EdinburghEast.net: Sheila Gilmore

Plain words please

Sheila Gilmore — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 21:49:59 +0000

I was at a meeting of the Portobello Community Council on Monday night where there was a presentation from a couple of developers about their proposals for two sites at Newcraighall. ‘We want to build’ places’ they kept insisting, places which will fit into the existing community ‘. And lots of fancy words and pictures.

Why can’t they just be straightforward and say ‘;We want to build xx no of houses, that’s our business. We will try to make them as good as possible ‘.

Looking around it didn’t seem the ‘fancy words’ were cutting much ice. The sites were taken out of the Green Belt against the wishes of the majority of people in the closest local communities, Gilberstoun & Newcraighall, so the developers were never going to get the easiest of rides, but wrapping it all in this fancy talk doesn’t help.

There was lots of talk too about ‘shared road space’, breaking the dominance of the car etc designed it seemed to allay concerns about the increased traffic the new homes would generate. Now within the new developments that might work, but when the speakers started to apply this to the main road through the village , it started to get unbelievable. Already this road carries a lot of traffic and is a busy route to and from large out of town shopping areas. Just how these ‘house’ -oops ‘place’ builders think they could seriously change this and accommodate the vehicles of some further 400 households was completely ‘airy-fairy’.

‘Things Look Better ‘

Sheila Gilmore — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 23:14:35 +0000

Not a harking back to ‘that song’ in the 1997 election campaign, but the words of the editor of Roof Magazine (published by Shelter *) in his Jan/Feb 2010 edition, which in full are :

‘Things look better than anyone could have imagined this time last year. Arrears and repossessions are both up significantly but the increases have been nowhere near as bad as feared. Much of the credit for that has to go the government. A combination of low interest rates, a lower than expected rise in unemployment and a range of support schemes have all helped. The exact impact of individual schemes is hard to assess and the government will remain vulnerable to criticism (only 15 families helped through the homeowner mortgage support scheme for example). However the overall impact is undeniable and ministers have been able to boast that repossessions are now running at half the level seen in the (Conservative) housing market crash of the early 1990s.’

Now Shelter is not afraid to criticise government of whatever hue, so while the editor goes on to warn that ‘despite the good news there is no room for complacency’, these comments are significant.

Another example of what the country risks if it elects a Tory Government.

* I should declare an interest here as a member of Shelter’s Scottish Committee.

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No place for apathy

Sheila Gilmore — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 20:25:53 +0000

Two recent examples of ‘community politics’ to combat the view that ‘nothing we do can change anything anyway so why bother’. I popped into the Public Inquiry about the proposed waste transfer station at Portobello. On all three of my visits there were considerable numbers of ‘members of the public’ determined to add their support to the ‘Joint Action Group’ which was presenting the community’s opposition to the proposals. For months before this the campaign group has been raising funds to pay for expert help at the Inquiry. The response from local people has been tremendous. The advocate appearing for the would-be developer, Viridor, in his questioning showed that some developers really don’t want democracy in planning eg he kept pressing Councillor Joanna Mowat as to why the planning committee members had not followed advice given by council transport officials on traffic flows. Joanna (a Tory councillor – this really has been a cross party issue!) retorted that it sounded as if there was no need for a committee at all if officer reports should always be followed regardless of wider issues. Viridor also made much of the fact that the ground was ‘zoned’ for an industrial rail freight related use – and therefore presumably they should have been granted permission automatically. But that’s like saying that if land is designated for ‘residential use’ then whatever the nature of the application (20 storey block anyone?) it should be granted. We now have to wait for a few months to know the outcome of the Inquiry .

Community effort recently defeated the Council’s plans to retender the Care & Support service . My council colleagues together with the 3 Green councillors ensured that the proposal wasn’t ‘rubber stamped’ by the Lib Dem/SNP coalition back in November, although the Convenor of the Social Care committee (Lib Dem Paul Edie) accused them of a ‘student prank’ for continuing the matter to the meeting of the full council rather than just letting it be signed and sealed then and there. But crucial was the campaign of service users and carers which helped convince all the opposition parties in the council to combine against this tendering process. The council adminstration has now conceded that the whole process was flawed and the proposals have been withdrawn.