Water Of Leith Conservation Trust News Feed

Funding secured for walkway improvements

Helen — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 13:56:06 +0000

The steps and walkway from Roseburn to Dean Village are beginning to show there age. CEC Ranger Service and the Trust have been working on funding bids for over £40K worth of work in the area. Last week we got the good news that all the funding has been agreed. The lions share of the funding will come from WREN (a landfill tax credits provider) with additional money from Inverleith Neighbourhood Partnership and CEC Services for the Communities department. This is great news as the money willupgrade the access steps at Roseburn Cliff, the Coltbridge Viaduct, Belford Road, and Dean Cemetery, finally sort out the 'Donaldsons Puddle' and widen the path from Belford to Dean where possible. It is expected that the work will take place early 2010.

Fun and Games at Balerno Clean-up

Helen — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 13:55:47 +0000

25 volunteers arrived for this mornings clean-up at Balerno, a great turn out on a chilly soggy sunday. Amongst the 25 bags of rubbish collected we found a range of fun finds including a sledge, a skateboard, a Frisbee and a selection of balls. Slightly more mundane finds include a wheelie bin, traffic cones, barbed wire, pallets, chairs and trolleys. Thank you to all who helped, see photos.

Conservation Trust Annual Report Published and AGM reminder

Helen — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 10:54:05 +0000

Just to remind all members that we have the Water of Leith Conservation Trust AGM on Monday 29th October meeting at the Visitor Centre at 7.00. After all the usual business we will be having a talk from Jonathon Webb from Renewable Energy Devises about the potential for Micro-Hydro Power Generation on the river.The Agenda for the meeting and the minutes can be found on The Trust page of our website

If you would like to see what we got upto last year please read our ANNUAL REPORT

Clean-up Balerno this Sunday 10.00am

Helen — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 14:36:54 +0000

Just a reminder we have a clean-up planned for this Sunday 25th September, meeting at Currie Rugby Club in Balerno, off Bavelaw Road. Wear old clothes, let us know if you plan to come, tea / coffee available, we will finish around 12.30

MAP

Mirco Hydro Power on the river is a step closer as funding award is announced

Helen — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 14:30:59 +0000

I am copying this news article from Greener Leith' Blog as Ali has such a way with words. But it is great news that Community Energy Scotland have awarded funding to support a coalition of Edinburgh based community groups, including Greener Leith, to conduct detailed feasibility studies on developing hydro electricity generation on four sites along the Water of Leith.

The Redbraes weir was identified by previous research commissioned by the City of Edinburgh council, as one of 15 sites along the river, where microhydro may be feasible. This study suggested that a 'reverse archimedes screw' might be the best way to generate power from the Redbraes weir. This would be similar (but smaller) to the one in this video clip below, on the River Dart in Devon.

This latest funding award, worth about £6000 to the Leith area, will see the site assessed to see whether a microhydro scheme would in fact be feasible, both from a practical and financial perspective. It will therefore look at issues like:

The best technologies to use.
Who owns the land.
The impact on wildlife and flooding, and what could be done to reduce this.
Estimating how much electricity, and money, the installation would generate each year.
How it would be connected to the national grid and the costs of doing this.
Installation, insurance and maintenance costs.

Although the site has the lowest capacity of the four sites being assessed in detail, we hope that it will nevertheless prove to be a viable project.

On its own, the project will never power the whole of Leith - but we do hope that it will provide a small income stream from selling renewable energy into the grid. If this is the case, our intention would be to establish a community managed company to invest any income from the project into helping residents nearby to cut their carbon footprint. The project could also play an exciting role as a demonstration and educational resource as well, with a possibility of linking with the Redbraes community garden (where volunteers have just won the 'Best Community Garden' award in this years Beautiful Edinburgh in Bloom competition). It would be visible from the public footpaths on the West bank of the river too.

Historically, the Water of Leith has been heavily modified along it's entire length, and the weirs were originally built to power mills during the industrial revolution. Therefore it seems fitting to try to bring these weirs back into use, providing a clean, green power source for local residents, using the best of modern technology.

If the project is workable, there is in an incredible amount of fundraising, and project development work to do - but at the moment we're optimistic about working with local residents groups like the Redbraes Residents Association to take the project to the next stage.

The other sites that will be investigated in detail as part of the same funding bid are Harperrig reservoir (Kirknewton Community Development Trust), Harlaw reservoir (Balerno Village Trust), and the larger of the two weirs in Dean village (Dean Village Association).

Thank you Ali for that news, we will report later on what the detailed studies find.

Mandarin Duck spotted in Leith

Helen — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 11:59:43 +0000

This beautiful Mandarin Duck was spotted below Great Junction Street Bridge in Leith. Certainly an exotic find either a long way from home (China/Japan) or more likely to be part of a feral population which moves around central scotland. Thank you to local man Steve Morrisonfor these great photos

33 clean-up so far this year, and more to do

Helen — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 11:51:33 +0000

I was totalling up our half yearly results and was astounded to see we have conducted 33 river clean-ups since April!! This is an amazing effort by our volunteer and many community and corporate groups. This amounts to over 2200 hours of work hauling tonnes of rubbish out of the river. A huge thank you to all involved. Our volunteer team has done 9 clean-up and we would like to recognise the following groups for their efforts;

Scottish Government Landscapes & Habitats Division – Clean-up at Bonnington - 12

Geocachers – Clean-up at Saughton Park - 31

Coltbridge Community Group – Clean-up at Coltbridge - 28

Warriston Crescent Residents Assoc – Clean-up at Warriston - 16

Colinton Amenity Society – Clean-up at Colinton - 30

Tippereth Composters – Clean-up at Colinton - 8

Bonaly Primary School – Clean-up at Colinton - 12

Dean Village Assoc – Clean-up at Dean Village - 20

Stockbridge Community Council – Clean-up at Stockbridge & Canonmills - 8

Standard Life PLC – Clean-up at Stockbridge & Canonmills - 10

Inverleith Cubs – Clean-up at Stockbridge & Canonmills - 16

Craigmount High School – Clean-up at Steadfastgate - 15

Green Team & George Watson’s – Himalayan Balsam Pulling from Roseburn to Stockbridge - 15

Green Team & George Watson’s - Himalayan Balsam Pulling at Juniper Green -14

Roseburn Primary School – Clean-up in Roseburn Park - 75

The Rock Trust – Clean-up & Vegetation Control at Visitor Centre - 7

Scottish Funding Council – Clean-up at Saughton Park - 20

Green Team Work/Activity Day Japanese Knotweed Pulling - 6

Royal London Group/HBOS – Clean-up at Kinleith and Japanese Knotweed Pulling at Currie Sheds - 14

HBOS – Clean-up and Vegetation Control at Bonnington - 16

Leith Fort Community Group – Clean-up & Walkway Vegetation Control - 15.

Institute of Chartered Accountants Clean-up at Bells Mill Weir - 30

Rock Trust Workday in Colinton - 7

RBS Clean-up in Slateford - 10

Goodbye Nickol, Welcome Back Charlotte

Helen — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 11:46:55 +0000

We bid a sad farewell to Nickol this week. Nickol was drafted in in January as maternity cover for our Community and Volunteers Officer, Charlotte, who returns next Wednesday. We would like to thank Nickol for all his hard work organising volunteer activties and keeping the community work going. I am sure we will see him again out and about on the river.

Coltbridge Residents Scoop Conservation Award

Helen — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 13:44:58 +0000

Every year The Water of Leith Conservation Trust presents a trophy to a community or volunteer group that finds the most unusual object during the many clean-ups that take place on the river throughout the year. This year is slightly different in that although no unusual objects of note were found one member of The Coltbridge Bridge Group, Mr John Riddell, found a hole developing in the historic Bells Mill weir. After alerting the Trust and all the relative council departments the weir is now being repaired and consolidated. The Coltbridge Group is formed of local residents who work throughout the year keeping their stretch of the river in excellent condition. They even get in with a canoe every now and then to get the harder to reach objects and litter that most people can't get to without the use of chest-waders.

The Lady of the River Trophy was presented to Dave Black from Coltbridge by our Chairman George Hunter last week. (Pictured) The Trophy itself was found during a clean-up of the river in Bonnington ten years ago and had a base added to make a rather fun trophy. In the past the trophy has been awarded for a range strange and unusual objects such as a black pudding, set of false teeth and deer antlers to name but a few.

This is the first time that The Coltbridge Group has won the conservation trophy. It was felt appropriate because of all the hard work they undertake throughout the year in keeping one of the busiest stretches of the Water of Leith and its Walkway in great condition, and thankfully a hole in a weir is a rather unusual find.

Reservoirs to be drawn down for advanced flood works

Helen — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 16:22:40 +0000

The draw down of Threipmuir and Harlaw reservoirs is now in progress for the forthcoming Reservoir Works contract to be carried out as an advanced works contract for the Water of Leith Flood Prevention Scheme. The reservoirs will be drawn down to a level approximately 3.2m below top water level. Any queries should be directed CEC Flood Prevention Team.