Breakthrough for Friends of Granton Castle Walled Garden?

It has taken over a year to finally get the amazing news, but planning permission to demolish listed structures and build 17 luxury townhouses in the Historic Garden is now officially being WITHDRAWN !!!

Our Friends Group members recently met with the development company to propose community-led restoration and productive use of the walled garden. We hope that Waterfront Edinburgh Ltd’s board members will now hear the voices of hundreds of community members and recognise the value of this fertile ‘secret’ garden to local people. The Oldest Walled Garden in Edinburgh deserves a chance to survive!

Tree Preservation Orders have been applied for, to protect the remaining Victorian apple trees
Historic Scotland and other suitably qualified conservation organisations have been contacted to advise on restoration work needed and costs
New access track idea, to allow community members to restore and work in the garden without disturbing nearby residents.

What next for Friends of Granton Castle Walled Garden?

November was a very busy month for the Friends Group, productive meetings and new members adding their energy and enthusiasm to help save this walled garden.

We now have a draft constitution, rising community interest and possibilities of funding to get started. Let’s hope that our councillors and community voices will be heard and this garden treasured for future generations to enjoy!

A ‘timeline’ of our community campaign was put together to help everyone understand the story How the Friends Group started

This is posted on the Friends Group webpage along with the history of the garden, what happened to the castle, and some of our ideas for the garden’s restoration and community use.

Our next meeting:

Should Granton Castle Walled Garden become Common Good Land?

General Meeting of Friends of Granton Castle Walled Garden

Thursday 8 January at Royston Wardieburn Community Centre

6-7.30 pm, seating limited to 30

Please get in touch if you want to come along or add points to the meeting agenda:

grantoncastlegardengroup@gmail.com

or catch us on FB or wordpress where an update on the meeting and notes will be posted in the new year!

Kirsty Sutherland, Friends of Granton Castle Walled Garden

Councillors to consider trams to Leith

Councillors asked to support new £400,000 trams report

Councillors are to consider whether Edinburgh’s tram line should be extended into Leith. The line currently stops at York Place, but transport leader Cllr Lesley Hinds argues that Edinburgh must look forward to compete with successful capital cities.

Councillors are being asked to support the commissioning of a £400,000 report to examine the implications of extending the line. If councillors do give the go-ahead, it’s expected they will consider the report’s findings early next year.

Some will question the wisdom of spending hundreds of thousands of pounds of public money on yet another tram report – particularly given Edinburgh’s current budget difficulties – but Transport and Environment convener Lesley Hinds says the city must move forward.

“If you look at any capital city that’s successful in Europe and throughout the world, we need to invest in our local transport and we need to encourage people to walk and to cycle,” she said. “We are going to have an increased population and more visitors so we need to ensure we have investment in a public transport system and that means looking forward.”

Tram lines to Leith and Granton’s new waterfront were key elements of Transport Initiatives Edinburgh (TIE’s) original plans for a tram network – the first construction work started in Leith in 2007 – but the ambitious project was beset with difficulty and controversy almost from the outset.

When it began running in May, Edinburgh’s tram service was a single line from York Place to the airport, not a network – and even this was years late and over £400 million over budget.

The Scottish government announced a public inquiry into the trams project in June, and last month the inquiry was upgraded from a non-statutory to a statutory inquiry when chairman Lord Hardie complained that some key witnesses had failed to co-operate with is investigations. The change in status means that these individuals must now give evidence – and face possible imprisonment if they fail to do so.

The terms of reference of the Edinburgh Trams inquiry are:

To inquire into the delivery of the Edinburgh Trams project (‘the project’), from proposals for the project emerging to its completion, including the procurement and contract preparation, its governance, project management and delivery structures, and oversight of the relevant contracts, in order to establish why the project incurred delays, cost considerably more than originally budgeted for and delivered significantly less than was projected through reductions in scope.

To examine the consequences of the failure to deliver the project in the time, within the budget and to the extent projected.

To otherwise review the circumstances surrounding the project as necessary, in order to report to the Scottish Ministers making recommendations as to how major tram and light rail infrastructure projects of a similar nature might avoid such failures in future.

Blooming good reason to celebrate success

The Lord Provost unveiled a plaque last night to mark Edinburgh’s success in the Entente Florale environmental competition earlier this year.

Following Edinburgh’s success in Britain in Bloom, Edinburgh was invited to represent the UK at the prestigious Entente Florale, Europe’s largest environmental competition – over 22,000 cities, towns and villages entered Entente Florale across Europe this year.

The winners were announced on 26 September: Edinburgh was awarded gold for excellence in landscape and horticulture, environment and tourism and involvement while The Grassmarket Community Project also won the special Lucija Cikes Prize for integration of disabled people in to society through green skills.

A host of city organisations contributed to Edinburgh’s success – these were:

City of Edinburgh Council, Historic Scotland, Edinburgh World Heritage Trust, Edinburgh and Lothian Greenspace Trust, Cockburn Association, Water of Leith Conservation Trust, Scottish Wildlife Trust, Friends of Parks groups, Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh, Greenspace Scotland, Marketing Edinburgh, University of Edinburgh, Essential Edinburgh, Hilton Double Tree, Duddingston Field Group, Garvald Group and Grassmarket Community Project.

Setting the agenda: North Edinburgh's Physical Activity Forum

How can we improve access to open spaces in North Edinburgh?

Looking forward to seeing you at next weeks’ NEPAF meeting where the theme will be ‘How can we improve access to open spaces in North Edinburgh?’ Response to this months’ forum meeting has been really positive; here is the agenda so far:

Presentation, sharing good practice- ‘Friends of Dalmeny Park’- Tom Hoon/Out of the Blue
West Pilton Park- Lianne Pipskyj/Clare Symonds PCHP
Community Growing- Kate Wimpress/NEAC
Informal/structured play on local green/brown sites- Kate Wimpress/NEAC
Forth Neighbourhood Partnership Community plan (physical activity priority)- Jim Pattison/FNP
Edinburgh Physical Activity and Sports Strategy- Active Lives- Sean Webster/ECC

The meeting takes place on Wednesday 10 December from 2 – 4pm

at Pilton Community Health Project, Boswall Parkway

It looks like it’s going to be a good one, can’t wait! It would be very helpful if we have an idea on numbers so if you could confirm attendance and add any agenda items by this Friday ( 5 December) that would be great!

Lianne Pipskyj (on behalf of NEPAF)

Development Worker- Physical Activity, Pilton Community Health Project

0131 551 1671

liannepipskyj@pchp.org.uk

www.pchp.org.uk

#StrongerNorth – the movie!

Click on the link below to see a short film about last weekend’s West Pilton cleanup:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYQPlJ4y9oQ (Preview)

And for more information about the #StrongerNorth initiative, follow:

https://www.facebook.com/edinburghcouncil?ref=hl

https://twitter.com/Edinburgh_CC

Priceless! Putting a value on the city's parks

New research has revealed just how much our parks are worth to us

Analysis carried out on behalf of the Council by Carrick Associates demonstrates for the first time the impact of the city’s 140 green spaces. The study, which uses a Social Return on Investment (SROI) approach, has valued their benefits at an impressive £114m.

By measuring the social, environmental and economic change experienced by those who use Edinburgh’s parks, researchers were able to apply a monetary value to the effects.

Environment Convener, Councillor Lesley Hinds, said: “This research demonstrates just how important parks are for our health, well being, environmental awareness and even local economy.

“Our parks are the gem in Edinburgh’s crown and are a real success story for the capital, as recent awards from Britain in Bloom and Entente Florale have recognised. But more than that, they are at the heart of many of the city’s communities.”

As part of the analysis, parks were divided into different categories – Premier, City, Natural Heritage and Community – and their stakeholders and benefits assessed.

Amongst these were the community, whose gains varied from enhanced fitness levels to well being, local employers, who could benefit from a more productive workforce, and school pupils, who are expected to build environmental awareness from a visit to the park.

By monitoring and interviewing visitors on their experiences, analysts concluded that, for every £1 spent by the Council maintaining parks, £12 of social, economic and environmental benefits will be delivered. The report also estimates an annual revenue of £51m for local businesses, health and well being benefits worth around £40.5m and outdoor education experiences equating to just under £1m.

Analysis builds on the results of the Edinburgh People’s Survey 2013, which found that the average Edinburgh resident visits a park in the city on 49 days in the year – almost one day a week.

Over the past five years a steady improvement in the quality of parks has been evidenced by annual Park Quality Assessments, as well as a record number of Green Flag Awards, and national and international recognition by Britain in Bloom and Entente Florale.

Edinburgh’s parks: Their value

This analysis has allowed the Council to predict that by using City of Edinburgh Council’s parks:
Individuals will gain health and wellbeing benefits worth around £40.5 million
The impact on social inclusion and community capacity is calculated to be worth over £6 million
Local businesses and the economy will gain additional revenue from visitors to the parks in the region of £51 million
Schools, nurseries and colleges are able to provide outdoor educational experiences that equate to just under £1 million
The awareness and understanding gained by visitors of their local environment is valued at just under £5 million
For an investment of £9,684,000 in parks and green space by City of Edinburgh Council it is estimated benefits worth £114,191,000 are generated.

Priceless! Putting a value on the city’s parks

New research has revealed just how much our parks are worth to us

By measuring the social, environmental and economic change experienced by those who use Edinburgh’s parks, researchers were able to apply a monetary value to the effects.

Environment Convener, Councillor Lesley Hinds, said: “This research demonstrates just how important parks are for our health, well being, environmental awareness and even local economy.

As part of the analysis, parks were divided into different categories – Premier, City, Natural Heritage and Community – and their stakeholders and benefits assessed.

Analysis builds on the results of the Edinburgh People’s Survey 2013, which found that the average Edinburgh resident visits a park in the city on 49 days in the year – almost one day a week.

Edinburgh’s parks: Their value

This analysis has allowed the Council to predict that by using City of Edinburgh Council’s parks:
Individuals will gain health and wellbeing benefits worth around £40.5 million
The impact on social inclusion and community capacity is calculated to be worth over £6 million
Local businesses and the economy will gain additional revenue from visitors to the parks in the region of £51 million
Schools, nurseries and colleges are able to provide outdoor educational experiences that equate to just under £1 million
The awareness and understanding gained by visitors of their local environment is valued at just under £5 million
For an investment of £9,684,000 in parks and green space by City of Edinburgh Council it is estimated benefits worth £114,191,000 are generated.

A (very) special uplift on Wednesday #StrongerNorth

Community Clean Poster 12 Nov 2014

New recycling service drives down landfill

50% increase in recycling ‘heartening’

A redesigned recycling service in Edinburgh is reducing the volume of rubbish being sent to landfill, new figures show. Residents using the new kerbside service have seen a 30% reduction in landfill waste, with homes now binning an average of 5kg a week compared to 7kg before the change.

Recycling has also increased in areas with the new service, and has risen from approximately 2kg to 3kg per week, a 50% increase.

Almost 20,000 households changed to the new collection service – which aims to simplify recycling, expanding capacity for different materials – in September and 17,000 more homes will receive the service, which will be rolled out in phases to 140,000 properties in total over the next year.

Environment Convener, Councillor Lesley Hinds, (above) said: “These figures are extremely heartening and demonstrate the impact the new service is bound to have on recycling in the city.

“There is no doubt we need to reduce the amount of waste being sent to landfill, and I am confident that the public will help us to achieve this, as the first phase of the roll-out has shown.

“As we introduce the service to more and more households, we will continue to learn from the process, making every effort to help people adjust to the changes.”

New grey bins will begin being delivered to phase two homes this week. On householders’ start date, their existing green wheelie bin will be emptied of general waste for the last time before being used for recycling. Blue boxes will still to be used for glass as well as small electrical items and food and garden recycling will continue as normal.

It is hoped increasing space and capacity for mixed recycling will support the Council’s pledge to recycle 70% of the city’s waste by 2025.

Juliet Shields, who lives in Craigentinny with her husband Colin and five-year-old son Conor, began using the new recycling service in September, and says it has changed her attitude to recycling.

She said: “Before the new service I didn’t recycle very much, so when I saw it was happening I thought ‘I’m going to have to get on top of this’. I’ve found the new service great – there’s so much more stuff we can get rid of, it just seems much better to me now.

“I’ve become a lot more aware of the importance of recycling having a son too, and I want to set him a good example. I think people are very enthusiastic about the new bins and system and for me it works really well.”

Joyce Grieve, who lives in Restalrig with her husband Derek and seven-week-old son Christopher, also began using the new service in September.

She said: “I love recycling, so I was doing it already – I don’t like to throw things away that we don’t need to. But I really like the new service, I love the fact we’ve got a bigger recycling bin now. Having a little one we’ve had a lot of boxes and presents and it’s great to be able to put it in a place where we can recycle them.”

As well as providing environmental benefits, increasing recycling rates can save the Council millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money spent on landfill costs.

Visit the recycling pages on the Council website for more information.