Post Referendum membership boost!

One of the unexpected results of the no vote in the independence referendum is that the SNP has doubled its membership. Locally that's led to a boost in membership and Leith SNP is set to welcome more members to its regular meetings. This is good for the branch and for political participation.

Anticipating interest in discussing where the SNP and the campaign for independence goes now Leith SNP have arranged a special meeting of the Leith Branch on 1st October at 7.30pm in The Junction, 86 Great Junction Street, Leith EH6 5LJ. Its expected to be a busy meeting and will cover the referendum aftermath, campaigning and local organisation. There is a facebook event set up https://www.facebook.com/events/538794542888902/ and members are encouraged to RSVP. The meeting will be open to non members and membership forms will be available on the night.

The Scottish Independence referendum - information

When we're out campaigning for a Yes vote people ask us for more information on the pros and cons of independence. Even those who identify as natural no voters often ask for more information. More often than not they say that they are looking for more information before making their minds up once and for all. 

It is important for those of us campaigning for a Yes vote to respond positively to these requests. Sure we can give them whichever Yes Scotland leaflet we have or point them to the YesScotland.net website or the referendum section of the SNP's website. Sometimes though people are looking for a bit more detail.

One source that's perhaps overlooked is the website of the Scottish Government. There you can find a dedicated site 'Scotland's Referendum' introduced by Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon MSP. There you will find an interactive timeline, the Road to 2014 blog and bit that is perhaps most interesting 'Scotland's Future'. There you will find a number of papers which provide detail on the Scottish Governments plans for an independent Scotland. Important issues are addressed such as pensions, benefits, defence, oil and gas, Europe, the economy, democracy, currency, consumer protection. The White Paper on Independence which will be published in the next month will be added to to these papers to show what an independent Scottish nation will look like.

Well worth a look. 

Remembering Allison Hunter

By Rob Munn

For a whole generation and more of SNP activists the name Allison Hunter has a huge resonance. She was a inspiring and dedicated National Organiser for the Scottish National Party and news of her death will have touched SNP members past and present the length and breadth and indeed furth of Scotland.

I first met Allison when she was election agent for Jim Sillars in the historic Govan By-Election of 1988. She shot to prominence due to the outstanding organisational success of that campaign. However as a young activist it was the personal touch that Allison had in spades that stays with me. She remembered every activists name and had a task for each and every one.

Not long after that Allison became the party’s National Organiser based in the old SNP HQ at North Charlotte Street and I’m sure like many SNP members in Edinburgh she was a great resource to gain knowledge   from. I’m sure she listened to a large number of harebrained theories but always responded with positive comment, gently guiding enthusiasm to more constructive ends. She had a great smile and a twinkle in her eye – she was a hard woman to argue with!

My memory of Allison will always strongly feature the guidance, advice, practical support and humour she afforded me when I was the SNP candidate in the Leith Harbour by election in 1996. It was a long campaign and Allison was on hand every day giving pointers on canvassing, assessing our returns and helping with campaign materials. Her support to me and my election agent Hilary Brown played a huge part in my subsequent victory. Allison was not there the night I won – she was at another Council by election where allegedly our prospects were better! I still remember her joy when I phoned her to tell her I’d won by 45 votes.

Over the years that followed I got to know her better as I carried out roles as Constituency Convener, Vetting Convener and Organiser attending various training sessions led by Allison. She always made herself available, listening carefully to your concerns and setting you on the right course. These were talents that will have served her well when she later became a Glasgow Councillor.

I remember walking into the campaign rooms in the Glasgow East by election and Allison saying, ‘Ah, Rob you’re an experienced canvasser – I’ve a job for you’. I knew I was in for an interesting day. Needless to say with Allison involved as Election Agent we won that one too.

Allison was an inspiration and she will be sorely missed.

The 'Greening' of Western Harbour

Leith & Newhaven SNP Councillor Adam McVey recently posted a guest blog on the Greener Leith website regarding the temporary 'greening' of Western Harbour. Leith SNP reproduce the blog post below.

One of the first visits I made to a constituent after being elected was to a couple living at Windrush Drive.

I had talked about improving Western Harbour during the Council election and my constituents wanted to know how to progress the idea of greening vacant future development sites.

Over the last 8 months I’ve been pushing for a greening project in Western Harbour and now the first phase is close to breaking ground.

Port of Leith Housing Association is in discussion with Forth Ports with a view to leasing the site which will enable them to take on the maintenance for the 2 hectare ‘school site’. The Edinburgh & Lothians and Greenspace Trust is leading the project, having secured funding from the Central Scotland Green Network Development Fund, along with some Council money, to pay for the necessary top soil, seed and tree planting.

The project aims to convert a large area of what the residents currently refer to as ‘the wastelands’ into a green space for the whole community. It’s hoped the new green space will bring what has sometimes been a disparate and somewhat detached community closer together.

The work to ‘green’ the area will only take a few weeks but then the work to transform the site into a community asset can begin.

This will be a 2 hectare blank canvas that the community can project their aspirations onto. Suggestions from residents have already included benches, community growing space, marked out football pitches and designated wildlife areas. Whichever ideas are implemented it will be for local people in Western Harbour and beyond to decide how to get the most from THEIR new green space.

There are a huge number of benefits from a greening project like this. The ambition is that this becomes a community space which raises spirits at Western Harbour and encourages future development on other gap sites. Western Harbour has the potential to supply a large number of desperately needed houses on brown field land which can soak up some of Edinburgh’s housing demand and help protect more sections of Edinburgh’s green built from future development.

The School site greening project will begin in March and won’t take long until completion. However, this is only phase one of fulfilling Western Harbour’s potential as Edinburgh’s northern city floating on the water. There’s still a huge amount of work still to do in order to get other gap sites greened, to get the new park built and to get the rest of the development itself built.

The hope is that a 2 hectare greening project might just be the catalyst needed to bring that development closer to reality.

You can find more background to the Western Harbour temporary greening project here.

Cllr Adam McVey, SNP Councillor for Leith ward

Thanks to Greener Leith for the original article. You can find out more about Greener Leith here.

News of this project was picked up by the Evening News. You can read that article here.

'Yes Scotland' campaign street stall

Leith SNP will be hosting a 'Yes Scotland' campaign street stall on Saturday 10th November. Supporters will be meeting from 10.30am onwards to speak to shoppers and seek signatures on the Independence Declaration. 

Leith SNP Statement on SNP Defence Policy Debate at SNP National Conference, October 2012

On 19 September Leith SNP Branch agreed, by consensus not mandate, to send a full complement of delegates (6) to Party Conference to vote in favour of existing SNP defence policy. Having debated the proposal to retain NATO membership at several meetings the branch believes:

·         A newly independent Scotland will have a unique and crucial role to play in nuclear disarmament and international relations.

·         Our ability to disarm and remove Trident from Scotland and our policy to join the NATO affiliate group Partnership for Peace* are vital elements of our bid to persuade people to vote Yes in the Independence Referendum.

·         NATO membership is not compatible with disarming and removing Trident from Scotland. Leasing or selling part of Scotland to NATO or the RUK so that Trident can stay at Faslane is not an acceptable option.

·         Membership of the Partnership for Peace alongside nations such as Ireland, Finland, Sweden, Austria, and Switzerland will allow Scotland to build an individual relationship with NATO, choosing our own priorities for cooperation. We will continue to work with our NATO allies as the 22 existing Partnership for Peace member countries do.

Hilary Brown, Secretary of Leith SNP said

‘Leith SNP is proud of the SNP’s ethical and practical defence policy of joining Partnership for Peace, a policy which will enable us to co-operate with our friends and allies in NATO when we choose, but which allows us to disengage from a military alliance based on the first strike use of nuclear weapons. We are also fully committed to the SNP’s policy of nuclear disarmament and it is clear from all that we have read and studied that NATO membership is not compatible with disarming and removing Trident from Scotland. Leasing or selling part of Scotland to NATO or the RUK so that Trident can stay at Faslane is not an acceptable option. We applaud the party for engaging in such a substantive and respectful debate on this crucial issue and we believe delegates should be clear on these points when they vote.’

For more details call Hilary Brown on 0131 555 2937 or Cllr Adam McVey on 0771 866 6456

*The Partnership for Peace (PfP) is a programme of practical bilateral cooperation between individual Euro-Atlantic partner countries and NATO. It allows partners to build up an individual relationship with NATO, choosing their own priorities for cooperation. (www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/topics_50349.htm, September 2012)

Leith SNP on Facebook

Leith SNP have a new Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/Leith-SNP/147117215354960?ref=hl for members, supporters and those just interested in what the SNP are doing in Leith. Please visit and like to keep up to date with the campaign for Independence in Leith.

Boardwalk Empire?

Rob Munn reports on a radical new proposal for the Water of Leith Basin


Pardon the title! I'm not likening the Shore to hit US TV show Boardwalk Empire but Sandport Boadwalk is the working title for a plan to change the Water of Leith basin as we know it.
Some years back a company called Water of Leith 2000 put forward plans for barges along the shore line originally I think the plan was to use them as houseboats. However the plans changed to office use and today the barges moored between Malmaison and the Ship on the Shore house a variety of offices.

Expansion of this scheme upstream through the inner basin and on to Bonnington weir at the Quilts had so far not materialised. Water of Leith 2000 put their property (the shoreline on both sides) up for sale by auction in 2009 but failed to find a single bidder.
Recently it was revealed that Water of Leith 2000 had changed into Bluefield International and some sort of new plan was in the offing. Friends of the Water of Leith Basin made contact and suggested that once they had some ideas to share they would be happy to host a presentation at one of their meetings. On 4th April as part of a General Meeting of FoWL.B a presentation was made of the proposal 'Sandport Boardwalk' by well known Edinburgh architect Malcolm Fraser. It was tentative - Malcolm had only got involved about a week before the meeting. He stressed that what was proposed would balance commercial use (that's the bit that will make the proposal economically viable) and public space (the boardwalk bit). There are no definite plans yet and planning permission will have to be sought and further detailed public consultation would be required.
There were concerns raised at the meeting regarding visual impact, the consequences of changing the Shore in this way, practicalities such as access and increased pressure on parking in the area. As the proposed structures would float as the barges do it was pointed out that the silting up of the inner basin could scupper the plans.
I feel the plans should be more fully fleshed out before being exposed to full public scrutiny and consultation. I certainly want to see more about what these structures would look like and how they might add to the Leith Shore. It may be that some of it will find support and some of it won't. Malcolm Fraser is a renowned architect and extremely capable of coming up with something interesting and challenging. I would welcome more detail to the plans and importantly more public debate on what local people and businesses would like to see.
The Friends of the Water of Leith Basin are to be thanked for organising this initial presentation on Bluefield's proposals.
Wider public consultation will I'm sure be lively.

Leith SNP to run two candidates in Council Elections

Leith SNP today announced they would be running two candidates in the Leith ward in May's Council elections. Sitting SNP Councillor Rob Munn said "The SNP has a solid vote in Leith and topped the 1st preference poll here in 2007's Council Elections. We have worked hard to build up SNP support ever since and it's a logical step to build on that support by putting forward a team of two candidates for the Council elections in May."

Rob Munn's running mate will be Adam McVey a 24 year old who works for Amnesty International and a Social Investment Trust. Adam said "Having lived in Leith for 2 years I am aware of the great efforts to make it a better place to live and work. I believe I can support those efforts and bring new ideas and commitment to the fore."

Cllr Munn added "I believe that the SNP are putting forward a strong team for these important elections with a balance of youth, experience and skills that will serve Leith well in the coming years."

Forth Energy dump Biomass plan

Leith SNP welcomes the news that Forth Energy have dumped their plans for a large scale biomass power plant in Leith docks.

Local Leith Councillor Rob Munn said; "This is welcome news. There has been a long campaign against this plan and I congratulate the local campaign group 'No Leith Biomass' for their efforts which have been rewarded today. This was an issue in which the local community were united from environmental groups, community councils, residents groups to individual citizens."

 Cllr Munn added "This was an issue that garnered a lot of comment, all of it against in my experience, from right across Leith and beyond. The basic premise of green power was unsustainable as the fuel for the plant would have had to be shipped in huge quantities from abroad. It seemed too that the economics behind the plan were to get large sums of public money in subsidy in return for providing electricity to the national grid. No firm use was ever put forward for using the substantial heat generated by the proposed plant. Leith is better off without this proposal which was bad for Leith and bad for Scotland."

The reason given by Forth Energy is that they want to develop the National Renewables Infrastructure  plans which would see Leith become a home for the manufacture of offshore renewables such as wind,wave and tidal devices as part of Scotland's low carbon future. Leith SNP broadly welcome the opportunities that will create for jobs and investment. It is important that there is an continuing dialogue with the local community to ensure that the lessons of the large scale biomass fiasco are learnt and that any new future for Leith Docks is one where the local community are fully consulted and can see a clear benefit from.

Your Scotland, Your Referendum

The Scottish Government have launched their consultation on the referendum on Scottish Independence https://t.co/EESeaX0w at a time when members are flocking to the SNP and polls show a shift towards independence. It's coming yet...

Independence - Your Choice!

People have questions about Independence for Scotland and this little booklet provides the answers http://angusmacdonald.info/images/Documents/independence%20your%20choice.pdf . Thanks to Angus MacDonald MSP for Falkirk East for sending Leith SNP the link. There's more information on the SNP's vision for Independence here http://manifesto.votesnp.com/independence .

A New Dawn!

It's been a bit quiet on the Leith SNP blog. Otherwise engaged in all that electioneering left precious little time to update the blog! Fantastically successful election for the SNP with five constituencies in Edinburgh now represented by the SNP. While it is tremendous to see Kenny MacAskill returned in Eastern and to see him joined with first past the post victories for Marco Biagi in Central, Colin Keir in Western, Jim Eadie in Southern and Gordon MacDonald in South West it is unfortunate in Northern and Leith we fell just 595 votes short. Our excellent candidate Shirley-Anne Somerville will be a loss from the Scots Parliament and she ran a strong campaign that produced the best ever result for the SNP in Leith. Indeed Labour should be worried as in Leith the SNP beat them comprehensively. It all bodes well for the future.
Leith SNP will have a short break from campaigning then we will be out on the streets again campaigning for that 'Yes' vote in the Independence referendum along with next years Council elections.

Response to Labour's Proposed 4-Day School Week

Lari Don, Children's Writer and Story Teller | Why I'm voting SNP on May...

Lib Dems Must Come Down Off the Fence on Biomass

Shirley-Anne Somerville MSP (Lothians)(SNP) is calling on local Lib Dem politicians to make clear their position on Forth Energy’s proposals for a biomass plant in Leith. Her call comes after the local Lib Dem party distributed a “newspaper” with a front page story on the biomass plant but in which no councillor, MSP or candidate from the party actually expresses any opinion at all. On Saturday it was revealed that the Lib Dem Councillor for Leith Ward, Marjorie Thomas, advocated building the plant a couple of miles away in Seafield.

Ms Somerville lodged a motion in the Scottish Parliament before Christmas calling for a moratorium on large electricity-only biomass plants. It received backing from all parties except for the Tories. There was no support from Lothians Lib Dems for the motion.



Ms Somerville said:

“Between the newspaper and Cllr Thomas’s comments I have to question where the Lib Dems stand on this issue. Their newspaper is completely devoid of any opinion – it looks like they’re putting on a show of being involved, but ducking the big question of whether they support the biomass plant or not.



Cllr Thomas seems to suggest building the massive biomass plant at Seafield, which is extraordinary. Yes, there are major problems with the current proposed location for the plant. But there are also fundamental problems relating to size, inefficiency, pollution and many more which cannot be fixed simply by moving it along the road – that just moves the problem. I think we’re entitled to know what Lib Dem politicians are really thinking about this issue”.

SNP Councillor for Leith Rob Munn said "I welcome my fellow ward councillor coming out against the Biomass plan but am astonished at the suggestion that siting it at Seafield would be any more acceptable to the local community than the site proposed. The fact remains that this large scale biomass plant is unsustainable wherever it is sited and not the route Scotland should be taking with new energy generation. It's wrong for Leith and it's wrong for Scotland."

The motion by Shirley-Anne Somerville is here: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/business/motions/Default.aspx?motionid=20154



Cllr Thomas’s comments can be found within this article: http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/edinburgh/1800-voice-opposition-to-biomass.6732902.jp

Leith SNP Object to Giant Biomass Proposal

Leith SNP today submitted its response to Forth Energy's application to build a giant Biomass Power Station in Leith Docks.
Local SNP Councillor Rob Munn said 'This plan is wrong for Leith and wrong for Scotland. Large scale Biomass is not sustainable and is the wrong way forward. I hope that it will be rejected by Scottish Ministers as it has been rejected by local residents, local politicians and environmental groups'.

SNP Calls For Biomass Proposal to be Scrapped

Leith SNP Councillor Rob Munn has called for Forth Energy's plan for a huge Biomass Energy Plant to be scrapped. Cllr Munn said "I think it's wrong for Leith and wrong for Scotland. I question the need and the sustainability of this proposal. If Scotland, indeed, if the UK cannot supply the wood to fuel large scale biomass then its the wrong way to go."
The latest issue of the Leith Independent is given over to the Biomass issue giving information on how to get more information regarding the plan.
More information can be found at www.forthenergy.co.uk and www.noleithbiomass.org.uk
The picture above shows an artists impression of the impact of the plant on the historic roofline and view of the Shore in Leith.

Leith Still on Course for Massive Offshore Renewables Investment Boost

Shirley-Anne Somerville MSP (Lothians) (SNP) has welcomed the publication of Stage 2 of the National Renewables Infrastructure Plan (N-RIP) - which keeps Leith firmly on the map as a key development site for the manufacture and maintenance of offshore renewable power equipment. The Scottish Enterprise report, published today, aims to lay the platform for eleven key sites - including Leith - to share in a combined public and private investment of £223 million, supporting the creation of 5,180 jobs and generating a significant economic boost to the locations identified.
Ms Somerville, a member of the Scottish Parliament’s Climate Change Committee said:
"Leith is ideally placed to take advantage of the growing renewables industry in the North Sea. Developing part of the docks area as a site for the manufacture and maintenance of offshore renewable equipment has enormous potential to bring new skilled jobs and a major economic boost to the area.
This report also illustrates that tackling climate change doesn’t always have to be painful – it can bring major economic gains too. I look forward to seeing these plans developed and this new ambition for Leith being realised".

Seemingly Nuke Labour have complained about this poster. Hit a nerve perhaps?