Joy for Walled Garden campaigners but Granton sur Mer is sunk once again Continue reading Mixed fortunes for Granton groups
Tag: Granton Sur Mer
Community Regeneration: what is it all about?
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
Granton Sur Mer to set sail once again?
Remember Granton Sur Mer? The imaginative scheme to establish an international garden competition, artists’ village and seafront lido constructed from sea containers? The scheme seemed to have sunk without trace, but now it appears the Granton Sur Mer initiative is afloat once again!
Granton Improvement Society is the name of the organisation taking the regeneration ideas forward and they are staging a presentation of updated plans tomorrow (Wednesday 30 October).
Society secretary Barbara Robertson said: “Trustees would like to invite you to come to a presentation on Wednesday 30th October, of the community regeneration project for the Walled Garden www.granton-sur-mer.co.uk and surrounding sites which will be transformed into the Garden Festival, Artisans’ Village and Lido,
“This exciting and dynamic project in Granton will not only bring community benefit, employment, fun, leisure and learning opportunities to North Edinburgh but will develop into Edinburgh’s next Festival. This will certainly add to Edinburgh’s reputation as a Festival City, gold medal winner of Britain in Bloom, World Heritage City and a great, green place to live and work for all of its people.”
participants can enjoy a site visit at 11am followed by a light lunch at Royston Wardieburn Community Centre, a project presentation by Studio DuB’s Gordon Duffy with an open discussion planned to end the afternoon session.
Interested and like to find out more? Contact
barbara.robertson@grantonimprovementsociety.org
or telephone 551 3050.
Granton sur Mer will sink without community support
Plans to revitalise derelict land on the waterfront will collapse without the support of the local community, organisers have warned. JUMP (Joined Up Master Planning) organised a public meeting in Telford College last week to harness support for their plans – but only six members of the public attended.
JUMP’s vision for Granton’s waterfront – plans include a lido, a garden festival and an artist’s village – have been on the table for two years now, but it’s been a saga of frustration with no tangible progress. JUMP received lottery funding last year to conduct a local consultation exercise, and Thursday’s meeting was seen as an opportunity to update the local community and take the project on to the next stage. With only a handful of people attending, however, organisers are being forced to rethink their strategy.
Architect Ross McEwan, JUMP’s project manager, said: “Granton Sur Mer is a real opportunity to do something creative with derelict land that is currently lying idle. We have come forward with these ideas – ideas that will bring employment, money and leisure opportunities not just to North Edinburgh but the whole city. Our business plan stacks up and it’s so frustrating that we have been unable to take these ideas forward”.
Ross and partner Shaeron Averbuch recently visited Chaumont sur Loire in France and have seen what can be achieved. He is convinced that, with community support, Granton Sur Mer can become a reality.
“We are a very small community group and we just don’t have the resources for big marketing and public relations campaigns. There are things we could maybe have handled better but it has been very hard to get our message out. We really want to work with local people on these plans – nothing is written on tablets of stone, the project name could change if people don’t like it, our ideas for the land could be adapted if the community comes up with alternatives. But what we really need now is for local residents to show their support for the project – if they don’t, the idea is basically dead and we believe that would be a massive missed opportunity for this community”.
JUMP needs to attract local members to keep their waterfront vision alive. If you support the project’s aims or would like further information, telephone 551 2341 or email info@jump-projects.co.uk. An on-line petition can also be accessed at www.granton-sur-mer.co.uk
Community project awarded grant for Granton Sur Mer
Local community project Joined Up Master Planning (JUMP) have been awarded a grant from the Awards for All strand of the
Lottery to carry out a detailed community consultation on their plans for the Walled Garden area at the waterfront.
Project manager Ross McEwan said “JUMP have just received an Awards for All National Lottery grant of £10,000 to consult with the people of North Edinburgh about the use of derelict land on the Waterfront for the Granton sur Mer project. The main piece of land in question is the Walled Garden just behind Caroline Park House. This major part is owned by City of Edinburgh Council through it’s “arms” length company Waterfront Edinburgh Ltd. They just want to sell it without any community benefit.”
A council spokesperson said “We are working closely on a number of projects aimed at continuing the regeneration of the waterfront area. A developer working with an established national care home operator has agreed terms for the purchase of the walled garden site and proposals are currently being drawn up.”
Ross continued “The £1m now is all they will get and the local community will see nothing from that. What we would be giving over a ten-year period would be £6m. It is short-term economic madness.
“What impact would a care home have? You would have maybe 30 bed spaces, about 20-30 full-time jobs and nothing back into the local economy.
“The benefits are nil if a private care home operator owns one of the best sites in Edinburgh for only £1m.”
The Granton Sur Mer scheme was to include an outdoor swimming pool created from four sea containers sunk into waste ground and filled with solar-heated sea water. Changing rooms and a snack bar were also to be created.
Mr McEwan claims that his own group’s proposals would generate up to £600,000 a year through rental income from artist studios and revenue from a cafe, as well as proceeds from the garden festival.
He said that positive talks had been held with two grant-awarding bodies, while banks had expressed interest in providing funding. Any grant funding would rely on a land agreement being secured.
He said: “It is the most realistic project on the table for the Waterfront and it would not be spoiling the area with yet more blocks of mundane buildings.”