Gorgie Dalry Community Council

We are pleased to report that the City of Edinburgh Council has responded to our Spaces for People suggestions and survey results for safer physical distancing measures in Gorgie and Dalry!

The council officer wrote to Cllr Ashley Graczyk’s follow up enquiry:

“We have been working on this for the last week and the survey information carried out by GDCC has been extremely useful in designing the proposed temporary measures which could lead to more permanent changes. Once the proposals have been checked they will be presented to Local Councillors and Community Councils for comment. We are aiming for the measures to be implemented in June and hopefully early June. Please pass on our thanks to GDCC as their work was really helpful.”

An absolutely huge thank you to everyone who took the time to fill out, share, and support our survey!

We will update further when we have more detail on the proposed temporary measures.

LOVE Gorgie Farm have compiled a list of organisations offering a variety of support in and around the Gorgie Dalry area, which are pleased to share and have added to. Please consult this list if you need or know someone needing help at this difficult time.

We urge those who can afford it to support these organisations doing vital work in our community, any way you can.

Food Banks

For location of foobdanks not on the map (listed here), click on the name of each foodbank:

Broomhouse Hub: offering hot, chilled, ready meals, and food parcels for pick up or delivery. This is either on a voucher system distributed to the families of children on free school meals or by referral from social workers, GPs, or other agencies. Referral forms can be obtained from Chrysa at events@spacescot.org

Community One Stop Shop: self-referral foodbank Mon-Thurs 10am-3pm, Fri 10am-12pm

Edinburgh Food Project: If you need help the quickest way is to call 0131 444 0030 You can also email: info@edinburghnw.foodbank.org.uk

Edible Estates: offering to deliver food parcels – email to contact: Stacey@thehealthagency.org.uk or emma@thehealthagency.org.uk

LOVE Gorgie Farm: food bank can be accessed by emailing gorgie@l-o-v-e.org.uk or messaging them on social media.

Oxgangs Community Church: offers food shopping and collecting of prescriptions. Have some funds for essential/emergency food provision. Please contact matt@oxgangs.church

Salvation Army Gorgie: foodbank open on Mon/Wed/Fri from 1-3pm

SCORE Community Fridge: is providing home deliveries and will only be delivering to those who need emergency food. For more information contact the office on 0131 442 2341.

St Salvador’s Church: self-referral foodbank every Wednesday from 12-1.30pm

Stenhouse Primary: free packed lunches every weekday outside Stenhouse Baptist Church (1.30-2.30pm).

Tynecastle High School: Tynecastle High School foodbank (as promoted by Big Hearts) will be open for drop in collections on a Thursday (9am-midday) and referrals and self-referrals can be made on 0131 603 4928. Deliveries and pickups. Collections available from the BMC club on Gorgie Road next to Sainsbury’s.

 

Health and Well-being

Health All Round and The Health Agency

Health All Round and The Health Agency have a range of exercise classes available via Facebook. They are on Facebook but you can access them without having an account.

https://www.facebook.com/Health-All-Round-271272086242375

https://www.facebook.com/WesterHailesHealthAgency/

Home Start Edinburgh West and South West

Home Start Edinburgh West and South West continue to offer free and confidential distance support for families with at least one child under 5. Support can be 1:1 with a member of staff or a trained volunteer who can call, video call or message regularly. In addition, we run online Peep groups for parents with babies to chat, sing, and read stories. Home Start also has access to a discretionary Save the Children Emergency Fund for families referred by their Health Visitor or a partner organisation. If you’d like to find out more we will pick up messages from our voicemail on 0131-564-1540, or e-mail us at help@hsew.org.uk. You can also follow them on Facebook where they are providing daily updates and activity ideas:

https://en-gb.facebook.com/HomeStartEdinburghWestSouthWest/

 

Donate

LOVE Gorgie Farm: https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/LoveGorgie

• They also have an Amazon Wishlist for their small animals: https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/1U51K7PPGAJ2S/ref=nav_wishlist_lists_1?_encoding=UTF8&type=wishlist

Big Hearts: http://www.bighearts.org.uk/support-us/donations/

Salvation Army Gorgie: https://donate.salvationarmy.org.uk/b/my-donation?cid=279&_cv=1

The Welcoming: https://www.thewelcoming.org/donate/

 

If you run a project in Gorgie and Dalry and want to be listed on this page, please send us a message: https://gorgiedalrycc.org.uk/contact-2/

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis we will be holding our monthly Public Meetings online until further notice. Our next meeting is at 7pm on Monday 1st June. Please send any items to be included on the agenda to gorgiedalrycc@hotmail.com by Monday 25th May.

Join us to find out what’s been happening in your local community, or bring an issue to our attention. Whether you want to promote a community activity or are concerned about an issue which affects local residents, we can either help you or put you in touch with someone who can!

Agenda – Monday 1st June

• Welcome
• Present and apologies
• Matters arising & minutes of previous meeting
• Planning
• Correspondence
  • New website
  • Signposting coronavirus support
  • Spaces for People update
  • CV Enterprises
• Treasurer’s Report
• Councillors Reports
• Parks
• Events
• Any Other Council Business (AOCB)
• Date of Next Meeting (DONM)

If you wish to join the meeting on Zoom, whether using your computer or by dialling in over the phone, please contact us: gorgiedalrycc@hotmail.com and we will send you the details. We are following this approach to improve the online security of the meeting.

If you know someone who would like to join, but is not connected to the internet, please email us and we will do everything we can to facilitate their participation via the phone!

At our last meeting the community council supported the notion of trying to increase the available space for active travel and social distancing. We have been surveying the community for their opinions and ideas, this survey has received a large amount of engagement with 73 respondents over a few days. We have also contacted Sustrans and the officers at the City of Edinburgh Council, Sustrans responded with advice on how to proceed and the funding available and we are still waiting for a reply from the council.

The council prior to a meeting with councillors on creating space for people in Edinburgh’s streets published a document “Creating Safe Spaces for Walking and Cycling”, this details the type of interventions the council are considering. We appreciate that Gorgie and Dalry are mentioned in the document as an example of where footways could be widened, public space extended and cycle lanes created.

However, we are concerned that the situation in Gorgie and Dalry is not being viewed as a priority. The proposed measures on Gorgie and Dalry roads are to be delivered on the longest timescale, with an estimated completion in July or later. This is not at all consistent with the summary in the report relating to our area, which states that “ Busy and narrow footways will mean physical distancing will be impossible as people return.” We agree with this assessment of our footways as often being narrow, our survey found that 98.6% of respondents thought that areas are too narrow to socially distance . We can assume that 36% of respondents don’t use or have access to a car, and 67% have said that their use of public transport has decreased , having alternative solutions to travelling safely around the city is required as many won’t have the option of the car.

Our full submission of Key Findings and suggestions to city councillors (PDF)

Spaces For People Survey: summarised responses (PDF)

Accordingly, we would ask the council to seriously look at accelerating the time scales for interventions in our area. We do understand the council has limited capacity to make these types of interventions however Gorgie and Dalry are prime candidates. With the geography of the area being one constrained by railways and large roads, those living in this area necessarily use either Gorgie or Dalry Roads; these both have narrow pavements and are difficult for pedestrians. Unlike many areas in Edinburgh the majority live in tenement flats with little access to garden space and large parks. The demography of the area according to SIMD is less prosperous than our neighbouring areas to the North or South; social equity demands that our areas not be ignored and left behind.

Thank you to everyone who filled out the survey and contacted us about this issue! If you have more you would like to raise about Spaces for People please send us a comment or an email: gorgiedalrycc@hotmail.com

 

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis we will be holding our monthly Public Meetings online until further notice. Our next meeting is at 7pm on Monday 4th May.

Join us to find out what’s been happening in your local community, or bring an issue to our attention. Whether you want to promote a community activity or are concerned about an issue which affects local residents, we can either help you or put you in touch with someone who can!

If you wish to join the meeting on Zoom, whether using your computer or by dialling in over the phone, please contact us: gorgiedalrycc@hotmail.com and we will send you the details. We are following this approach to improve the online security of the meeting.

If you know someone who would like to join, but is not connected to the internet, please email us and we will do everything we can to facilitate their participation via the phone!

Agenda

• Welcome
• Present and apologies
• Matters arising & minutes of previous meeting
• Planning
  • Haymarket Yards
• Correspondence
  • Social/Physical distancing challenges
  • Potential Food Bank Donation
• Treasurer’s Report
• Social Media Report
  • ‘About’ section of website (separate paper will be shared at the meeting)
• Councillors Reports
• Parks
  • Park Clean-ups
• Events
  • Gorgie Dalry Gala Day meeting update
• Any Other Council Business (AOCB)
• Date of Next Meeting (DONM)

For minutes of previous meetings please see: https://gorgiedalrycc.org.uk/minutes-of-meetings/

We look forward to seeing you (online)!

Planning application for student accommodation at 24 Westfield Road

Response due by 28th May

Gorgie Dalry Community Council voted to support the Scotmid development on Gorgie Road after several in-depth discussions with the developers and consultation with the local residents who attended our meetings. The design was modified and improved during the course of these discussions.

We are all volunteers and based our decision on the information available to us at the time.

Several local residents attended our meeting on the 1st April to express their opposition to the Scotmid Development. After listening to their concerns, we chose to meet to discuss the situation. We were, however, advised that 7 days notice would have to be given for a properly constituted meeting of the community council that would be able to reverse a previous decision (if based on incorrect, erroneous or incomplete information). As the final date for planning submissions is the 8th of April, we were not able to vote again on the issue.

We had advertised the Scotmid consultation in November:

https://gorgiedalrycc.org.uk/2018/11/05/gorgie-road-scotmid-public-consultation-6th-and-7th-nov-2018/

And posted in advance the agendas of two of the meetings where Scotmid attended.

https://gorgiedalrycc.org.uk/agendas-of-meetings/

The next Gorgie Dalry Community Council meeting will be at 6.30pm on Monday 4th February in Gorgie Dalry Parish Church. Note the early start time.

Agenda

•  A presentation by Ross Manson on an update on their revised plans for the Scotmid development.
• Sean Glilchrist with a presentation on pavement improvements.
• A presentation on student accommodation at Westfield.