That Leith Ward hustings debate in full

On Thursday evening Leith Links Community Council hosted an hour and half long hustings meeting to give local people a chance to raise local issues with the various different candidates standing for election.

An audio recording was made of the whole debate and below it's been split it into the individual questions that were asked so if you're not interested in a particular issue - you can skip it.

The meeting was chaired exceptionally well by Jim Scanlon, Chair of the Leith Links Community Council, and as the recordings show below - there was no shortage of topics to discuss.

Indeed - there was no time to get through all the questions that were submitted so all the candidates will be invited to give written answers to the ones that weren't debated. These will be posted to the Leith Links Community Council blog in due course.

Six of the seven candidates standing in the Ward were present at the hustings. Each candidate was invited to give a short introduction before the debate started. Marjorie Thomas was first to start - and she started talking before the record button was pressed - so we missed her name at the start of the first audio clip: 

 The first question focussed on Trams. An issue that has effected everyone in Leith for years. Which candidates support bringing trams to Leith? And when will it happen?

Next up, Mathew Wheatley from Leith Against the Cuts asked the candidates how they would approach future council budgets.

The third question of the day sought to gauge how much support candidates were willing to put into keeping Leith Waterworld open. (It got a bit heated, this one.)

There's no shortage of big issues to debate in Leith. Following the Leith Waterworld quesion - locals wanted to know what candidates would do if another biomass power plant proposal was lodged by Forth Energy for the docks..

Even though Scottish Water has spent £20million on tackling the infamous Seafield Stench, a recent "odour incident" led locals to ask once again what candidates proposed to do about the prospect of further unsavory smells in the neighbourhood. 

And lastly, locals who live near the Shore remain concerned over the levels of silt in the Water of Leith there and whether there is a risk of serious flooding. Candidates also gave their views on this issue.

 After the hustings, there was a bit of discussion on Twitter between Leith Waterworld campaigners and some of the candidates and part activists. This has been summarised on the Splashback campaign blog here.

The final list of candidates for the Leith Ward is available on the council website here. 

You can find out about how to register to vote in the Local Council elections here.

Forth Energy send Leith Biomass plan up in smoke. Finally.

The first blog post we wrote about the Forth Energy power plant plan on Leith Docks was in January 2010.

Since then, there have been nearly sixty more blog posts, five consultation responses, protests, stalls, public meetings and petitions.

After all this, and some two years later, it has come as a welcome surprise to learn that Forth Energy have finally seens sense and abandoned their proposed Leith Biomass plan. 

You can read the full press statement that was released by the firm here.

Now we can only speculate at the real reasons behind the company's decision to abandon the project. 

• Was it because it was the most unpopular project in Edinburgh's planning history?
• Was it because they realised they wouldn't be able to overcome the objections from the statutory consultees like Scottish Natural Heritage?
• Was it because the subsidies are getting pulled left right and centre?
• Did they blink first in the back room negotiations between themselves, Scottish Enterprise and the City of Edinburgh Council over the future of the site?
• Are they about to announce a big wind turbine manufacturing deal on the docks which is more lucrative?
• Or is it just a clever move from a firm used to playing 'subsidy tetris' with its land holdings?

The reality is, it's probably a little bit of all those things. 

Over the months that we've been following, and campaigning against, this proposal, it's been amazing to see civic Leith join forces in opposition against the plan. 

The numbers of local people, especially in the No Leith Biomass campaign group, who have put in hours and hours of time to digest tedious, and very technical, planning documents has been remarkable.

Not to mention the effort that went into producing leaflets, manning stalls, protests, lobbying, producing mock up images, and so on.

The politicians who backed residents also deserve a thanks. It was heartening to see that politicians from across the political spectrum could work together to oppose the plans.

Indeed we've lost track of the number of Holyrood motions that have been lodged, and parliamentary questions that have been asked, urging the Scottish Government to reject the project.

There is even another Holyrood motion that has been lodged today, by the Greens.

Locals also received support from city-wide and national organisations too, like Friends of the Earth and Biofuelwatch. The Cockburn Association put in a particularly well worded objection to the proposal.

All of the people involved will be glad to see their hard work has paid off. And indeed a celebratory drink is certainly in order.

And it would appear that some people have learned so much about the real environmental impact of the Forth Energy proposals that they may well continue to support campaigners in Rosyth, Dundee and Grangemouth where the firms big biomass plans are still very much alive.

Just as importantly, many local businesses in Leith who depend on tourism and attracting visitors from elsewhere in the city will be hugely relieved that one cloud on their horizon has been removed. 

However, it's clear that Forth Ports might come back with a new plan. 

If they do, we hope they'll have listened to some of the things we said about How Forth Energy Could Win Friends and Influence Leithers.

Greener Leith has always said that if they work with local residents to support the development of a really decentralised, community owned, low carbon district heating network, then they might get somewhere. 

And you might say it'll never happen in Leith. But the council is already moving ahead and installing a shared heating system in Cables Wynd House this year at a cost of more than £2million.

This will lower the heating bills, and the carbon footprint, of 200 households in Leith.

Could that development be the first in a series of 'heat islands' that might one day form the basis of a genuinely decentralised heating network in Leith? 

Only time will tell. 

What they said:

Malcolm Chisholm calls on Holyrood to toughen big biomass policies

Malcolm Chisholm with No Leith Biomass campaigners at the Foot of the Walk

Today in the Scottish Parliament there was a debate on the "Low Carbon Economy." Local MSP Malcolm Chisholm spoke at length in the debate about his reservations over the Forth Energy proposals for a giant power plant on Leith docks. 

We should add that we're delighted that he has mentioned our work on this issue in the Holyrood debating chamber too and that he has raised, once again, our calls for a moratorium on large scale biomass plants. There are a great many people, working both in and out of the parliament to campaign against the Forth Energy proposals on Leith Docks, and the other power plants they want to build elsewhere in Scotland.

If you would like to show your support for the campaign, there is a public protest this Saturday.  

In the meantime, we reproduce everything Mr Chisholm said today to save you searching for it on the Holyrood website: 

Malcolm Chisholm (Edinburgh Northern and Leith) (Lab): I want to concentrate on energy from a constituency point of view. There are wider agendas in achieving a low-carbon Scotland, including a step change in housing insulation and a serious drive towards a green transport strategy.

I want to ask what should be included in a definition of green energy, and to ask that question in the context of Forth Ports Ltd’s plans for Leith docks. At a recent meeting with the chief executive of Forth Ports, I was told that the company—which has recently been taken over by Arcus—was abandoning its housing plans for the Leith docks area in order to develop a renewable energy hub based on offshore wind and large-scale biomass, the latter as Forth Energy in partnership with Scottish and Southern Energy.

For Forth Ports, these two go hand in hand, but I want to challenge the green credentials of large-scale biomass while welcoming the prospect of Leith docks as a site for the manufacture and assembly of wind turbines, as envisaged in Scottish Enterprise’s national renewables infrastructure plan. There have been massive campaigns in Leith over the past year or more against the proposed large-scale biomass plant at Leith docks. This action has been spearheaded by the formidable and admirable no Leith biomass plant group.

I have submitted detailed objections that cover the many specifically local implications as well as the wider climate change consequences. Given the subject of our debate, I want to concentrate on the latter, although visual, traffic and local environmental concerns are all covered in my submission, which is on my website and the Scottish Government’s website—I thank the Scottish Government for that.

Greener Leith is a key organisation that opposes the proposal, and its website refers to many important reports that question the green credentials of large-scale biomass. For example, it refers to a new report that has been produced by a coalition of European non-governmental organisations, which raises a host of environmental concerns about the growth and use of biomass for electricity generation, and includes a startling graph that shows that a biomass plant that uses a typical European-managed forest would result in increased carbon emissions for the first two and a half centuries. Perhaps that it is not too surprising if we consider that burning wood emits more carbon in the short run than burning coal. The scenario could be even worse if unsustainable plantations are used, and stopping that would be impossible in the future, despite the current guarantees from Forth Energy.

On its website, Greener Leith highlights a key quote from the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, which has said:

“In particular, we are concerned that the methodology deployed to calculate the lifetime green house gas savings”

of the scheme—that is, the Leith biomass plant proposal—

“includes an assumption of zero emissions from land within the growing cycle of the fuels ... This is likely to be incorrect and therefore leads to a potentially significant underestimate of green house gas emissions from the fuel. The calculation of green house gas savings from transport may also be underestimated.”

Forth Energy has consistently promoted the idea that burning wood fuel and replenishing crops after harvest limits the levels of carbon that are released into the atmosphere, but an increasing number of environmental organisations have stated that that position is too simplistic. The long-term effects of biomass combustion on the atmosphere and on climate change depend on the type of feedstock that is used, how sustainable the source is, and the alternative energy sources that are displaced by investment in such plants.

It is remarkable that Forth Energy continues to categorise biomass energy as carbon neutral, as a large body of evidence has been produced by groups such as Friends of the Earth to demonstrate that biomass is not anywhere near as efficient as alternative clean energy sources, which represent far more effective use of Government funding and deliver instant carbon reduction. Biomass would not only displace traditional fossil fuel sources; it would affect the ability of wind and tidal power to distribute clean carbon-neutral energy throughout Scotland.

The moving planet march that will take place in Edinburgh this weekend will aim to highlight the fact that moving from fossil fuels to clean energy sources is essential in tackling climate change and poverty. As outlined in Friends of the Earth’s recent briefing on the event, that means that policy must be directed to ensuring investment in appropriate sustainable technologies.

Kevin Stewart: What are Mr Chisholm’s feelings about small-scale biomass, such as the biomass boiler that is being used to deal with the energy needs of the new Marischal college project in Aberdeen, which has received European funding?

Malcolm Chisholm: I was going to come on to that issue, although I may not have time to cover everything that I wanted to cover. Small-scale biomass—particularly for combined heat and power—is exactly what we need, rather than large-scale biomass. I was going to refer to an earlier Friends of the Earth publication entitled “Energy from Biomass: Straw Man or Future Fuel?” which made that particular point. It supported small-scale biomass plants and highlighted the issue of transportation of biomass material. That is, of course, a major concern for the proposed Leith plant, because the wood would be brought in from thousands of miles away. We must take all such factors into account. I am seriously concerned that the plant that has been proposed for Leith docks is not small scale, that the proposal would involve intensive harvesting overseas and long-distance transport, and that no concrete plans have been provided to date on how the heat by-product of combustion would be effectively distributed to the wider city.

I realise that there is a live application, but I do not see why the Government should not have a policy against large-scale biomass. It has a policy against nuclear power stations that does not rule out submission of individual applications. The Government should therefore have a policy against large-scale biomass. If it will not go that far, it should at least have a moratorium, pending further research on its climate change implications.

A miscellany of neighbourhood notices in July

Here's some photos of things that other people want you to know. 

The Dog Watch

Some anonymous people are setting up an email newsletter for local pet lovers. To sign-up they want you to email: woof-woof@virginmedia.com

Open Air Youth Club

The council is running open air youth clubs in King George V Park and Victoria Park. They're very exciting. You can tell by the number of exclamation marks in the poster.

Craigroyston FC

In St Marks Park, Craigroyston have got a series of pre-season games lined up.

Planning Graffiti

On the side of a development by Port of Leith Housing Assocation next to the Water of Leith, there's some planning graffiti. You don't see that very often.

It's an interesting coincidence that The Port of Leith Housing Association objected to the Biomass plant, just like the person who wrote the graffiti, so it will be interesting to see how quickly they remove it.

Fit As A Monkey

On Leith Links, there's a few new fitness clubs starting up. There's the one above, which seems determined to transform as many of Leith's fertile women folk into monkeys, and there's this one:

According to the organisers of the Sensation Bootcamp, "It is as much fun as it sounds." Quite.

Feel free to send us your photos of neighbourhood notices.

Leith Biomass protest at Holyrood

Photo credit: @Yonmei via TwitpicLeithers took the Leith Biomass protest to Holyrood today. The aim of the protest was to encourage more MSPs to question the claims made by Forth Energy for their proposals to build a giant power plant on Leith Docks. A number of MSPs came out to speak to the protesters including: Robin Harper, Malcolm Chisholm, Shirley-Anne Somerville, Cathy Peattie, Roseanna Cunningham and George Foukes. Shiela Gilmore, Labour MP for Edinburgh East was also there in support.

Guardian Beatblogger, Michael MacLeod was there. He interveiwed local councillors Gordon Munro and Rob Munn.

Both them said that they had not heard of a single person who supports the Forth Energy proposals. You can listen to the Guardian Edinburgh interview on Audioboo. 

In the interview, Cllr Munn revealed that Lib Dem Councillor, for the Leith Walk ward, Louise Lang, has now come out publicly in opposition to the plan, and both councillors conclude that the opposition to the plant in Edinburgh is now truly cross party, increasing the chances that the city will object to the plan, forcing a public enquiry.

In Holyrood, Shirley Anne Somerville asked the environment minister a question in parliament on the current government policy, reporting the response via Twitter:

Asked qu re #leithbiomass in parliament. Minister confirmed govt wish for small scale off grid chp biomass. Complete opposite of Leith. #fbless than a minute ago via TweetDeckS-A Somerville
S_A_Somerville

Last week, both Broughton and New Town and Leith Central Community Councils voted to oppose the plans too.

Meanwhile, Dr Ulrich Loening, an academic and timber firm owner, who was once described as one of "ten Scots who canl save the world," for his environmental work has written a guest post on the Friends of the Earth Scotland blog explaining why large biomass plants, like the proposed Leith power plant are unlikely to save much carbon any time soon.

Update on February 25, 2011 by Ally

Today, the Guardian published a YouTube video featuring interviews with many of the people at the Holyrood protest:

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.

What will the Leith Biomass Plant look like from your house?

In an incredible feat of citizen ingenuity, a local resident has put together a pretty realistic mock-up of the proposed Forth Energy power plant that you can view in Google Earth. The layout of the buildings and dimensions are based on the information submitted in the detailed planning application.

This means that you can fly around it, and view it from any angle, or viewpoint you please.

To view it, you need to have Google Earth installed on your computer. You can get that here:

http://www.google.co.uk/intl/en_uk/earth/index.html

Once you've done that, or if you already have Google Earth on your computer, then you need to download the kml file that shows the proposed power plant and open it with Google Earth.

You can download the Leith Biomass kml file by clicking here.

For a more realistic impression of how it looks we recommend that you turn on the '3d buildings' setting.

You can save any interesting views that you find. Feel free to add them to the Greener Leith photo pool on Flickr if you'd like to share any with the rest of the world. They'll then show up in the slideshow on our images page. 

Update on February 3, 2011 by Ally

So far two people have posted images that they've generated using the model. 

Mark Sheffield shows that it will be visible from the Forth Bridge.

Whilst over on the Suitably Despairing blog there's three images from Easter Road Stadium, Calton Hill and the Castle. 

New research: Forth Energy biomass plans not needed

There are many reasons to oppose the giant power plant proposed by Forth Energy for Leith Docks, and we've rehearsed many of them on this blog over the last year. As time goes by, many of the myths promoted by Forth Energy to justify the plant are slowly being exposed. This week another new piece of independent research was released that has decisively exploded another one. 

Anyone who has had the dubious pleasure of an audience with the Forth Energy sales staff, will be familiar with the energy security argument they use. Forth Energy claim that Scotland needs giant biomass plants because other forms of renewables are too intermittant. If we are to close fossil fuel power stations we must have biomass instead - otherwise - and they actually say this, "how will the lights stay on if the wind drops and those wind turbines stop moving?"

The Power of Scotland Secured report, has been produced by Garrad Hassan,  the largest independent renewable energy consultancy in the world, on behalf of a coalition of environmental NGOs, including the RSPB, WWF and Friends of the Earth Scotland.

This report shows, that by continuing to invest in renewable energy like wind, hydro, wave, solar and tidal - we can close most of the large coal or gas power stations in Scotland, maintain security of supply and continue to export power. And - in fact, the report shows that Scotland can do this without any of the huge, inefficient biomass plants proposed by Forth Energy, let alone the largest of the lot - the Leith one.

Commenting on the report, Duncan McLaren from Friends of the Earth said:

"We already know that renewables can grow to comfortably exceed our electricity demand by 2020. What this report shows is that, contrary to popular myth, the variability of renewable power need not pose a threat to the reliability of our supply in Scotland.

"The transmission infrastructure required to keep the lights on at times of low renewables output will be easily justified by the value of exports which it will make possible at times of high output. Costs to consumers are unlikely to exceed those in other future scenarios.

In fact, with achievable demand management, and if home heating and transport are electrified in line with our recommendations, a 100% renewable grid system in Scotland could make overall household 'triple fuel' bills lower than in conventional scenarios."

This report provides further evidence that the justification for this huge proposed blot on the Edinburgh landscape is tenuous to say the least.

The Forth Energy proposal is currently in the planning sytem, with the 28 day period where members of the public can sumbit objections likely to begin in January. In the meantime, you can add your name to the petition against the proposal, which is now hundreds of names strong.

Recently, Friends of the Earth Scotland launched their own national campaign to stop the Forth Energy biomass proposals.

Image Credit: Rennies Isle Residents Association