Dear All

Just a short note this week and apologies for the lack of Update last week.  I have been busy with number of issues for People and not just the ones that hit the headlines, I can assure you.  On Sunday we Councillors are doing the Kiltwalk, and our Councillor Team sponsorship targets are well and truly met. But if you still feel you can contribute, you would be more than welcome. I have walked my socks off this week and am looking forward to a more relaxed daily stroll or two after Sunday.  Callum is doing the full 25 miles, but we sensible women are starting off in Pinkie, Musselburgh at 11 am and walking west along Portobello Promenade, eventually ending up at Murrayfield. The Thistle Foundation is a really great cause and what they do matters hugely to those who benefit.  Click here:  https://edinburghkiltwalk2018.everydayhero.com/uk/maureen-4

The contract for Brighton Place carriageway reconstruction has been awarded and the work is scheduled to start on 24 September.  The work will give a proper solid foundation to the over 150 year old carriageway for first time. The original granite setts have lasted all that time and they have many hundreds more years of wear in them.  The first phase starts at the north end between Portobello High Street and the Lee Crescent junction.  The completion of this first phase will give a better estimate of how long the project should take to complete, weather permitting.  It will also allow for a break and reopening of Brighton Place from 1 December 2018 to 7 January 2019.  If we could all concentrate together on promoting local traders and businesses and minimising the disruption to people’s everyday lives and livelihoods, that would be great. This essential work has already been delayed for five long years.

We Local Councillors have a meeting with Portobello Golf Course users and then with Edinburgh Leisure this week to get a better idea of what any proposals might be for change of the use of that space and why.  As things stand, I believe the 9 hole Golf Course should remain and much more effort put in to promoting it as a facility, particularly with a sports hub and large secondary school as neighbours.  Nobody is opposed to change, but it has to be worthwhile, and sustainable, and the use by current golfers should be respected.

On the Powerleague/ Westbank Site, it is highly likely that the sale to the preferred private sector bidder will be halted and work done between Council, our local Community Group Action Westbank and the wider community to put together a planning brief for the site to which any possible future redevelopment proposals would have to conform.  This would bring this key Portobello site into line with the process being undertaken at Fountainbridge, Powderhall and Meadowbank, where community engagement comes first on Council owned sites, before we go to the market. All four local Councillors have been working together on this with Action Westbank and it very much in line with emerging Scottish Government Planning policy on placemaking – and very much the right thing to do.

Finally, the Edinburgh Shoreline Project is doing really fabulous work and the exhibition at the Botanic Gardens John Hope Gateway building has been extended, it has attracted so many visitors – and return visitors, like me last week when I might otherwise have been writing Update.  There will be local activity this Sunday afternoon to plant native species grown from seed at the Botanics, which will increase the biodiversity and interest of a stretch of the shoreline at Seafield. Find out all about it! http://edinburghshoreline.org.uk/about/

Kind regards

Maureen

Councillor Maureen Child

Labour Councillor Portobello/Craigmillar Ward

Office: 0131 529 3268

Mobile: 07718 666 481

Facebook Page: Maureen Child Standing Up for Portobello/Craigmillar

Twitter: @MaureenChild1

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