbourhood Partnership plans to work with the local community councils to ensure that neighbourhoods are kept informed and involved as work progresses.
Forth Neighbourhood Partnership’s chairperson Councillor Cammy Day (pictured above) said: “I was pleased to see a great turnout at the event, and the diverse groups of people who are keen to take part in shaping their new and existing neighbourhoods.
“The conference provided a fantastic opportunity for the community to get to know more about regeneration taking place and to meet with key landowners and developers. This is not just about much-needed affordable homes, but the creation of jobs and training opportunities, leisure facilities and attracting investment into this area.
“This event isn’t a one-off either, I will be establishing a local development group where the community, council, developers and landowners in Granton Waterfront can get around the table, discuss plans at an early stage to shape and influence proposals, where possible, to meet our needs. It was a great start to what I hope will be a long-term partnership between the community and all those involved in regenerating this part of North Edinburgh.”
West Pilton & West Granton community councillor Willie Black, who was involved in organising the event, said: “The conference gave the community the opportunity to hear all the major players outline their plans for the regeneration of the waterfront and beyond – and to have their say. Everyone who was there though it was useful, but where now? A new regeneration forum group is to be set up and over the next few weeks community organisations will be invited to join and help build on the conference.”
Granton Improvement Society’s Barbara Robertson said: “Our stall attracted a lot of interest, particularly in the proposed Garden Festival and artisans’ village, and we’re pleased Cammy supports our project and wants to see it included in the area’s regeneration. The success of the conference showed the enthusiasm of the community to be involved in planning the regeneration of their area and paved the way for a new forum for the community to have their say.”
Some cynics will say ‘we’ve heard it all before’, but what about the next generation? Members of North Edinburgh’s Young People’s Forum attended the event and their feedback was very positive. Among their comments: ‘Feels like most of us if not all of us now know more about what is happening in the area’, ‘it’d be great to have more events like this to feed back on plans and what has been done’ and ‘feel more involved in what is happening and with what is going on in the area’. One suggested: ‘it would be good to say what has been done in relation to what the community has asked for – like a ‘you said – we did’ kind of thing’. Oh, and not so many big words next time please!
Building New Futures? Maybe this time …
And this has nothing to do with the referendum aftermath …!
Living in Harmony Multicultural Forum
Come along to help us think about future activities that can bring all our communities together, and hear about what is already going on in North Edinburgh for your community.
Tuesday 30 September 5.30-7.30pm
North Edinburgh Arts, 15a Pennywell Road
Creche and language support available but must be booked in advance.
Contact Rachel Farrier to book or for more information:
Call 551 1671 or email lih@pchp.org.uk
Award-winning (see previous post!) Stepping Stones North Edinburgh are holding their annual general meeting in
Muirhouse Millennium Community Centre
on Thursday 25 September at 12.30pm.
For further information telephone 551 1632 or email:
info@steppingstonesnorthedinburgh.co.uk
North Edinburgh’s own community newspaper will be printed again next month. The North Edinburgh News (NEN) will be delivered to thousands of homes across Forth and Inverleith, with copies of the newspaper available in community venues across the area too.
NEN is leading the Contact in the Capital – North pilot project and we plan to print three editions before the first year of the initiative ends next March. The first of these will be published in October.
Deadline for all copy is Friday 26 September
Like to contribute? A community newspaper is by, for and about the community it serves – so be involved!
Stories and Articles
Doing something you’d like to share with the North Edinburgh community? Won something? Achieved something great? Starting something new? Let us know – we welcome contributions from individuals and organisations.
Advertising
Want to advertise your service or a forthcoming event? Use the NEN – a copy of our advertising rates can be found below.
Community Directory
NEN’s Community Directory has always been an important section of the paper, listing schools, groups and organisations’ names, addresses and telephone numbers. It’s probably about time we revised this to include website addresses, Facebook details and Twitter info too – it seems this social media thing is catching on …!
Send us your contact info and we’ll include your details it in our bright new Community Directory – and there’s NO CHARGE for this service!
How to get in touch:
If you have articles for inclusion, would like to place an ad or just want more information, email us at northedinnews@gmail.com
We look forward to hearing from you, but remember that copy deadline:
Friday 26 September!
Forth Neighbourhood Partnership and Community Councils are in the process of developing an event focussing on the wider regeneration of the area to take place on Saturday 27 September from 10am – 2pm in Edinburgh College Granton Campus.
We are currently working to bring together the community, landowners, the Council and its partners to share information about current and future regeneration plans and any opportunities that this can bring. This will also be an opportunity to learn of where key community aspects such as health, leisure, environment and social benefits are linked into any future developments.
It is intended that the event outcomes will help shape proposals wherever possible and keep people informed with what is happening in the Forth neighbourhood. It should also support the creation of a new vision for the area and potentially establish a wider Forth Regeneration Development Group.
We are awaiting confirmation of key speakers and felt that it was important to gauge interest in the event . I would be grateful therefore if you could use the link below to let me know if you and/or colleagues will be interesting in attending. A light lunch will be available on the day.
Please use this link to note interest. Responses will be checked regularly.
Further information is available from Michelle Fraser 529 3150 or myself.
Scott Donkin
Partnership & Information Manager | North Neighbourhood | Services for Communities | The City of Edinburgh Council | 8 West Pilton Gardens EH4 4DP | Tel 0131 529 5001 | scott.donkin@edinburgh.gov.uk
The Scottish Government announced last week that the People and Communities Fund has been boosted, but the Scottish Community Alliance argues that the fund is mis-named: it’s still government, not people or communities, that leads the regeneration process.
The £9.4 million People and Communities Fund, which promotes and supports community-led regeneration initiatives across Scotland, is now accepting new applications for 2015/16.
The budget for the overarching fund has been increased by £1.5 million, with a refreshed focus on the promotion of social inclusion and tackling poverty, including the mitigation of welfare reform.
The Fund will continue to invest in community anchor organisations that deliver local regeneration activity and promote change in our most disadvantaged communities.
The Fund will also support a wide range of initiatives including improving financial capability, reducing the number of workless households, increasing the range of services delivered from local facilities, increasing the number of people taking up volunteering opportunities and healthy eating initiatives.
Announcing the new funding round last week, Housing and Welfare Minister Margaret Burgess said: “Since 2012 the People and Communities Fund has provided vital support for many community-led organisations, enabling them to create real change within their own communities as well as tangible improvements to people’s lives.
“I am delighted to announce that not only is the next funding round open for 2015/16 applications, but that the budget for the overarching Fund has also increased by £1.5 million. This will allow us to provide £9.4 million to support local people and communities.
“The Fund is targeted at organisations rooted in their local communities. These organisations are best placed to encourage wider involvement in local regeneration activities to ensure long-term impact and sustainability.
“As part of our partnership approach, the Fund has also been refocused to enable us to better align our community funding programmes across government and to support community-led regeneration even more effectively.”
However the Scottish Community Alliance (SCA), an umbrella body for more than 1200 community groups across Scotland, disagrees that this regeneration process is genuinely ‘community-led’, and while welcoming the additional funding, SCA argues that the People and Communities Fund is another example of a ‘top down’ approach to community regeneration.
In the latest issue of the Local People Leading newsletter, SCA said: “When the Scottish Government announced in 2011 that its approach to regeneration was going to be more community led, it met with widespread approval. It was a recognition that outcomes are always better if local people are in control of how their communities are regenerated.
“But the recent announcement of increased funding for 2015/16, while welcome, also stipulated what the new funds are to be focussed on. While no one would disagree with mitigating the impact of welfare reform, isn’t the principle of community led regeneration being undermined somewhat?”
More information on the People and Communities Fund is available – and community anchor organisations can make applications – by visiting www.scotland.gov.uk/pcf
The deadline for receipt of applications is Friday 31 October.
