Clean the rubbish at the Shore

We’re delighted to be sending this update jointly with Ben Macpherson MSP for Edinburgh North and Leith. We’ve presented Ben with the petition, 3164 strong, attached along with a post-meeting picture.

Together, we want to thank Edinburgh Council for its support in joining with Forth Ports to clean the “Sea of Crap”. We’ll continue to work together, as a team, with Ben and Edinburgh Council to promote maintenance of the Water of Leith by the Shore. Our campaign is moving into a second phase, which we are calling “SOSLeith (Save our Shore, Leith). We’ll start social media under that banner in the coming days and invite your participation. If there are any recipients that would want to join the campaign, or wish to offer any particular skills, could you message [email protected] directly?

The “Sea of Crap” is gone! The water has not looked this good in years. We send our thanks to the Council and Forth Ports for coming together and clearing the mess and thank the workmen who diligently accomplished their tasks.
We said to the Council and Forth Ports that we are pleased to note the intent to include the community in long-term planning for basin management. As residents and businesses, we are keen to be involved in the ongoing basin clean-up maintenance plan, clean-up monitoring, and feedback reporting.
Our hope is that this campaign has opened the door to transparent, multi-stakeholder, planning and implementation to make our environment safe, clean, and respectful of our heritage.

We heard from the council and councillors that trash pickup was to commence this week and, over the last 48 hours, that it would start on Friday. We were also informed that, after pickup, we’d be included in council-led efforts to design and implement a long-term solution to this decades-long issue.

Today’s Edinburgh Evening News has this article - https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/deal-agreed-to-clear-sea-of-rubbish-at-water-of-leith-1-4966721?fbclid=IwAR10JzYQBprOiWgM12C9trLQWyWPhEvCpP67nSbqaY4ep5uTGHiUSbn5V6s – indicating that the council and Forth Ports will commence pickup tomorrow.

Our thanks to our representatives who are now taking action, and to Forth Ports for its involvement, and to the 3,118 petitioners who signed up to “Clean the Rubbish at the Shore”.

Progress! CEC saying “...our waste team have been talking with WoL 2000 and Forth Ports about the best way to get this dealt with quickly. Further discussion will take place tomorrow.” Adam McVey, council chief, has been in contact to say "discussions are ongoing and I’m hopeful that the owners meeting their responsibilities. When this concludes with agreed actions I’ll be able to set out a timeline…” and also that "Discussions on the immediate issue are quite far advanced.” Press: We’ve had great coverage from both the Edinburgh Evening News at https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/people/petition-launched-to-get-leith-sea-of-rubbish-cleared-up-10-days-after-edinburgh-floods-1-4958910, and Edinburgh Live at https://www.edinburghlive.co.uk/news/edinburgh-news/reason-rubbish-debris-water-leith-16530279. And we have a stall at Leith Market tomorrow – please come!