The Trust made a deputation to the City of Edinburgh Culture and Communities Committee on 5 December — to express concern about the maintenance of the condition of the hill, and support the proposed parks levy on ticketed events.
The submission was in response to the council report, item 7.6 ‘Public Spaces – Events Charging, including Parks Levy’, on the committee agenda.
The trust emphasized our “three big maintenance issues” are:
1. Litter and litter bin problems, particularly in high wind,
2. Erosion, the loss of both grass and soil, on the top of the hill, and
3. Uncontrolled access by private motor vehicles up Calton Hill Drive.
The text of the Trust’s submission is on the website here.
The discussion ended with a vote to approve the report together with an addendum (which we welcomed) as follows:
1.1 Notes that at 4.6 works for each site are to be determined by officers based on the needs of the parks and that spend should not cover routine maintenance but fund development improvements and agrees that where a constituted “Friends of” or conservation trust exists for a premier park that efforts should be made by officers to engage and consult in advance on their proposed programme of works.
1.2 Further agrees that investment in significant projects such as rainwater management or combatting erosion linked to visitor numbers should be considered within the scope of “development improvements” and should not be considered routine maintenance as these matters are intrinsically linked to the sustainability of hosting events. [our emphasis]
We were particularly pleased to see the key word “erosion” included as it had hitherto been missing from council documents.