Architectural Heritage Society of Scotland (AHSS)
Craigmillar Park Association has joined the Society as a “small charity member”. The Society was founded in 1956 and has around one thousand members and volunteers. As the name suggests, the aims of the society are the protection, preservation and appreciation of Scotland’s architectural heritage and environment. This includes not just the famous buildings such as that of the former Royal High School but also the distinctive architecture and environment in conservation areas including our own.
The Society has regional groups in different parts of Scotland organising local activities and carrying out casework. In the Forth and Borders region, the Cases Panel meets weekly to consider planning applications and, where appropriate, lodge objections.
The Society has lodged (as has both the CPA and Grange / Prestonfield Community Council), three such objections in relation to planning applications within our Conservation Area in the period since our last AGM. We welcome very much the Society’s involvement in our Conservation Area – hence your Committee’s decision that CPA join the Society. The Society holds events such as lecture series, conferences and visits to buildings and sites of special interest and arranges annual study tours. For more information on the Society and their upcoming events, please visit:
www.ahss.org.uk https://www.facebook.com/AHSS1956/ https://twitter.com/theAHSS
Craigmillar Park Conservation Area
Edinburgh Council has now updated ( January 2020) the 2003 Character Appraisal after consultation with both Grange/Prestonfield Community Council and CPA.
To read the updated Character Appraisal, press here.
Bridgend Farmhouse
The Farmhouse is currently in lockdown because of the coronavirus crisis and all normal activities have had to cease. Volunteers and those who enjoy the Farmhouse’s training courses, clubs and café have reported their disappointment in missing their regular activities but, by means of Zoom, some art and crafts elements of the activity sessions and the singing group too have restarted. Funding has allowed staff time for welfare calls.
The most spectacular success has been the impact of the Covid Response Food Project, supported by voluntary contributions. Early in May, the operation delivered its 10,000th daily meal pack thanks to the efforts of food worker Eric Fernandez Baca and Lewis McLachan from Empty Kitchens Full Hearts, with support from Saltire Hospitality and WD Catering Solutions. Production has now moved to Saltire Hospitality’s Loanhead premises where 
their furloughed staff have donned Bridgend Farmhouse volunteer hats to prepare nearly 1000 meals each day. A very capable squad of volunteers deals with packaging, delivery, logistics, community liaison, cleaning and laundry assignments back at the Farmhouse.
Significant Grant and both Financial and In-kind Donation Support has allowed BF to more than double its capacity and the team is now providing over 300 packs per day to vulnerable families and individuals identified by referral bodies ranging from GPs and Social Workers to Church Teams, Councillors and MPs Offices.
The bike service for key workers [funded by CyclingUK Scotland] has also been a success and looks to be exceeding targets. You may have caught a snippet on the STV News of 18th May showing a pair of the beneficiaries getting their bikes and kit. It certainly produced a flurry of interest that set the bike team in further motion sourcing cycles and associated maintenance and safety gear. In return for a donation, you can have your bike serviced or puncture repaired, please phone 07591 882779.
Meanwhile, Bridgend is waiting, like everyone else, for the lockdown restrictions to lift when it’s hoped that on-site projects, drop-in days and the community café can restart.
If you’d like to receive monthly newsletters and occasional other news mailings you can sign up at
http://www.bridgendfarmhouse.org.uk/maillist.html
Grange Prestonfield Cummunity Council
Here is a LINK to view the minutes of the monthly meetings of the GPCC.
South East Edinburgh Locality Improvement Plan
Click Here to view plan.
Strategic Development Plan (SDP)
This SDP covers the SESplan area from the Borders to part of Fife, including Edinburgh. The members of SESplan are City of Edinburgh Council, East Lothian Council, Midlothian Council, West Lothian Council, Fife Council and Scottish BordersCouncil. The SDP sets the strategy for Local Development Plans (see above) and the new plan SESplan2 is to replace in 2018 the 2013 SDP SESplan covering a 20 year period. The final Plan was rejected by the Scottish Government in May 2019.
Friends of Newington Cemetery
Grange and Prestonfield Cummunity Council has set up an Interest Group of local volunteers, Friends of Newington Cemetery. Their long term vision is to restore Newington Cemetery to its former glory, by helping to clear overgrown areas and restore gravestones, and by liaising with the community and the families of those buried there. New members are always welcome, both to attend meetings and help at working parties that are normally held on a Monday between 10am and noon. Go to their Website for contact information.
Craigmillar Park Bowling Club
Situated in our Conservation Area, Craigmillar Park Bowling Club extends a warm wel
come to new members in all age categories, previous experience of bowling is not necessary. Trained coaches are on hand to provide assistance, and all equipment (shoes, bowls) can be provided by the Club. For full information go to www.cpbc.org.uk:
One of the foremost names in Scottish tennis, Waverley Lawn Tennis Club was formed in 1885 on its present secluded, yet accessible site in our Conservation Area. The club is very active and welcomes new members. Their facilities include –
4 artificial grass tennis courts, all floodlit – 2 traditional plaster-walled squash courts, with viewing gallery – 1 mini-tennis court
Click HERE to view their website for full information about joining and other facilities on offer.
Craigmillar Park Golf Club
If you would like to play a golf course that is close to the centre of Edinburgh yet within the Green belt; with fantastic views down the coast of East Lothian and across the Firth to Fife; where you won’t hear the intrusive sounds of traffic and are likely to spot deer, then look no further than Craigmillar Park Golf Club. Visit Website for details.
Bird Boxes for the Nature Strips!
The CPA has funded bird box kits for the Nature Strips. The bird box kits have been delivered by the local RSPB group and will be assembled by the Nature Strip volunteers on Saturday 15th February using a working space in the Craigmillar Park Bowling Club. 
There are a mixture of kits which are designed to make nest boxes suitable for robins or bluetits. The kits come as pre-cut timber with all screws and fittings included and are easy to assemble. If you would like to join the Nature Strip volunteers to give a hand in building the boxes and learn a bit about birds then please come along to the bowling club. All necessary tools will be provided and there will be time for refreshments too.
Saturday 15th February 2020 – 11am to 12:30pm
Craigmillar Park Bowling Club, 34 Gilmore Road, EH16 5NT
NEW TREE FOR THE NATURE STRIPS
On Saturday 27th October 2018, the first new tree for decades was planted in the nature strip between Wilton and Lygon Road. It’s an evergreen cotoneaster watereri which will have spring flowers and crowds of red berries much loved by birds, especially
migratory redwings who arrive in our area every January. Volunteers Simon Gage, Louise Baker and Graham Miller had to use mattocks to break through the hard, root-bound soil to prepare the ground and are to be congratulated for their supreme efforts. Since then four more trees have been planted- Rowan, two kinds of hawthorn ( one with white and the other crimson spring blossom) and a cherry (autumnalis Rosea).
Thank you to all the residents in the immediate vicinity of this nature strip who donated so generously to the purchase of these trees a
nd the huge quantity of special soil which is essential for their well-being.
There is still a lot of work to be done to fill the area where the laurels used to be and volunteers are currently planting shrubs to provide privacy and security to the garden adjacent to this part of the strip. We have put in three pyracantha, Berberis, climbing rose, ceanothus, flowering currant and viburnum fragrens.
In the other strips, winter tidying has begun and in strips 1 and 3 work is beginning to reduce the laurel. Mike Shields has given a sack of bulbs for all the strips and these will be planted soon. If you’d like to help with this, please contact me ‘Wilma Elton’ or any of the other volunteers.
Nature Strips Project: Report May 2018
Nature Strip 4
Over the long winter season we continued wi
th the clearance of the dense laurel in Nature Strip 4 and made very good progress. Clearing work stopped when spring arrived and the birds started to commence their nesting activities. The snowdrops planted last year made a welcome appearance in February and lesser periwinkle (Vinca minor) and honesty (Lunaria annua) are presently blooming. At the Gilmore Road end of the strip the woodruff (Galium odoratum) and ferns (Asplenium scolopendrium) which were planted last year are starting to become established. We are still working on removing the last of the substantial laurel stumps and roots at the Craigmillar Park end of the strip in preparation for planting. This year there will be annuals planted in this area.
RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch in the Nature Strips.
Saturday 27th January 2018, it was the windiest day of the weekend (SSW to WSW winds from 21 to 24 mph). Thankfully the rain from earlier in the morning had stopped and when we began it was mild and dry but overcast. We had decided to do the RSPB big garden birdwatch between 11 am and 12 noon to avoid the morning chill. Our four volunteers 
managed to watch all five nature strips and while many of the usual birds were spotted there are a few ordinarily seen while working in the strips which did not show up. 
Sadly the robin which regularly keeps up company on Nature Strip 4 when we are breaking ground was not seen, nor the wren which has been spotted in this strip. The RSPB specify that only birds which land in the area can be counted.The maximum number of a type of bird seen at any point in time during the hour is the number recorded, this avoids counting the same birds twice. At some points there was frustration when a bird flew over but did not land or when birdsong could be heard from the trees but sightings remained elusive. The birds recorded for each strip are noted below.
The hour provided an enjoyable time to observe the behaviour of our avian neighbours in the Nature Strips. Christine saw a magpie in an adjacent garden chasing three blackbirds that then flew into the nature strip enabling a good spot. Hopefully our Nature Strip work will enhance the habitat for them in the future.
Here is a PDF of the talk given by Ian Morrison, the Tree and Woodlands Officer of Ediburgh Council. Here is his detailed tree survey of Strip 1.
The Listed Pavilion
At 3pm on Tuesday 26 September members of the CPA met in East Suffolk Road to watch the re-location of the listed Pavilion by the developers .
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When permission was granted to build on the former playing field, CPA, with residents in Crawfurd Road, had achieved the concession from the ECC planning committee that the listed Pavilion should be conserved and that the public space surrounding it should be landscaped to provide public access. This is the first stage in realising this decision and we look forward to further developments.
“Places, people and planning” – A consultation on the future of the Scottish planning system
On 10th January the Scottish Government published this consultation paper setting out key components of a new Planning Bill to be brought forward in year 2 of the present Parliamentary Session. The proposed changes to the planning system are derived from the Review Panel Report published last year and the subsequent working parties established to consider various aspects of the planning system and possible reforms. The consultation ran until April 2017. As a result, the Scottish Government has indicated that it will present a Planning Bill before the Scottish Parliament in 2017/8. However no precise timetable for the Bill has yet been published. ( as of 2nd November 2017).
Reviewing the Management Plan for the Old and New Towns of Edinburgh World Heritage Site.
The Management Plan identifies what is significant about the World Heritage Site, recognises challenges and threats, and sets out policies to preserve and enhance the Site. This new survey gives everyone the chance to let us know how well you think the Old and New Towns of Edinburgh work as a place to live, work and visit. Click HERE to visit website and read the feedback. A further meeting will take place in November 2017 to discuss all the responses to the Plan.
Survey into range expansion of an Allium paradoxum population in Craigmillar Park.
Ealier this year we were asked for help from University of Edinburgh students who were doing a survey of invasive plants in our area. We thank Shona Irvine for sending the report. Read an abstract of the Report:
Allium paradoxum is an invasive plant originally from Central Asia and introduced into the UK in 1823. A
n invasive plant is a plant species that causes problems for an area (economic or otherwise). A. paradoxum. is considered invasive as it outcompetes native plants and forms monocultures in woodlands and near waterways. We investigated whether a specific A. paradoxum monoculture in Craigmillar Park is spreading and any management strategies that could be used to counter this. We mapped the density of an A. paradoxum population and found that the density was lower around its edges and thus it’s spreading. More…
Nature Strip Biodiversity Report – Habitat Summary and Recommendations.
Overview
Situated within the Craigmillar Park Association conservation area, the five Nature Strips between Granby Road and Craigmillar Park, in the south of Edinburgh, are an asset to the area, both in terms of providing valuable habitat for wildlife in an otherwise residential setting, in addition to enhancing the green space of the area with the additional health and wellbeing benefits this provides to residents. More…..
Kings Building Redevelopment
Edinburgh University: King’s Buildings Campus – School of Biological Sciences
Application 16/02873/FUL – Proposed extension and redevelopment of Darwin Building & other works.
This application, which was supported by the community council, was approved on 7th November 2016. The site covers the southern part of the King’s Buildings Campus bounded to the north by Max Born Crescent. It is not in a conservation area, but is bounded to the west and south by scheduled Open Space and Green Belt and to the east across Mayfield Road by the Craigmillar Park Conservation Area. This substantial project is the first step in the programme of major investment by the University at this Campus as described in the talk at our last AGM.
Composting by Frances Lindsay
Here is the talk by Frances Linsay given at last years AGM.
Introduction:
Frances Lindsay first got interested in composting about ten years ago after seeing an advert by the Council for volunteers to train as Master Composters. The main purpose of this scheme was to encourage people to compo
st their kitchen and garden waste instead of filling their dustbins with it. At that time (2004) about one third of an average dustbin’s contents was biodegradable material. So she trained as a Master Composter and to spread the composting message gave talks to community groups, engaged members of the public at events, handed out leaflets and visited householders who requested help with composting problems. Since that time the brown bin garden rubbish collection has been extended across the city and now that the food waste caddy collection has also been introduced, the Edinburgh Master Composter project has ended. Read the PDF.
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The Community Council is a member of the Cockburn Association (For everyone who loves Edinburgh) Here is a link to their latest NEWSLETTER.
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South East Edinburgh Locality Improvement Plan
Click Here to view plan.
Strategic Development Plan (SDP)
This SDP covers the SESplan area from the Borders to part of Fife, including Edinburgh. The members of SESplan are City of Edinburgh Council, East Lothian Council, Midlothian Council, West Lothian Council, Fife Council and Scottish BordersCouncil. The SDP sets the strategy for Local Development Plans (see above) and the new plan SESplan2 was to replace in 2018 the 2013 SDP SESplan covering a 20 year period. Only in May 2019 did the Scottish Government issue its decision to reject the plan on the grounds of an Inadequate Transport Appraisal and other transport issues. It is not yet clear what happens now!
Craigmillar Conservation Area Listed Buildings
Our secretary has put together a comprehensive list of all the important buildings in our area.
MAYFIEL
D ROAD AND WEST MAYFIELD, MAYFIELD SALISBURY CHURCH, INCLUDING CHURCH HALL, GATEPIERS AND BOUNDARY WALLS (Ref: 27119) – Category B building listed on 14/12/1970. Hippolyte J Blanc, 1876 1879 with later spire 1894 and 20th century extensions. Cruciform-plan, French Gothic church; 4 stage square plan tower with octagonal spire to NE, dominant nave with low side aisles, M gabled transepts, clerestory, polygonal apse and church hall adjoining to S.