Forth and Inverleith Voluntary Sector Forum meets today

Forth and Inverleith Voluntary Sector Forum will meet meet online today Wednesday 30th March – at 1.30pm.

Draft notes from the last meeting are attached.

For meeting login details please contact EVOC Community Planning Development Worker Kate Barrett on 0131 555 9100 or email kate.barrett@evoc.org.uk

HELP! Community Councils umbrella body funding appeal

Edinburgh Association of Community Councils appeals to members for financial support

The Edinburgh Association of Community Councils (EACC) is making a one-time appeal for funds.

Like community councils, we need to pay for a website, video-conferencing and meeting facilities, and help with documenting meetings etc. 

Unlike community councils, we are not receiving financial support from either the City of Edinburgh Council (CEC) or the Edinburgh Partnership, the higher level body to which both CEC and EACC belong.

Why is this? Community councils are statutory bodies and EACC is officially recognised by CEC as representing them in Edinburgh. Until a few years ago, EACC were getting a grant, similar to those given to individual community councils. This was authorised by Edinburgh Partnership, but paid by CEC from its community services budget. 

Paul Lawrence, CEC Director of Place, has told us that funding hasn’t been provided to EACC since 2017-8. Inevitably there are conflicting explanations of why. We asked Paula McLeay, CEC Head of Policy and Insight, if the grant could be reinstated, but the answer was no. 

EACC is unique among Edinburgh Partnership members in being totally voluntary and unfunded. This is unsustainable and we will continue to negotiate for the grant to be restored. 

In the meantime we have no money, so we are launching this appeal for funds from Edinburgh’s community councils. (As a guide we are hoping to raise about £500 to maintain basic services.)

If you are willing to support EACC, we would be very grateful if you could send us funds by bank transfer:

Account number              30120430
Sort code                         82 68 00
Account name                  Edinburgh Association of Community Councils

Or, by cheque, by post to:

Mrs J Wightman
17 Bonnington
Kirknewton
Midlothian
EH27 8BB

Simon Holledge, Secretary
Judy Wightman, Treasurer

Inverleith Neighbourhood Network to meet next week

There’s a distictly Drylaw flavour to next week’s Inverleith Neighbourhood Network meeting.

Drylaw Neighbourhood Centre will be giving a presentation to the meeting in a ‘Getting To Know You’ session and Easter Drylaw Park has also been tabled as an agenda item.

The meeting, which will take place online using TEAMS, will be held on Monday 6th December from 6 – 7.30pm.

AGENDA

  1. Welcome and introductions
  2. Minute of meeting of 12th October 2021
  3. Getting to know you – Drylaw Neighbourhood Centre
  4. Local Community Planning Partnership (LCPP)- Verbal update from Joan Beattie, Rep on LCPP from this group
  5. Progressing Inverleith NN priority – Greenspace and community growing subgroup – verbal update
  6. Community Grants Fund – discussion
  7. Easter Drylaw Park issues – discussion
  8. AOCB
  9. Date and format of next gathering

For further information contact North West Lifelong Learning Development Officer, Elaine Lennon: email Elaine.Lennon@edinburgh.gov.uk

Voluntary Sector Forum to meet this afternoon

Forth and Inverleith Voluntary Sector Forum will meet online via Zoom this afternoon (Tuesday 28 September) at 1:30pm.

We will use the below agenda to guide our discussion:

1.        Welcome and Introductions

2.        New online community portal for north Edinburgh

3.       Community Planning update

4.       LOG update

5.       Members update

6.     VSF attendance – are we making the most of the forum?            

7.       AOB and next meeting.

For Zoom login details contact Kate Barrett, EVOC Development Worker – Community Planning, by email at kate.barrett@evoc.org.uk

Community Planning: Edinburgh Association of Community Councils meets tonight

The Edinburgh Asociation of Community Councils (EACC) meets online tonight at 7pm.

Up for discussion is the Edinburgh Partnership’s draft Community Council Reform Implementation Plan (below)

In an email to community councils before the meeting EACC Chair Stve Kerr said: “I attach a draft implementation table which includes issues that have been covered in the initial discussion between the EACC Steering Group and senior City of Edinburgh Council officers. 

“The list is not exhaustive, and I would welcome your thoughts on whether the areas covered are appropriate and additional issues that you wish to see addressed.

“I hope that as many of you as possible can participate in the discussion to ensure that the views of all 44-member Community Councils are represented.”

***Agenda for 9 September***

1. Steve Kerr, Chair of EACC, will give an update on the Edinburgh Partnership Improvement Plan’s Community Council Reform Programme.

2. Daisy Narayanan, Senior Manager, Place Making and Mobility for the City of Edinburgh Council, will introduce her new job, with a remit that includes ‘20-minute neighbourhoods’, City Centre Transformation, City Mobility Plan, and the Low Emission Zone (LEZ).

3. An LEZ team member will introduce the project and the current consultation which lasts until 20 September (to be confirmed).

4. Discussion about the National Care Service.

5. Any other business.

This meeting is open to the public, but priority will be given to questions from community councillors. The meeting will be recorded.

Please note that by joining the meeting you are giving your consent for the meeting to be recorded.

Drylaw Telford Community Council meets tomorrow evening

Drylaw Telford Community Council meets tomorrow evening following the summer recess.

As well as the usual agenda items, topical issues include the state of Drylaw Shopping Centre, an update on Drylaw House and Easter Drylaw Park issues.

The meeting will be held on Zoom and starts at 7pm.

For details on how you can participate please email DTCC secretary Pam Higgins, pamhigginsdtcc@gmail.com

Inverleith Neighbourhood Network to meet on Tuesday

Dear Inverleith Neighbourhood Network (NN)

The next meeting of this group is Tuesday 17th August at 6pm on Teams (link below)

Please find attached:

  • Minute of previous meeting of 24th June 2021
  • Agenda for meeting of 17th August 2021
  • NEP report (Roads and Housing Revenue Account HRA)
  • Transport Infrastructure Investment report

We have no Community Grants applications to consider at this meeting, but Cllr Barrie is still looking for volunteers to join a Funding Panel that will consider any applications in future.

We are particularly keen to have anyone representing projects in the Drylaw Telford area.

Please get back to me if you are willing to assist in this.

Click here to join the meeting

Elaine Lennon

North West Lifelong Learning Development Officer, City of Edinburgh Council

8 West Pilton Gardens, Edinburgh, EH4 4DP

Tel: 0131 529 5270 / 35270

Voluntary Sector Forum to meet next week

Forth and Inverleith Voluntary Sector Forum will meet on Tuesday 20 July at 1pm via Zoom

Join Zoom Meeting:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84802007045?pwd=WmU3REQrL2ZNa3NEVDg4Zlp3TkVGdz09

Meeting ID: 848 0200 7045

Passcode: 991758

We will use this following agenda to guide our discussion:

1 Welcome and Introductions

2 Pilton Community Health Project and ASH Scotland present on new work addressing smoking rates in areas of deprivation (see below)

3 Evaluating Third Sector contribution to LIP priority 3 – tackling poverty and inequality

4 LOG Update

5 Training Opportunities for third sector (EVOC)

6 Member update

Hope to see you there,

KATE BARRETT

EVOC Development Worker – Community Planning

Living Well Locally: Councillors to discuss 20-Minute Neighbouhoods

Tomorrow (Thursday (10 June), members of the city council’s Policy and Sustainability Committee will consider a high-level strategy for 20-Minute Neighbourhoods in Edinburgh.

The model is a well-established approach used worldwide as a way of delivering services within communities. This includes finding ways for residents to access most of their daily services provided by the Council in a local, accessible and sustainable way, along with those delivered by our partners in the public, voluntary and private sectors.

This is a new approach for the Capital and the aim is to deliver more sustainable places, improve public services, and build on what is already a powerful sense of local community across Edinburgh.

Over the last year, the pandemic has seen a dramatic change to the way we all live and work in our local area, and while the concept was already underway in pioneer cities such as Paris, Melbourne and Portland, the global health crisis has highlighted even more strongly how important ‘liveable’ neighbourhoods are.

The emerging City Plan 2030 identified eight town centres as starting points and further work identified 11 more areas to prioritise as they are areas which have gaps in their service provision and/or no natural town centre.

Each of the 19 areas in total has its own unique cultural identity and local heritage and it’ll be important to clearly articulate the differing role each neighbourhood plays socially, culturally and economically as the strategy progresses.

The draft strategy outlines that, if approved, the first areas of focus will be where the need is greatest, whether that’s because of deprivation, poor connectivity, or demographic issues. For example, the council will:

  • Maximise the opportunities created by new school investments at Liberton and Currie
  • Work to deliver the new Pennywell Hub to provide a partnership between public and voluntary sectors
  • Build on the community-led Local Place Planning work in Wester Hailes and Leith
  • Work with the Edinburgh Health and Social Care Partnership to combat loneliness and isolation, and build new networks of support and wellbeing
  • Look at new schemes to improve the quality of place in some of our busiest and most traffic-dominated centres such as Niddrie Mains Road.

Council Leader Adam McVey said: “Twenty-minute Neighbourhoods are about helping local people access the services they need, where and when they need them.

“Getting what you need in your community is about more than just having your services and amenities close at hand. It’s also about empowering communities, fostering stronger partnership working at a local level and, where appropriate, delivering multiple services from stand-alone ‘hubs’.

“We know from our Capital Resident’s Survey that 58% of people agree it would make sense to have all public services delivered from one location. We also know this can be a more efficient way of organisations working within our communities and getting better outcomes for our residents.

“Crucially, building thriving local neighbourhoods will not only boost quality of life and residents’ wellbeing but it will also be greener by cutting carbon footprint of frontline services and making support easier to reach within walking distance.”

Depute Council Leader Cammy Day said: “The Edinburgh Climate Commission supports our work on 20-Minute Neighbourhoods as the heart of a sustainable community and it’s clear the plans also support our wider Business Plan priorities in terms of ending poverty, increasing wellbeing, tackling inequality and focusing on prevention.

“The strategy we’ll be considering at Committee sets out a new way of working with our communities and we know from the experience of finding new ways to deliver services during the pandemic that communities want to work with us to co-design services, so it’s an exciting opportunity for Edinburgh.

“We’ll be working on supporting and creating environments where businesses can thrive and residents’ needs are met, helping to create a vibrant atmosphere and local identity.”

If approved, implementation of the strategy will begin immediately.

While the delivery of the strategy will be an ongoing programme of work, a detailed implementation plan will be developed, based on the ‘inform, engage, reflect and deliver’ model.

Potential locations for 20-Minute Neighbourhoods:

Corstorphine
Lochend / Restalrig 
Ratho 
Craigmillar / Bingham 
Moredun/Gilmerton 
South Queensferry 
Currie/Balerno 
Morningside / Bruntsfield
Stockbridge 
Gorgie/Dalry 
Muirhouse (above)
Tollcross 
Granton 
Nicholson Street 
Wester Hailes 
Kirkliston 
Oxgangs 
Leith / Leith Walk 
Portobello

It’s been a while … Inverleith Neighbourhood Network to meet next week

The next meeting of the Inverleith Neighbourhood Network will be on Wednesday 31st March from 6 – 8pm.

Agenda is below: 

  1. Minute of meeting – 210120
  2. Role of Chair / Rep of the NN 
  3. Communications within NN 
  4. Inverleith NN Greenspace priority – how do we take this forward and are there any other local priorities to be considered.
  5. Revised LIP (Locality Improvement Plan) priorities – update from LCPP (Local Community Planning Partnership)
  6. Poverty Commission – update from LCPP

The meeting will take place online using Microsoft Teams.

Joan Beattie, Inverleith community representative on the North West Locality Community Planning Partnership ( LCPP), said: “Our Neighbourhood Network is having a Team’s meeting on 31st March starting at 6pm to discuss among other things how to take forward our priority ‘MAKING THE MOST OF OUR GREEN SPACES’.  ​

“This was chosen as our priority in the last meeting before Covid restrictions but has proved to be even more important given the use of our green spaces over the last year.   

“I would really like to hear all of your views on this to feed into the next LCPP meeting and to let you know how I think it could be linked to the Local Improvement Plan.

I really hope you are all able to make the meeting but if that’s not, please pass on your ideas.”

For further information contact:

Elaine Lennon

North West Lifelong Learning Development Officer, City of Edinburgh Council

8 West Pilton Gardens, Edinburgh, EH4 4DP

Tel: 0131 529 5270 / 35270

Email: Elaine.Lennon@edinburgh.gov.uk