Save Our Meadows
Today, Friday 19th June, the Licensing subcommittee decided to allow the Ladyboys of Bangkok and the Moscow State Circus to use the Meadows this August. We were very disappointed at this decision, which was made on the smallest of margins - the convener's casting vote.
Evans Funfair have now put in an application
(see below). Will all members of the Licensing subcommittee be present at the hearing for this?
So, the campaign continues. Our main efforts must now go into making sure the correct policies are in place for
next year. For more details see Meadows Manifesto below and
Current Issues.
Meadows Manifesto
We received, for consultation, a draft document setting out what events should be allowed to take place on the Meadows and Bruntsfield Links, and what conditions should be applied. The consultation period was extremely short, replies having to be in by Friday 26th June. The FoMBL response is available
here for you to see. (Our replies are the red bits!) Now it is up to officials and Councillors to finalise the document, so please keep up the pressure so they take some notice of what we have said.
Postcard Campaign
Thanks to everyone who filled out a postcard recently. Several hundred have now been delivered to the Chief Executive of the Council. They should all have been available for councillors to inspect at the licensing hearing, Friday, 19th June. In the papers for the meeting it said "The objections submitted by postcard will be made available at the committee meeting for inspection". There was no sign of them that we could see, so we don't believe the committee saw them at all.
Licence Applications
An application has been received from Evans Festival Fringe Funfair to operate on the Meadows from the 5th to 16th August. This will be discussed at the Licensing subcommittee meeting on either 15th or 17th July. Objections have to be in by 14th July. The fact that they have put in an application for a licence indicates that officials have agreed that they can hold this funfair, and have allocated them a space close to the cricket pavilion. Last year Evans made an awful mess, and the results are still visible east of Middle Meadow Walk, close to Melville Drive. Please write and object.
Here is a sample letter of objection, or a shorter version
here.
Freedom of Information
We have made some requests for information under the Freedom of Information Act to get information about the economics of events on the Meadows.
Here is what we have found. As you can see, the City of Edinburgh doesn't make much out of these events, and we reckon that very little of the money taken by the events goes into the hands of Edinburgh businesses.
Gude Cause
GUDE CAUSE was formed to mark the 100th anniversary of the Women’s Suffrage Movement Procession along Princes Street in 1909. The culmination of this celebration will be a re-enactment of this march on 10th October 2009, starting on Bruntsfield Links.
See the website.
