Transition Edinburgh Invitation

Cllr Adam McVey, Leader of City of Edinburgh Council, Dr Sam Gardner, Chair of the Edinburgh Climate Commission and I warmly invite your participation in a civil society Climate Action Roundtable at 6pm Wednesday 12 August online - co-hosted by Transition Edinburgh and City of Edinburgh Council.
This is an opportunity to hear from citizens involved in climate action and explore opportunities going forward. We propose break-out themes emerging from the Edinburgh Climate Commission report: Forward, Faster, Together; and we hope that you will be able to join us. Would you be up for asking people to join in several of the five the discussion groups to bring a Community Council perspective?
Please register HERE.

Supporting Communities Safely - advice for community groups and volunteer networks

The Improvement Service have asked us to make you aware of a new resource that has been published to support community organisations to carry out their vital work safely during the Covid-19 outbreak.  The below news item promotes the advice on infection control for community groups.  I’d be grateful if you would consider sharing this information with community councils in your area.

www.scdc.org.uk/news/article/2020/5/15/supporting-communities-safely-advice-for-community-groups-organisations-and-volunteer-networks

A direct link to the resource is available here:

https://www.scdc.org.uk/supporting-communities-safely

The resource is designed to be interactive and they will seek to respond to questions and observations from users and update where appropriate.

General information for Community Councils

Information for Chairs and Secretaries

Planning

The Council’s Planning Service will be restarting certain activities in the coming weeks which will allow more applications to progress. The Scottish Government have been clear that they wish the planning system to continue to function during the lockdown, so that there is a pipeline of consents ready for when construction resumes.

Last week some further changes to the service were announced using the Planning Edinburgh blog (the main Planning Service channel for communication to stakeholders at the moment):

 https://planningedinburgh.com/2020/04/23/planning-and-building-standards-service-covid-19-update-23-april-2020/

The upshot of all this is that if applications are being progressed in your area there may be a need for you to respond. This fits the criteria of a decision that needs to be made timeously and if you follow the steps below I’m content that a remote/electronic meeting is appropriate.

If you want more information please sign up to the Planning Edinburgh blog for updates.  The Planning Service have rationalised down their various channels as they have limited staff resource to provide bespoke replies to enquirers on changes to their service during this time.  It only needs an email address, and is easy to sign up to or unsubscribe from.

Read more: General information for Community Councils

General support during the current pandemic

 We have put together a set of web links to sites like NHS and City of Edinburgh Council which might provide communities with support at this time.

Access these links HERE 

City of Edinburgh Council has supplied a comprehensive list of contacts which can be found HERE

Planning during COVID 19 measures

Tell us how community councils are finding things during the current time.  In particular, we want to get a sense of how community councils are getting information on how the Council, specifically the Planning service, is adapting its services to the unfolding situation. 

Please let us know by sending your thoughts to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or you can feed back directly to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. 

You can keep up to date by following us on Twitter @planningedin or subscribing to the Planning Blog

BIKE LIFE EDINBURGH

Please find attached a copy of the 2019 Bike Life Edinburgh report, launched earlier this month. We had originally intended to send this report out to you earlier, however business contingency planning due to the escalating COVID-19 situation has taken priority during the past two weeks. My apologies for the delay.

Download Bike Life 2019 report HERE

Bike Life Edinburgh is an assessment of cycling development, attitudes and behaviour in the city. It is one of the most extensive cycling surveys carried out in Scotland and since the first report in 2015, the city has seen significant developments in cycling provision.

Read more: BIKE LIFE EDINBURGH

EACC belongs to every Edinburgh Community Council

Its aim is to provide support, advise and give a collective voice for community councils when facing the challenges community councillors encounter on an almost daily basis. No one person is more important than any other. All community councils have a voice on the EACC!!