19/05/23: Opinion: Challenges in North-West Edinburgh

Edinburgh Association of Community Councils

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19 May 2023: Queensferry & District CC Chair, Keith Giblett, highlights the pressure points.

North West Edinburgh was a late addition to LDP 1 (2016) and following rejection by the Scottish Government on the grounds that the number of new homes in Edinburgh had to be increased, a land bank for additional homes had to be found. Predominantly North West Edinburgh fulfilled a good part of the land bank needed.

Additional homes were to be built in Cammo, Cramond, Kirkliston, Ratho and Queensferry and so were added to LDP 1. A considerable number of objections were lodged from the locality, ward councillor’s, community councils and constituents to no avail. The main objections were a lack of improved facilities, schools provision, health provision, road improvements, and public transport improvements.

As we see these homes coming out of the ground and population increasing, what we don’t see, contrary to what the communities were told by Planning Officers, is the funding and commitment to improving the services.

Little thought was or has been given during these extensive consultations and subsequent planning applications as to how the actual plans are to be delivered. The development sites are solely housing with no surrounding land for building local businesses, facilities for local employment or for delivering council, health or essential services.

The City of Edinburgh Council’s objectives within 2030 City Plan (LDP 2), 20-Minute Neighbourhood and Low Emission Zoness are going to be extremely difficult to deliver for 2030 unless there is radical re-think with the strategy.

More recently, we have seen business with suitable sites for housing development moving into the city centre with loss of local jobs and making it necessary for employees to travel. An example is Ove-Arup, a business that has worked out of Queensferry for some years, with 80 employees. The buildings they occupied are to be developed into 23 luxury homes.

Presently CEC are holding consultations about school provision; a new West Edinburgh High School was to be built but there are no plans as yet. The preference from the consultation is that Kirkliston has its own High School built. In the interim pupils from Kirkliston will go the Queensferry High School, but CEC don’t know how they will be accommodated once the school reaches 1200 pupil’s capacity. Primary school education is another problem with a new school to be built, but plans are not even being discussed so temporary buildings are being added to existing schools.

We are seeing businesses ‘future-proofing’ commercial and retail property sites by seeking change-of-use from office accommodation to housing. CEC Planning advise that there is nothing that prohibits this kind action. I’m aware that this is a city-wide problem.

Public transport in North West Edinburgh is a serious problem. Few services have changed over the years and the statement made that an increased population would increase and improve public transport hasn’t been reflected in delivery. Through Covid it has been necessary to consolidate public transport; the recent changes being made to the bus service for Cramond is an example. Bus services are built around profitable routes unless they are supported from S.75 monies or are council-supported; so, unless the service providers see profit in a route then little will change. North-West Edinburgh patients will be directed to St John’s hospital for medical treatment and there are very few bus services to take you there. The other factor is that generally bus services take you into the City Centre and not across the city so to travel by bus from West Edinburgh to Sighthill or further south is difficult.

End/KG

EACC into 2025:

1. EACC moves through its AGM in late November. It has to structure itself to help community councils with their transition through the elections in February 2025. We all have the opportunity to participate in meeting with CEC to push for strong promotion of a positive community council message beforehand. Community councils will have to play their own part in promoting their image and their purpose, along with finding new, active members and supporters to help them deliver their community undertaking. It’s an important time. Here is an interpretation of the key issues.

2. Recognition and purpose: From the Scheme Framework, community councils have a wide remit as ‘key community representative bodies’. That goes well beyond ‘planning and licensing’. The public need to know this. A well-functioning community council is a bridge to City Chambers, to Elected Councillors, to public agencies and to local business. If people don’t speak up on local issues, they can’t be heard. If they aren’t heard, they won’t be listened to. The community council’s job is to knock hard on the doors that matter. CEC’s attitude must be to welcome the call, not resent the intrusion.

3. Keeping posture and balance: A CC has to be apolitical and has to guard against being used or ‘gamed’ by special interest groups. I like the line taken by Ian Doig (Merchiston Chair) that community councils should position to stand as ‘critical friends’ of CEC, marking the Council’s cards as independent partners in the quest to make the city a good place in which to live and work. Community councils have to work together to ‘push back’ on CEC when it’s right to do so, challenging ‘tick box’ Council consultation conclusions or its cursory dismissals of studied local views offered on (say) planning and transport issues, negating the related CEC working assumptions of ‘community compliance’. This is difficult and exasperating at times. However, as ‘key community representative bodies’, that is what community councils are charged to do.

5. Having the right structure: Community councils have to work to get rid of the ‘talking shop’ image. They have to be seen as more purposeful and resourceful. The right approach is to set up as you would a ‘small business enterprise’, to be structured and run on as ‘professional’ a basis as possible. That means a big focus on ‘back office’ resourcing (secure tech, desktop publishing, communications and social media use, underpinned by accessible professional support). It also means a sharp focus on the ‘business objective’, getting things done. It really means having the financial backing to meet all reasonable operating expenses, from accommodating the community council’s meeting programme to accessing the kit it has to have.

6. The business objective: I see this as being to reach proactively into the community, establish how residents feel about what is happening in their city and around them, then to deliver purposefully that range of opinion back to CEC and other public agencies; all of this on a rolling basis. The community council needs to be the first mover. The function is close to that of a communications and opinion polling enterprise. I know that needs skills, experience, kit and backup not readily to hand in many cases, but a start can be made on the journey to acquire them. Let’s see what emerges from the discussions with CEC on their new commitments to community council promotion and support.

(KR: 8 Oct 24: In shaping this personal statement, my thanks to Richard Allen, Colin Anderson, Ian Doig, David Houston, Bill Krol, Tommy McLean, Bill Rodger, Peter Scott, Nick Stewart, Douglas Tharby.)