The South West Neighbourhood Partnership in Edinburgh has announced that they will be cutting down the number of public meeting from six to two each year, however three organised events will also take place
At their meeting yesterday they conducted their annual review of the year 2010-11. This was a public meeting which took place at Gorgie Parish Church and was chaired by convener Donald Wilson.
The number of public meetings is to be decreased mainly due to the fact that the meetings do not attract large numbers of people from within the community.
However, there were many positives to be taken from the review. The consensus was that the neighbourhood partnership is making great strides in terms of stature within the community, and one of the reasons for this is due to its online presence.
The neighbourhood partnership only this past week set up a profile page on the social networking website Facebook and this appears to be just the beginning of more to come. The members of the committee see this as a way to reach out and engage with younger members within the community who may not be just as eager to come along to meetings, but still have a interest on what is being discussed about their community.
While the implementation of Facebook is certainly a step in the right direction, the neighbourhood partnership also agreed that more needed to be done about advertising and promotion. An investment in marketing would see a rise in awareness for the partnership within the community and would get more people involved.
The decision was also announced to award the Craiglockhart Community Council the sum of £1,66o towards the purchase, erection and design of a memorial cairn and plaque in commemoration of five lives lost in 1943, when a Wellington bomber crashed into what is now Craiglockhart View. The cairn will be erected at the top of Craiglockhart Road North.