Category: Parks and Greenspaces

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Events on the Links in 2024? YOUR views, please!

The Community Council has been informed of some applications to hold events on the Links this spring / summer, and we are seeking local residents’ views on these.

We have to respond to these proposals asap, as far as possible representing the views of the local community.  At the moment, we are minded to object to one and approve of three others, as follows, but this is not ‘cast in stone’ and we could perhaps change our responses if local people feel strongly.

City of Edinburgh Council ‘Music Encounters’ – Saturday 16 March 2024 – LLCC  currently minded to approve

FLY – Summer of Love ‘92 – 2 day weekend, May 2024 – LLCC currently minded to object

Leith Festival Gala Day – Saturday 8th June 2024 – LLCC currently minded to approve

World Orienteering Championships (WOC) 2024 – Friday 12 July 2024 – LLCC currently minded to approve

Please can you use the comments below, or email us on contact@leithlinkscc.org.uk to make YOUR views known on each of these.

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Joy to the World

Seasons Greetings

If you were writing a new Christmas Panto script and you were looking for an idea, then Leith’s Christmas tree could be it.

Our sad tale begins in Leith with tram works and a modern-day plague.

Constitution Street and Leith Walk ripped up, and then Covid strikes.

The Christmas Tree that was installed and stood proudly in the Kirkgate for many, many years had to find a temporary home, and after little or no consultation a decision was taken by council officers to place a tree in Taylor Gardens instead, with 6 lights (4 working) added to lamp standards.

It’s a nice enough tree, but really not the true location where  Leithers would expect it to be, and that is something council officials don’t grasp in their decision making process.

It was supposed to be a temporary move, not permanent, but although it may tick boxes with council officers they miss the point of how the community view things.

When I first asked our elected councillors why the tree hadn’t returned to the Kirkgate, Councillor Faccenda kindly wrote to council officers and received a reply with reasons why it couldn’t go back to the Kirkgate. But all of those ‘problems’ really could have been worked out, had there been a willingness from council public servants.

“Unfortunately due to the installation of the Tram lines we are now unable to provide any festive Lighting on Leith Walk which involves working at height. The installation on a cut Christmas Tree involves using a telehandler to lift the tree into position and then a cherry picker later to install the lights”

Where there’s a will there’s always a way of achieving the impossible?

Someone in the council also had the idea to plant a fir tree in Taylor Gardens which could become the Leith Christmas tree of the future.

 

 

In reply to Councillor Faccenda the council said about this tree (- and please don’t laugh but I suppose it’s panto time. It’s behind you!)

The decision to move the Kirkgate Christmas Tree along the road to Taylor Park has enabled us to plant a tree which will hopefully be ready for dressing with lights within the next 5 years or so. We will continue to provide an 8m cut tree here until the planted tree is ready.

Now as I’m of a certain age and don’t have a life, I’m drawn to TV programmes like Gardeners’ World and Landward, and having done a few Christmas Quizzes I can confidently say that planted tree will not be ready in ‘less than 5 years’

Quiz answer is 15 years before an average Christmas tree is ready.

So why do council officers put nonsense in emails and expect us to accept what they say without challenging them? I suppose their get-out clause legally was ‘or so‘.

They apparently know even less about trees than me and it comes across that they really don’t care,and possibly haven’t been down to Leith to have a look because they call it Park not Gardens.

They reply in a confident ‘I know what I’m talking about because I’m a council officer’ manner then they don’t expect to be called out for nonsense speak, they expect the community to just say ok,move on.

However they miss the point that it’s not just about location of a tree on a spreadsheet.

They don’t take into account how people who live in the area view it, and have shared memories of good and bad times

The historic heart of Leith for a tree has, for as long as I can remember, been the Kirkgate beside Queen Victoria’s statue. If you take a walk down there today it looks drab and uncared for, and especially at this time of year it could do with some cheer.

We keep getting told that Leith is hip and has a vibrant community and is a top 10 destination as a place to visit and stay.

You wouldn’t think that if, as a tourist, you arrived at the Foot of the Walk by tram to an area that Christmas seemed to have by-passed all because of council bureaucracy which prior to lockdown had never been an issue.

But if you get it right, people will keep coming back, and spend money in our community, and tell their friends what a great place it is with friendly and helpful locals.

It doesn’t have to be over the top flashy lights.

It just has to be welcoming, which is supposedly what we in Leith are good at.

I would like the community to support me in bringing the tree back to the Kirkgate in 2024 and hopefully with help from local businesses in the Kirkgate, to brighten the place up.

Take a trip out to Davidson Mains Street or the front at South Queensferry and you will see what some communities and businesses can achieve at this time of year.

Let me know what you think, and more importantly hit the email inboxes of your elected Leith Councillors, MP and MSP

Don’t moan, just drop them a quick email: BRING BACK THE CHRISTMAS TREE TO THE KIRKGATE

Yes, I know life is hellish at the moment for many, many people, and you can’t eat Christmas trees, but let’s give it a go for our own pride and self-respect returning.

Thanks, and have a peaceful and enjoyable festive holiday.

Jim Scanlon MBE

Chair, Leith Links Community Council

 

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Next meeting Leith Links Community Council, Monday 30 October, 6:30pm, online (Teams)

The next meeting of the Leith Links Community Council will be held on Monday 30 October at 6:30pm. This meeting will be online (MicroSoft Teams).

Agenda for meeting, 30 October 23
Previous Minutes (September 2023)

Miles Wilkinson from City of Edinburgh Council will attend to provide an update on the Low Traffic Neighbourhood, and to answer questions, and take feedback. Otherwise the Agenda covers the usual range of topics from Planning Applications to Bin hub locations etc.

Interested members of the local community are welcome to attend this meeting, and to raise any points of concern. Please email contact@leithlinkscc.org.uk to request, and you will be sent the link.

 

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Leith Links Activity Park Consultation – please give your views now!

You may remember a community picnic we ran in July 2021 to ask local people what they would like to see developed on the Links, and in particular in the derelict building and the bowling greens area.
      
Since then, a Working Group has been developing a 10yr concept Masterplan for Leith Links. The group is composed of Leith Councillors, City of Edinburgh Council staff (the ‘Thriving Greenspaces Project’), and representatives of a number of local organisations, such as Leith Links Community Council, Earth in Common, Duncan Place. The draft master plan (which was put out to public consultation in summer 2022 and received very positive support) creates a vision for the future, but in order for it to happen, it needs funding (which is currently not yet in place), resource and – very importantly – local support.
The masterplan includes suggestions for a number of interesting developments, in various areas of the park. An ‘urgent’ area for development is the old bowling greens area, and this is being addressed by a sub group of the Working Group,calling itself Leith Links Activity Park. Along with some landscape architects, they have put together a vision of what this could look like.
It includes a skatepark – which consistently came out top in all earlier consultations – but also a number of other exciting possibilities such as a pump track/bike trail, roller skate rink, bouldering rocks, petanque court, water play area etc. Now consultation is needed to see which of these are most popular.
A public consultation is live until the 10 October to get feedback from the community on the design and all the ideas. Please fill in your views! And please share as widely as possible across all your networks to make sure everyone who might be affected gets to see it and comment.:

A Letter from – the concert promoters

Regular Music, the promoters of the Proclaimers concert next weekend have written this letter to the community of local residents:

Concerts at Leith Links, Edinburgh

Saturday 17-Sunday 18 June 2023

The Proclaimers

Dear Neighbour

We would like to inform you that we are staging 2 concerts with The Proclaimers in a big top tent at Leith Links on Saturday 17 June and Sunday 18 June 2023.

The concert arena doors will be open to ticket holders from 4.00pm and the concerts are scheduled to end at 10pm. There will be licensed bars and food village available for the attendees. 

From Sunday 11 June until Friday 16 June we will be setting up the concert arena and from Monday 19 June until Thursday 22 June we will be removing all the infrastructure from the site. Please note that we will be checking that the sound system is working correctly on the afternoon and early evening of Friday 16 June.

If you would like to contact us in advance of the event or with any issues during the event then please contact us on the following email or telephone no.

Email: info@regularmusic.com

Phone: 07983 596786

O Christmas Tree O Christmas Tree

In last weeks Evening News, there was an article detailing where the council would be installing Christmas trees around the city this year. Leith wasn’t mentioned.

Last year because of ongoing tram works the council decided not to put one at the usual central Leith spot at the Kirkgate.  I know we all have enough on our minds with fuel and food costs going through the roof but a bit of Christmas cheer would be welcomed.

When I asked why another location couldn’t be found to place a tree, I was informed that the council had planted one in Taylor Gardens.

Exhibit 1

The council did eventually install a full size tree, which we welcomed, but could have been placed more centrally possibly at the Shore outside Malmaison or outside Bank of Scotland in the Kirkgate where many more tourists and Leithers pass during the day.

This year we had the same excuse about tram works for no tree at the Kirkgate but the council told us they had planted a tree beside Leith Library.

Exhibit 2

The council also intend to install a full size tree in Taylor Gardens but when I passed there yesterday there was one Christmas light from the bottom of Leith Walk stuck on a lamp post.

Why have I decided to moan? Because I feel the people of Leith deserve better and have stoically put up with continual disruption to their lives from ongoing tram and road works.

Having had a year to investigate alternative sites, it should have been simple for the council to find somewhere for a tree in Leith’s historic centre where more people pass including much welcomed visits from tourists.

Rightly or wrongly it does give the impression that the council really don’t care.

From an environmental point of view I applaud them for their tree planting but it could be 20 years before these trees are mature enough to be decorated.

After all Leith has been through over the last few years surely it’s not a lot to ask for a Christmas tree to be located in the heart of the community to be enjoyed by all.

Jim Scanlon MBE

Chair, Leith Links Community Council

 

 

 

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Trees in Pots, the latest instalment….

Following the dry spell in the spring / summer when they all nearly died, some of the trees in pots at the foot of Easter Road / Academy Lofts / Leith Links have now been offered a new life. Four of them have now gone to live on a farm (sorry – in a park) liberated from their pots and free to wiggle their roots, grow, express their authentic selves, and live their lives out – hopefully – in peace and harmony.

The Parks Dept. have now taken them away from the Academy Lofts entrance to Leith Links. The big, rusty, graffitied iron pots are gone.

The trees will be relocated into the ground somewhere – either elsewhere on Leith Links (we hope) or in another park.

Overall, this is probably a good thing. We wish them ‘Bon Voyage’ and ‘Have a happy life!’

That leaves 9 other trees in pots still in the area – one outside the Persevere (dead), which we’ll keep trying to get removed, and (living) 3 outside Tesco’s car park on Easter Road, 4 outside the front of Academy Lofts on Duke Street and one on Duncan Place opposite Academy Lofts. Please can we as a local community continue to keep an eye out for them and water them next spring as and when they look like they need it? (It was amazing earlier this year how they all arose from the apparently dead and perked up,  as soon as they got watered and rained on!)

Remembering Lost Leithers

It’s always a shock when you hear about the death of a much loved Leither. 

This week has been particularly bad with the deaths of three people who contributed so much to our community.

The Queen of Leith, Mary Moriarty died last week and her funeral is on Tuesday 25th October. A service will be held in South Leith Parish Church at 12pm then on to Seafield Crematorium (limited spaces). You will then have the chance to raise a glass to Mary in The Dockers Club and share your memories with friends.

Mary was well known in Leith, not only as the owner of the famous Port of Leith pub where many a fun night was had, but also for her many years of hard work with Leith Festival helping it survive through good times and bad.

From my window I remember that on the day before the gala Mary would be out on the Links spraying and numbering the pitches for the gala day stalls.

She was always there at the crack of dawn on the Saturday and still there hours after the last stall had left with a litter picker and black bin bag making sure the park was cleaner than how she had found it.

I’m proud to say that I knew Mary for many years, and she will be sorely missed by many of us in the Leith community who will all have our fond memories of her. She could always make you smile even when you were feeling down.

I also lost another friend, Jim Tweedie recently who died over a week ago and his funeral is on Friday, 28 October, Warriston Crematorium at 2pm. 

Jim was a hard working member of the Leith Community and Chair of Leith Local History Society preserving our history and informing new residents about our rich past.

The society continue to meet on the third Tuesday in the month in the community centre and with a series of monthly talks.

Jim and I were also on the steering group to save Custom House for the people of Leith and with the help of local councillors, especially Councillor Gordon Munro the city council was persuaded to purchase the building using Common Good Funding. Work to establish a heritage display in the building is ongoing.

Finally, Davie Jeneil who ran a successful jewellers shop in Great Junction Street for over 30 years providing gifts for the many birthdays, weddings and celebrations of Leithers.

I also knew Davie as a great supporter of Leith Rules Golf Society. His family always put in a team for the Foulis Medal. A fun competition on the Links every year using hickory golf clubs which is open to local Leith businesses and community groups.

When Davie’s son in law turned up to play, I always thought we would be quicker just handing him the medal because he is such an excellent player.

Davie also supported the society by providing the quaichs and engravings for our other team events and again he will be sorely missed by all who knew him.

On behalf of Leith Links Community Council, I would like to extend our condolences and best wishes to the family and friends of all these great Leithers who we will all miss.

Jim Scanlon MBE

Chair 

Leith Links Community Council

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Public Toilets on Leith Links will close for the winter, 28th October 2022

Leith Links Community Council has been given notice (well, actually, we had to ask for the information) that the public toilets on Leith Links will be closed for the winter on 28th October 2022. They will be physically removed shortly after that date. Enjoy them while they are still here!

This is not a change of plan – these these toilets were always intended to be temporary, as they were last year.

The design of the Leith Links MasterPlan (in discussion) does include permanent public toilets but that is a long term (10 year) plan, not a ‘quick fix’. For the moment it is up to us as a community to keep confirming to the Council that we need these mobile temporary public toilets and will be looking forward to seeing them back again next spring.

 

 

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