Throwing stones in Restalrig Road, East Restalrig Terrace and Restalrig Terrace - Campaign Day 11

Young people have been taking stones from people's gardens and then throwing them at houses, windows and cars. Small nuisance behaviour like this costs people money, but also lets the area down. Co-operation and consistent effort in this area can make the difference.

Blackie Rd, Gldstone Pl, Summerfield Gdns, Claremont ..., East Hermitage Pk - Campaign Day 10

Prostitution is an issue of concern to local residents. I believe that prostitution can operate safely away from residential areas.

Leith Links - Campaign Day 10

The Links can be like the Meadows for this part of the city - a huge attraction for all ages. To do this we have to be strong on issues such as dog fouling and drinking.

Lindsay Road - Campaign Day 10

It's a sad fact but a poor tone in an area attracts poor behaviour...and setting a better tone can improve that behaviour.

Restalrig Road and Summerfield Gardens - Campaign Day 7

Speaking to residents in Restalrig Road, Summerfield Gardens and Gladstone Place today I was given a better idea of some of the issues in the area. Restalrig Road is a very attractive street with a lovely view from the hill looking West. Summerfield is a pleasant street that opens into the Links, and Gladstone Place is a collection of stately tenements that gaze onto the Links.

Residents spoke of some familiar issues:

Anti-social behaviour in the street and young people gathering at street corners being intimidating have been problems. Most residents said that it was a lack of something to do. Nonetheless, there had been vandalism of cars and cracked windows because of people throwing stones at houses. I do not think that a lack of something to do can excuse gratuitous vandalism: the Links is only 50 metres away.

Prostitution was cited as a problem at the bottom of Restalrig Road. A phone box was being used, and, so one resident told me, had her stair. (It had no intercom entry system.) This has been a persistent problem though residents have always been sympathetic to the women themselves.

The Prostitution problem was shifted from one area to the above streets. It was done for the sake of new developments and people maintaining their house price value. But the same argument applies to these streets.

I believe a strong residents campaign, persistent use of CCTV and police resources, can move the problem further East to non-residential areas of Seafield Road. This will save the area from the feelings of intimidation that some people, especially female dog walkers at night, have experienced; it will also stop this part of residential Leith being a dumping ground for problems that no one else wants.

Portland Street Again - Campaign Day 6

It will come as little surprise to some that anti-social behaviour is one of the main issues for many people. Sadly, it is often people who live in their own area who spoil it. This was brought home forcefully to me today when, in Portland Street, I met a young couple. Having now been in hundreds of stairwells I would have to give this one the prize of 'most graffitied'. It was in a terrible state.

This was a bought house in a stairwell that was a mixture of council and bought. When I saw the mess and suggested to the couple that they apply, as a stair, for an intercom system, they told me that the graffiti and minor vandalism had been done by young people up the stair! And that the council were installing an intercom system to help prove that the graffiti was done by people in the stairwell.

Now once the council have evidence, then something can be done, but until the intercom is installed the evidence cannot be gathered, and...if the intercom is broken? Does that invalidate the evidence that it is people inside not outside doing the graffiti? It does not appear a strategy that is well-thought through.

Issues like this make a huge difference to the quality of people's lives and it is one where action is important.

Portland Street, Madeira Street and Prince Regent Street - Campaign Day 5

Without doubt there are many areas of Leith Ward that are extremely beautiful. Unfortunately, some of these areas suffer from neglect. I believe we should be preserving and enhancing our beautiful streets and buildings in this part of the city.

Largo Place - Campaign Day 4

Just off Ferry Road there is a lovely street, easily missed, called Largo Place. It is right next to a park that should be a pleasant place for the community to both look at and use. But some behaviour, especially in the summer, is spoiling it.

East Hermitage Place - Objections

With the proposed extension to a local guest house that has been cited as being problematic in the area by residents (see previous blog), some people have asked me whether anything can be done.

'Yes' is the short answer.


April the 11th is the deadline for objections to the proposed extension. People in the area can write to the following address and make their objections known. Residents have advised me that their objections have fallen mainly on the grounds of health and safety, the fact that it's an area for families, and anti-social behaviour issues. Make sure you quote the planning application number: 07/00277/FUL

Planning Department
City of Edinburgh
Waverley Court
4 East Market Street
EH8 8BG

Campaign Day 2 - Responsibility in the community at the Colonies

A guest house on East Hermitage Place has been taking guests that have caused problems in the local area. Residents have complained of -

- tips stolen from a local restaurant

- staff pestered for money during breaks

- discarded bottles and needles

- drinking at 9am as children go to school

- noise during the night

The guest house has been used to help relieve Edinburgh's housing needs. However, there is little management or concern about what its patrons are doing in the local area.

There are even plans to expand the building to 25 rooms. This has alarmed local people greatly. One resident said to me: 'I'm sympathetic, but enough is enough. The plan is to expand the house and makes the rooms tiny: it's inhuman.'
This resident, although objecting to patrons' behaviour, still felt concern at the small space vulnerable people were to be housed in. People I spoke to were sympathetic, up to a point. The point being their and others safety.

Another resident, a mother of two, said: 'I don't want to be taking my children to school with needles lying on the ground. I don't want my kids to see that. We're a community down here and we all look out for one another.'

I am glad that the council participates in a compassionate policy towards vulnerable people or people undergoing difficulties, however, there has to be a shared understanding of what is acceptable in a community. Communities should have the final say on what their children are exposed to and what surrounds them. The policy should be operated very tightly and immediate action taken if patrons or proprietor are not living up to their end of the bargain. I do not believe that people should make money without a responsibility to the community they operate in.

Making Change Work on the Waterfront

The whole of Leith Ward are facing the massive changes of thousands of new homes. This means a greater demand for services and amenities. I think that it is important that we work, in this time of change, to preserve our older communities that make Leith Ward so distinctive and integrate the new.

Guesthouses used in East Hermitage Park

A few residents I met in the colonies that adjoin East Hermitage Park have raised concerns about a guesthouse that receives people from difficult backgrounds. People have been found drinking and then littering in the area, according to some residents, and there has been an incident of petty theft in a local cafe.

Generally, people I have spoken to are sympathetic. There is a concern that some may be abusing trust. However, there is also a policy to think about. Putting people into guesthouses may meet an immediate need, but if that is creating new problems in a new area, then the way the whole policy operates needs to be looked at again.

Anti-Social Letting in Hermitage Park

Residents in Hermitage Park were telling me of a young girl who had been assigned to the flat above them. She was very young, and acted in ways that could be described as less than considerate to her neighbours: inviting people back to party until the early hours - noise in the morning. Residents complained of having to take days off because of lack of sleep.

The young girl had been housed there by Orchard and Shipman. A letting agency that, so I'm told, will house people on behalf of local government. And this tenant was part of a trial run. Apparently, the scheme works down South where people who are unable to find accomodation or who need new accomodation will be put somewhere by Orchard and Shipman on the Council's behalf.

Residents were angry because many who were affected by this scheme were not consulted, and the company were less than cooperative with residents' complaints. According to one resident: 'We were told that there were to be no people admitted into this flat who have had an ASBO served on them. This young girl had three!'

There are 24 000 people who have housing needs at the moment. So understanding this scheme as an attempt to alleviate the problem is easy. But, there has to be a much, much stricter contract between letting agency, council and tenant which will see any breaking of the lease terms acted on immediately. We cannot have people suffering for one year as happened in this case.

I believe that this scheme should only be proceeded with if the terms are re-drawn and that they can be monitored much more effectively.

Tipping in Primrose Street

There has been fly-tipping behind flat 3 in Primrose Street. Understandably, the residents are upset as they do not want this to become a regular occurence.

Fly-tipping is a huge problem which costs the Council thousands each year. There are plenty of places to dump rubbish, but some people and tradesmen are quite willing to have others clean up their mess.

I do not think a community can keep itself as clean and pleasant as it would wish if there are many people with this sort of attitude. I think that regular tipping sites have to be monitored very closely and serious fines handed down on people who are creating an impoverished atmosphere.

Environmental Policies for Householders

There is a huge debate about our environment - about what the future holds and what we can do. Action on the environment has to be on a small scale as well as on a large scale. I want to see Edinburgh City Council create a city that is as sustainable as possible.

Safety and Sympathy in Pirniefield Place

I don't think that anyone would choose the life of street prostitution except from desperation or very difficult circumstances. Prostitution has moved to the junction of Seafield Road and the bottom of Claremont Park with some activity drifting up the Links. Having spoken to residents of Pirniefield there is a great deal of sympathy for the individual women, but there is also a desire that what comes with prostitution: kerb crawling, the type of litter and the feelings of intimidation that residents out at night experience be prevented.

In other areas of the new Leith Ward resident groups have moved prostitution on from their own immediate areas to other residential areas. It just shifts the problem to another patch.

If elected, I would propose two methods that have been successful in the past: a local campaign that would deter 'clients', and the installation of a CCTV camera for the same reason.

This would have the likely effect of pushing prostitution further-up the road towards the business park just before Portobello. This, I think, is the best solution. The area tends to shut up shop after 5, and it is non-residential.

It is important that action be taken so that the drift of prostitution up Claremont Park and the Links be prevented. A safe and sympathetic solution, in line with residents' wishes, can be found.

Update on Local Income Tax

The SNP have revealed new figures for their Local Income Tax plans. This means that the figures used on my old video blog are now out of date.

The new figure of 3p is lower than the original calculated figure. The new figure leaves a gap of £450 million according to the SNP website. The difference is to be made-up by 'greater efficiency'. This, when examined in detail, often means cuts to services or would require more funding from the Scottish Executive to local councils, which may entail a tax rise. In the end, it could just be more taxation from a different level of government.

My position along with the CBI and UNISON is that it shifts the burden unfairly on to working people and families.

A sense of urgency for Nisbet Court?

I met a friendly woman in Nisbet Court today whom I asked if there were any issues in the area:

'Don't ask', she said.
'Why not?' (I asked!)
'I could give you tears.'
'Yes?'
'I've got people above me and they've got ASBOs and they're drug addicts - they make so much racket...I'm keeping a diary each night to record everything that happens.'

This was the essence of our exchange.

It's sad for both sides. Drug addiction is sad and then inflicting misery on an older lady is sad. I think that it is important to remember as a councillor the human beings that lie behind the problems that come across your desk. In many cases there is real suffering, on a daily basis. People who have a drug addiction cannot be evicted into the street - but there has to be swift action to prevent residents from being forced to keep daily diaries recording how many times they feel they are being disturbed. Time is an issue, and hurrying things along, having a feeling of urgency about things is vital. The above problem had been ongoing for three years!

Swift action using the powers that are there is a priority. Hurrying those powers and processes along is a must. And if that is not enough then more powers must be sought.

An Eco-City

People don't just live in Edinburgh, they love Edinburgh. They love it for its buildings, its history, its quality of life and its setting. People realise that Edinburgh is a part of a larger eco-system and that we have to find ways of making sure the way we live in Edinburgh does not harm the environment we share.

I've attached a link to a youtube video called 'Koya moments'. It portrays powerfully the place of Edinburgh in a wider environment as well as being a stunning film in itself. (And with music from the brilliant Philip Glass.)

Edinburgh Labour is making the environment a priority for now and the future.

Environmentally Friendly Homes

The Green issue has become much more important in recent years. I can still recall, quite vividly, the newsreport that informed us that British scientists had discovered a hole in the ozone layer above the antartic. It set green issues on the agenda. It was followed quickly by theories about the greenhouse effect.

This was 22 years ago. It amazes me that it has taken so long for things to really happen. The issue seems to have been in the background without being taken all that seriously, but, recently, there is a general agreement that we have to start acting now. I believe this too.

Recycling has moved from 5% to 29% over the past 4 years, and the target is now 40%.
Edinburgh Labour will offer a FREE "eco-check" to all households covering energy, recycling, chemicals and water for every city home.

Recent reports say that, incredibly, after banning CFCs the Ozone layer is now recovering, although it will take 'fifty years' for a full recovery. By acting now we may be able to say something similar about climate change.

Leith - West to Leith

This is another snapshot of the new ward with key values highlighted and some policies from Edinburgh Labour's manifesto.

Seafield

I know that the smell from Seafield has been unpleasant for many years, but I'd like to start by noting the great work that the sewage works does. Seafield takes polluted, health-risking water and turns it into pellets useful for agriculture and water that is now clean and environmentally friendly. Time was when this would just be pumped into the Forth for nature to deal with.

This process, however, does produce an odour, and it is unpleasant to live with such a smell, especially in summer. (There was a sewage works half-a-mile from where I grew-up.)

Labour had originally passed a bill, intended mainly to sort the Seafield smell, a few years ago, but because the legal nature of Seafield it turned out was different from other similar plants, and this was discovered only during the process of trying to right it! (Ironically the other plants that benefited from this bill did have their odour problem solved.)

Now Sarah Boyack has identified available cash, after years of work by Susan Deacon, and has put the ball back into Scottish Water's court - it is now up to them to come to an agreement with Stirling Water and find a plan that will work. I realise that it has been a lot of hard work and frustration for many people, nonetheless a solution appears closer than ever before and I would certainly want to keep the momentum going.

Local Inome Tax - Video Response

The Liberal Democrats and the SNP are the only two parties proposing that local services be funded by a Local Income Tax. My views on the matter are recorded (slightly jerkily) below:

Family Values in Jessfield Terrace

The other day I was given a lift by a taxi driver who happened to be a neighbour of mine: he lived in Jessfield Terrace. We were talking about Edinburgh - I'm always keen to find out what people are thinking. He suggested that there is a lack of what he would call 'family values' in some areas of society. He pointed out some of the bad manners and even the intimidating atmosphere in some areas, especially at night. He felt there had been a definite decline in manners and behaviour.

Having a daily experience of young people and families in the area I know that families come in different shapes and sizes, and the values that my neighbour pointed out are not just values based on families but values for individuals and communitites too.

There is a problem with good manners and the behaviour of a few. So I believe we have to be strong on the issue of manners as it makes life much more pleasant for us all. Good manners comes from a generous heart - I think we have to look to encourage both in our community.

Re-starting an active Community?

On Wednesday night I attended a meeting set-up to try and re-start a Residents' Association in Lochend and Restalrig.

There were eight people in total and four were not actually members of the community. At the meeting we discussed the lack of interest: one man had delivered over 900 leaflets to whip-up interest in the meeting. It didn't appear to work. The people who were there had been members of the old Residents' Association that folded. It didn't feel like progress. So it appears people in the area aren't interested in their community?

I don't believe that people are interested...in 'meaningless meetings', as on person termed it. I believe they are interested in, as another said, 'successful results'. I agree: we need action to deal with community problems in Lochend and Restalrig, and all over Leith Ward in fact. It will always be my intention to listen, discuss and act on a problem, if I am elected.

Meetings are useful for identifying problems and outlining solutions, but unless there is action, we all lose interest. And the community loses most of all. I will do my best to ensure this does not happen.

Keep Edinburgh a city for families

Edinburgh's economic success of recent years has been brilliant for many aspects of the city but has meant fewer young people can afford to buy. It is important, I feel, that Edinburgh remains a city for families of all ages. So I'm supporting the policy of a £200 million pound float to enable some first-time buyers to put down the money for a deposit.

"Smitty"

Whoever he is "Smitty" could probably teach politicians about self-promotion. His 'brand' is scrawled on houses, walls and fences from Leith Links to the Restalrig Crescent. He has obviously been working hard to get known.

Needless to say, graffiti is an eyesore and needs to be got rid of. New York had a policy of coming down hard on small crimes and the effects were that major crimes underwent a drastic reduction too. It is no surprise that the areas with little graffiti have much less anti-social behaviour than those that do. Because the atmosphere changes with graffiti, it lets people who are inclined to act anti-socially think they can get away with it.

However, in an attempt to maintain standards all over Edinburgh, the council has put in place graffiti teams that guarantees removal of graffiti within 24 hours. All you have to do is call. It is another way of preventing an area slipping or helping to bring one up.

If you have a problem with graffiti contact myself : wilsonforleith@yahoo.co.uk and I will pass it onto a direct link and help get the marks removed.

Leith Waterworld

Working as a teacher you learn that there is some sense in the advice, 'Don't smile until after Christmas.' I never manage that long, but after Christmas, I think, you can relax a little bit more and start to develop the more positive aspects of the pupil-teacher relationship.

Attempting to do this, and actually having a genuine interest in how kids spend their time, I asked a first year pupil what she might do at the weekend:

'Nothing,' was the reply.
'Come on, you must do something,' I said.
Shake of the head.
'Nothing at all?' I said. 'Nothing?'
'Well, I do like swimming,' she admitted.
'Oh? Where do you go?' I asked.
'Waterworld.'

Waterworld Leith is expensive to run, but what it returns to the community cannot be easily measured. It gives a lot of fun to kids who perhaps aren't interested in football or team sports. It helps families play together - and it allows friends to get together. Personally, despite the cost, I think the closing of Waterworld would be a loss: the social 'profit' of Waterworld will never make it onto a balance sheet, but it is there, and it is giving a lot of people a good, beneficial way to spend their time.

Snapshot of Leith

Here's a quick snapshot of the new Leith Ward. It gives an idea of the size and variety of the new ward (while making some points as well!)

Community Values in Gordon Street

I met a father today who was worried about community values. He was a relatively young father - I'm saying that because I'm nearing that age -of 37 and had a 7 year old boy. His boy (who was very polite and delightful) had never thrown a piece of litter in his life, but he lived next to Easter Road which was often littered. He was concerned that this was getting across to his son the wrong value and that he, as a father, cannot be as strong an influence as the community he grows up in.

We all know community makes a difference. Family and community are powerful shapers of a person's life. Family values cannot grow too far apart from community values or community values from family values. This father wants to bring his son up in a community that values many of the things he does: looking after your children, knowing how to treat others, education, a nice area and care for the environment.

He believes in a community of responsible individuals.

I believe in that too. And I believe that a councillor should work to use the power he or she may have to fulfil the responsible aims of a responsible, value rich community.