Forth Ports and planners to outline docks future at public meeting

Leithers will get a rare chance to hear, and question, Forth Ports staff on their proposals for the future of the docks in a meeting called by planners.

The meeting, which somewhat ironically is to take place in an emty shop unit in Ocean Terminal - the shopping centre Forth Ports built and is now trying to sell - aims to allow local residents to consider the two broad options for the future of the docks that are proposed in the councils Main Issues Report consultation.

Officials from Scottish Enterprise, who are subsidising the production of a new detailed masterplan for the land owned by Forth Ports, will also be in attendance.

Ocean Terminal Local Development Plan Event

Eventually, the council will adopt one of the two options and incorporate it into a new Local Development Plan that will guide the overall direction of development on the docks for years to come.

You can find more details on the Local Development Plan on the council website and you can find out more about the planning policies and developments affecting the docks in this post we wrote a couple of weeks ago.

Greener Leith AGM: Speaker confirmed

Although we've already posted about the 2011 Greener Leith AGM, last time we hadn't confirmed a speaker.

We're now pleased to be able to announce that Matt Kaye from the Udny Community Wind Turbine Company Ltd, will be in attendance at the meeting. He'll give a short presentation on the Udny Community Wind project, which has recently started generating both power, and revenue, for their local community. 

The Udny Community Wind Turbine project is one of the first 100% community owned wind turbines on mainland Scotland - and so we hope to follow in their footsteps by building a Seafield.

After his talk, which we're sure will be both thought provoking and fun, there will be an opportunity to ask him, and Greener Leith board members about the development of community wind energy projects in general - and the specifics of our Seafield project.

You don't need to be a Greener Leith member to come to the meeting - so please do think about coming.

You do need to be a member to vote and stand for the management committee though. So if you are interested in this, please do bring your fivers so that you can sign-up for another year.

After the wind turbine discussion, and the formal business of the AGM has been concluded, it's very possible we'll end up in one of Leith's many fine hostelries for a refreshment or two.

The meeting will take place at 7.30pm on Tuesday the 1st of November at the Leith Kirkgate Community Centre. 

Five months ago, we met up with some of the people involved in the Udny Wind Turbine and posted our chat to Audioboo. You can listen to it here:

 

Public meeting - AGM and Wind Turbine questions

News that we have successfully raised funds for the pre-application phase of the Leith & Portobello Community Wind Turbine has attracted a bit of press attention lately. As this photo shows, we made the front page of the second last ever Herald and Post.

 As we are keen to involve as many Leithers as possible in the development of the project, we're in doubt that the best subject for our AGM this year will be our community wind turbine project.

We would like to invite all our members, supporters, friends and indeed any local resident interested in finding out more about the wind turbine proposal, or any of our other project to come to our Annual General Meeting for 2011.

The meeting will take place in the Leith Community Centre, in the Persevere Room at 7.30pm on Tuesday the first of November.

Everyone is welcome, so please do forward details of this meeting to anyone whom you believe may be interested.

We should make it clear however, that the money we have borrowed from the Scottish Government is to pay for all the detailed research that we need to do to two things:

1. To determine whether a wind turbine is actually feasible and that there is a workable business case.
2. And if it is feasible, to put together a detailed planning application.

If both of these steps are successful, then Greener Leith, in partnership with PEDAL Portobello, will borrow more money to build the wind turbine.

Given that a lot of the feasibility research has not be started, let alone completed yet, we may not be able to answer technical questions about the wind turbine project in massive detail at the meeting. Nevertheless, we will try to answer all questions as honestly and transparently as we can.

In particular, we'd like to know how you think we should spend any financial surplus the wind turbine may generate, if it does get the go ahead. 

We are also trying to persuade people from other Scottish communities where community wind projects are already up and running, to come and speak at the meeting. However, at present our guest speakers are still to be confirmed.

In the meantime, if you've got a spare fifteen minutes you may want to have a look at this short film about how a community wind project affected the village of Fintry.

If you have any questions please do get in touch.

The Big Leith Biomass Meeting - The Tweets

Only a few minutes ago, a 'packed' public meeting on the Forth Energy proposals for the Leith Biomass plant came to an end. Not everyone who wanted to attend could go, but luckily there were lot's of people sharing information about the meeting on Twitter, including two local councillors, an MSP, the Guardian Edinburgh beat blogger and our own Chairperson.

In fact, the meeting garnered so much attention on Twitter that the tag #leithbiomass started trending locally. Using the magic of the internet, we've selected the best of these tweets, and spliced them together with a few extra links and put it all together in one place, so that if you weren't at the meeting you can get a feel for how it went. 

Lest you think we selectively chose the tweets to show only negative tweets, the reality is, that no-one was tweeting anything positive about the proposals. 

You should be able to see the result below (if not click here).

If you want to send an objection to the plant go to http://www.noleithbiomass.org.uk/

If you're looking for resources to help you write your own objection letter to the plant, you can find our detailed assesment of the plant here.

Greener Leith festive meet-up and awards.

It may be a bit late to announce it, but all the Greener Leith committee would like to invite all our members, friends and supporters to an informal get together at 7.30pm at the Tourmalet bar at 25, Buchanan Street on the 14th of December. Why there? Well, we've been doing so much cycling this year that it seemed apt to choose a bar that has a vague cycling theme. It also has a train set in the ceiling, live fish in a tank, and a fine range of imported German beers too.

On the night, we also plan to announce the first ever Greener Leith awards. These hugely prestigious awards are conceived to be a bit like the Oscars, only more glamorous. On the night we'll be dishing out a select number of local 'green hero' awards to volunteers who we think have contributed the most to helping Leith become a better place to live.

In addition, there's a couple of other award categories that we'd like you to help us with. These are the "Greener Leith Politician of the Year Award", and the Greener Leith "People's Award". You can do this by filling in the form below.

There will also be a raffle with some exciting prizes donated by some kind local sponsors.

Please note: - None of the Greener Leith board, or employees, are elgible for any awards. So please don't nominate any of them!

Greener Leith AGM 2010

The 2010 Greener Leith AGM will take place on the 14th of September at 7.30pm in the Leith Community Centre.

At the meeting we will give an overview of what we have achieved over the year, and what we propose to do in the following year.

Greener Leith is a membership organisation, so after the formal business of the AGM we intend to run a short informal session that will seek feedback from the membership on questions such as:

What should Greener Leith do more of in the future?
What should Greener Leith stop doing?
What should Greener Leith do differently?
Are there any specific issues you would like to see Greener Leith tackle?

The formal business of the AGM will largely be comprised of three items. Firstly, there will be a report from myself, the Chair. There will then be a report from the Treasurer, Rob Connor. Then we must establish who will be on the board for the next year. I feel it is important to explain how we propose to proceed to elect our board for the next year in advance.

There are currently seven people on the Greener Leith board, they are all Directors and are ultimately responsible for the way Greener Leith is run. The seven board members are:

Charlotte Encombe (Chair)
Ellie Mills (Secretary)
Rob Connor (Treasurer)
Keith Simpson
Neill Hope
Chas Booth
Gerri Smyth

At the AGM the following Directors are resigning from the board, either because they have indicated that they wish to do so, or because our Memorandum and Articles of Association requires it:

Rob Connor
Ellie Mills
Gerri Smyth
Keith Simpson

In addition, Julian Sian resigned from the board during the year.

Of the those listed above, the following Directors have indicated that they wish to serve for another year on the board:

Rob Connor
Ellie Mills
Keith Simpson

At the AGM it is proposed to take one vote from amongst the members to re-approve all three Directors who wish to continue to serve on the board for another year. If a simple majority of people approve this proposal then all three Directors shall be confirmed as Directors for the next year.

If however, there is not majority support for this proposal, we will have a secret ballot for each of the Directors who wish to stand again. In addition, if any other member wishes to stand for election to the board, they will also be added to the ballot paper at this stage. At present, we are not aware of any other member who is keen to join the board. The three candidates with the most votes will join the Greener Leith board.

The current board proposes to re-elect a maximum of three board members at the AGM, to give six Directors in total. Our Memorandum and Articles of Association permit a maximum of seven Directors and a minimum of four. We propose to leave the seventh place unfilled at the AGM, in order that the board has the flexibility to appoint someone with specific, specialist skills, should it be required at a later date.

Non members are welcome to attend the meeting, but only members are entitled to vote and stand for election to the board. Whilst we will ensure that people will be able to join Greener Leith at the start of the AGM, you can also join online, using a debit or credit card, by clicking here.

Should you wish to join the board, or if you have any other questions about the AGM, we would be delighted to hear from you before the meeting. You can contact Alastair Tibbitt, our Development Manager for more information.

Yours Sincerely,



Charlotte Encombe
Chair, Greener Leith.


Leith Trade Swap

Sofi's is a marvelous wee bar, and one of the reasons it's so marvelous is because it holds all sorts of odd, quirky events that you won't find in any Wetherspoons. More recently, the staff there have started organising some great 'green' themed events.

Last month, they held a 'Rubbish Night Out' where they encouraged all their customers to bring some rubbish and recycle it into 'treasure'. They also organised a 'Clothes Swapping' event too.

This month, Sofi's are organising a Trade Swap on August the 12th. Here's what they say about the event:

"Bring along a trade/skill you're willing to offer and swap it for someone else's! No job too small or too big. Get those jobs done without spending cash."

Have you got a skill you could swap free?

Everytime Sofi's runs a green themed event they also ask folk to make a wee donation to Greener Leith, so we're extra grateful. Thanks Sofi's Bar!

If you see an event or if you're organising an event in Leith - you can promote it for free on The Greener Leith Social. 

Green Drinks Comes To Leith

It's been a wee while since Greener Leith had a 'social night', so whilst more than 55 people have signed up to join the Greener Leith Social on-line we thought it about time to give everyone a chance to meet in person too. And to give us some extra momentum, we've joined forces with the Edinburgh Green Drinks gang, and we've persuaded them to leave their usuall haunt at the top of the Royal Mile and come down to Leith for a change.

So, members, volunteers, supporters, subscribers, followers all - please do come to The Shore bar at 3, The Shore, for an informal pint 5.30pm - 8pm on Friday the 31st of July.