Gilmerton Dykes Tenants & Residents Association (July 2001)

After having been kept going for a number of years through the heroic efforts of Cathie Ferguson and Gwen Carlin, the G.D.T.R.A. is re-establishing itself as a campaigning organisation.

There was an A.G.M. in April, where a number of local people agreed to form the beginnings of a new Committee, with the support of Councillor Ken Harrold and the South Edinburgh Residents’ & Tenants’ (S.E.R.T.) Support Project. In May, a second meeting decided that the main issues they wanted to tackle were:-

The creation of a new local play area, to give the young people more to do.
The improvement of road safety at the shops at the western end of Gilmerton Dykes Street.

A new play area

The Association has had Ron Tulloch, of the Council’s Recreation Department, along to a meeting to discuss the play area issue. Ron organised a walkabout on 5th June with a number of local people; they toured the various possible sites for a play area e.g. the middle field at the Crescent and the Dip. Ron will draw up a report on the various sites and present it to the Association’s next meeting (details below).

Road safety at shops

The Association invited an official from the Council’s Transportation Section to its May meeting. They put to him their concerns about cars speeding, and congestion caused by parked cars and bus stops being situated on both sides of the street, more or less opposite each other. These problems have led to several accidents at this spot in recent times and have made crossing the street a hazardous business for pedestrians, especially very young and very old people. The Transportation official said he would investigate a number of options, including painting white lines along the road-side, putting up signs, building a pull-in area for busses and installing speed cameras. He will draw up a list of the options, together with the costings for each, and present it to the next meeting (details below).

Where you come in

If you are interested in having a say on these matters as a local tenant or resident, if you’d like to join the Committee or if you’d like to try your hand at being the Association’s new Vice-Chair, Secretary or Treasurer, please come along. The last meeting elected Margaret Farmer, one of the area’s Community Directors on the Partnership Board, as the new Chair. Margaret can’t run the show all alone, so, if you’re good with money, a dab hand at taking minutes or fancy Chairing meetings in Margaret’s absence, please come along. Full training will be given to the people who are elected to the above positions and you will get support from Councillor Harrold, S.E.R.T. and the Housing Department.

NEXT MEETING

Tuesday 10th July @ 7.00pm

in South Edinburgh Community Complex,

13 Newtoft Street.

Contact Scott at SERT Project on 529 5197.

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