Letter: Not BOLD, cuts!

Dear Editor

We are thoroughly disgusted with Edinburgh councillors who were elected to represent the interests of their constituents. They have chosen to abdicate their responsibilities by quietly accepting from National and Scottish governments reductions to their forthcoming budget, instead of maintaining budgets to increase funds to sustain services within Edinburgh.

They are asking Edinburgh citizens to decide what cuts should be made to meet budget reductions . They have introduced doublespeak by talking about Better Outcomes Leaner Delivery (BOLD) which in effect means cuts.

They are aiming to cut £22 million from the 2014/15 budget. Local communities should not be asked to decide where cuts are implemented; this is the responsibility of councillors . How dare they put the onus on Edinburgh citizens when they are morally and financially responsible?

Employees from the City Council are demonstrating how to access this survey which is totally unacceptable . Councillors call them savings – they can only be described as cuts which we are sure the people of Edinburgh are opposed to.

Anna Hutchison

(by email)

Politicians call for action to save Leith-based Pelamis

Wave goodbye? Local politicians say Pelamis must be saved  

power

Edinburgh Green and Labour parliamentarians are calling for their respective governments to support a troubled local technology company before foreign rivals step in.

Green MSP Alison Johnstone has urged the Scottish Government to intervene to secure the future of wave technology firm Pelamis, which entered administration last week.

Questioning the Energy Minister at Holyrood yesterday,she said there was a real danger that Scotland would lose a global leader in the development of the technology to an overseas buyer, and end up importing wave technology in future years.

Pelamis employs 56 staff, with most based in Leith.

Alison Johnstone, Lothian MSP said: “Pelamis has been a global pioneer in wave technology and a leading Edinburgh company, which we cannot afford to lose. We hear so much about Scotland’s renewable energy potential but we will not reap the rewards without support to turn research into commercially-ready technology.

“Pelamis is a highly respected company which has built up a huge amount of expertise. I urge the Scottish Government to use every possible means to support this company and its employees at this uncertain time.”

North and Leith MP Mark Lazarowicz has also expressed concern and is urging Wstminster and Holyrood to work together to rescue the company. Speaking today, the Labour MP said: “The UK is currently the world leader in marine energy and the expertise of Pelamis Wave Power – based in Leith – has won it grants and awards from the UK and Scottish Governments: I want to see them act now to put together a rescue package.

“I have raised the urgent need to try and save Pelamis in a meeting with the Secretary of State for Scotland and contacted the UK Energy and Climate Change Secretary urging him him to act.

“Scotland and the UK have Europe’s greatest wave resources, but we run a real risk that if wave power technology isn’t given the long term guarantees of support that it needs, other countries will become the leaders in the technology.”

He also raised his concerns in a debate on fracking in Parliament where he referred specifically to the situation affecting Pelamis, and said after the debate: “Supporting pioneering renewable energy technology is what governments should do, instead of giving generous tax breaks to fracking.”

Pelamis Wave Power has been awarded grants for development of its pioneering technology by the UK Department for Energy and Climate Change and earlier this year its Chief Executive, Richard Yemm, was awarded the Scottish Government’s Saltire Prize for marine renewable energy.

Honest TOiL proves worthwhile for city youngsters

Young people graduate from PoLHA training programme

Young people graduate with TOiL.

Thirty five young people from across Edinburgh have completed an 18 week training programme, with 23 going straight into employment following their training. The  young people join almost 500 who have graduated from Port of Leith Housing Association’s (PoLHA) training programme Training Opportunities in Lothian (TOiL).

Among those to graduate at an event at the City Chambers last night (25 Nov) was Magdalena Susfal who said: “I gained a lot of admin skills and got a feel for how it is to work in an office environment. The training was very useful and I enjoyed it. The Excel training was very good and the interview preparation before my Modern Apprenticeship interview helped me get the job.”

The young people were presented with their certificates by co-founder of Social Bite, Alice Thompson, at the ceremony attended by employers, stakeholders of the programme, young people and proud friends and family members.

Alice Thompson said: “The jobs market can be difficult for young people to get in to, but given they are the lifeblood of the economy it’s imperative they are given opportunities. I want to congratulate them on their achievements as they are now on the path to bigger and better things.”

Another trainee graduating was Reece Hunt, 17, who has gone on to work as an electrician with Bemco.

Reece said: “I most enjoyed getting to know new people. It was hands on work which is what I like. I found the training informative and it was very relevant to our age group. The delivery made it interesting.”

Other trainees graduating on November 25 were Matthew Mackie, Chris Singh, Jake Summers, David Reilly, Alex Pennykid, Nathan Moyes, Alex Main, Garry Mitchell, Jordan Bald and Lewis Ewen.

PoLHA’s TOiL programme has been running for eight years and 68 per cent of participants move into sustainable employment, apprenticeships or further education after the six-month placement.

PoLHA Chair Margaret O’Connor, who presided over the graduation’s proceedings said: “TOiL provides valuable work opportunities to young people in Edinburgh with a variety of valued partner organisations. Our trainees have access to support and a holistic approach is used supporting those that need it most.”

Have your say on Granton Harbour proposals

Granton Harbour – Community Consultation

A3 Consultation Poster Hi Res (2) (1)

Come along to a community drop-in event and have your say on proposals for the Granton Harbour area. Proposals include new homes, retail and leisure.

Representatives of Granton Central Developments will be there to talk through their plans for the area and listen to any view that the community have before submitting their plans to the Council for planning approval.

The drop in will be held on Wednesday 3 December in Granton Youth Centre, 3-11 West Granton Road, between 3pm and 7pm.

If you would like further information on this event, please contact:

Michelle Fraser, Programme Manager North Edinburgh

8 West Pilton Gardens EH4 4DP

Telephone 0131 529 3150

Email: michelle.fraser@edinburgh.gov.uk

Shy Moon artwork shines at Stockbridge Library

 ‘A library card is a passport to a whole new world’ – author Jackie Kay

Stockbridge Library 1A striking new permanent artwork was unveiled at Stockbridge Library  on Monday, the start of Book Week Scotland 2014. Under the Shy Moon’ was created by artist Rachel Barron and takes the form of a vinyl installation and geometric mobile suspended from the beams within the library. It’s hoped that ‘Under the Shy Moon’ will encourage the local community to visit their library and begin or continue their reading journey.

The artwork was inspired by Dear Library, a poem written by best-selling Scottish author and playwright Jackie Kay as part of Book Week Scotland Dear Library highlights the important role that libraries can play at every stage of an individual’s life, from childhood to old age. Rachel was given one verse of the poem to inspire her artwork, written from the perspective of an expectant mother.

Artist Rachel Barron commented: “Working directly with the architecture of the library, the installation has been made in response to Jackie Kay’s poem, which expresses the excitement and aspirations of an expectant mum.

“Inspired by astronomy and lunar cycles, the artwork represents the phases of our journey through life, using a gradient of colours. I am delighted to be part of the ‘Artworks for Libraries’ project, as it has allowed me to develop my work within a new context, towards my first permanent public artwork. It has been a pleasure to meet and work with the library community during the creative engagement workshops, and I am excited to see the final artwork unveiled today.”

Stockbridge library 3Jackie Kay said: “It’s absolutely vital that we tell libraries why we love them so that we can keep their doors open, and with those open doors, our minds and hearts. A library card in your hand is your democracy. Reading expands the boundaries of your own possibilities and opens doors to your future life.

“A closed library could only welcome a closed mind. A library card is a passport to a whole new world, a boundless world without restrictive borders. And you must tell your library why you love it because otherwise it won’t know why you love it and its feelings might get hurt.”

Stockbridge was the first of five Book Week Scotland artworks to be revealed this week, with Musselburgh, Saltcoats, Lennoxtown and Shetland to be revealed over the next four days. Each artwork is inspired by a different verse of Dear Library and members of the communities have been given the opportunity to work with the artists during the creative process.

Stockbridge Library 2

The poem in full:

Dear library

1.
See when ah wiz wee
ma faverit day wis
Wednisday, library day,

when Ma an me wid go tae ma library
an I wid get to pik ma book
an get it stampd oot

efter the ither yin had been stampd in
and I hid ma very ain card
which wiz a wee magic envlope

that took me tae anither world
awthegither fu o’ caracters an creatures, auntie lopes,
big broon bears, loins and tigrs, new wurds

an anythin an aw’thin I wants tae ken aboot
the moon, stars, sea, the hale galaxy, the wide wurld
wiz at the tip o my fingers in ma locall library.

2.
Always a new book to wolf down in the dead of night,
a borrowed book to read by torchlight…
In the morning, last night’s saved page turns
to who last had this book out
and the date returned, 9 June, this year.

This same book in a stranger’s hands, half-known.
Those readers, kindred spirits, almost friends.
You are in transition; you are on the threshold.
The library is the place that gets you. Pure gold.

You are Holden, you’re Lyra, you’re White Fang,
you’re Kidnapped, you’re Skellig, you’re Refugee Boy.
You’re Callum, a nought, you’re Catch 22.
You’re Chris Guthrie. You’re Hyde. You’re Boo Radley.
It’s not Accidental. You are those books. Those books are You.

Inside your mind you’re strong. Safe.
Toss a coin: heads, reader; tails, writer.
The library is the young writer’s first home.
You read pertinent sayings, make your own.
The cool teenager is a member of the library.

3.
I go to my library to find out about the baby
growing like a story inside me: 37 weeks!

My baby is likely to be sucking his thumb, her thumb.
My tight tummy is a drum, a drum.

The child who I will one day – hopefully –
bring back to this library, ah wee one, is turning.

I’ll get her a first library card, bless,
and sit where I’m sat now, reading, to test

the books I’ll soon read to him, fingers crossed.
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?

The Runaway Bunny, Goodnight Moon
37 weeks: my tummy – boom, boom, beating time!

Come soon wee baby; wee baby come soon.
Come dream in your basket under the shy moon,

My hungry caterpillar, my goodnight gorilla.
My dear wee daughter, my good little fella.

4.
A book borrowed, kindly given.
A book swapped, loved, exchanged.
A book you will always hand back.
A book is a coat for your mind.

You’ve reached the age, 50 something, when you look back
on borrowed books as if they were old friends –
with nostalgia, with affection, intimately known.

The time when you read The Raj Quartet, or Han Suyin
Toni Morrison or Memo for Spring,
Things Fall Apart or Fire on the Mountain.
Poor Madame Bovary. Poor Anna Karenina.

Your life: many characters, bleak houses, long day’s journeys.
Your life of mixed fates, give and takes;
What you borrowed last month, you return today.

5.
Dear Library, you want to say, Dear Library, you have served me
well all my life. You are magnificence, munificence.
You are a book festival every day. There is no way, me an OAP,
could ever value what you’ve given me by money.

There is no measure for the enriching of the mind, friend.
Faithful and trusty, Dear Library, you are a heart stopper, a kind giver.
I treasure your lively silence; your very pleasant librarians.
They represent what a public service is truly, libertarian.

Impossible, did I say that already, to put a price on that. Again,
stop me if I am repeating myself, your staff will tell
me of a Saramago Street in a nearby town.
Browse, borrow, request, renew – lovely words to me.
A library card in your hand is your democracy.

If you were to shut, Dear Library, it would break my heart.
A library user all my life, I’d be lost without my library.
A closed library could only welcome a closed mind.
Is there a kinder place that you can find than your local library?

I want to say, and I do. I pick up my pen and write to you.

Pictures: Rob McDougall.

Muirhouse to aid Syrian refugees

“We hope this appeal will make a big difference to people who are living as refugees in tents in cold winter weather” – Edinburgh Direct Aid

Syrian refugees protest against President Bashar al-Assad

 Muirhouse Community Shop is to be a collection point for the latest Edinburgh Direct Aid appeal. The community shop on Pennywell Road recently worked with EDA when the shop assisted with the Toys for Gaza appeal and will now support an initiative to aid Syrian refugees.  

The latest appeal is for winter goods, such as coats, boots, jackets etc and anyone can drop of their donation to the shop five days a week.

Lisa Anderson, EDA Secretary said: “Edinburgh Direct Aid has launched a new appeal to send a further container of aid to Syrian refugees. We have previously sent a container of winter clothing and another with a 4×4 ambulance and food supplies. We have a small warehouse in Granton, but we are delighted that TRIM have offered use of the community shop to make it easier for people to drop off donations for this latest appeal.

“We are hoping to collect winter coats, boots, wellies and toiletries over the next few weeks with the help of the volunteer staff at TRIM. We hope this appeal will make a big difference to people who are living as refugees in tents in cold winter weather.”

syria_fenceCommunity Shop manager Robert Pearson said: ” We were delighted when Lisa contacted us asking for our help. I believe that residents will feel as though they are making a difference by giving something small. At this time of year many of us will buy a new coat, jumper, etc. and we are asking for you to drop your old ones off at the shop. Shop volunteers will be on hand to advise any resident who may have questions. Muirhouse Community Shop will NOT be accepting any cash donations for this appeal – we are purely accepting goods on this occasion.”

Tenants & Residents In Muirhouse (TRIM) 

Website – http://muirhouseresidents.co.uk
Find us on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/trimgroup
Also on Twitter – http://twitter.com/MuirhouseTRIM

The Edinburgh Budget Crisis

Balancing Edinburgh’s budget isn’t a game, writes Granton and District Community Council secretary DAVE MACNAB:

CityThe council is on record that it needs to save £67 million from the budget over the next three years.

Whilst they have been encouraging citizens to complete the ‘budget challenge’ – the real information is not in the ‘playing’ of the budget game (this just shows that difficult decisions are sometimes needed) but within the proposals that are on the ‘table’.

This is where the reality sits. This is what could be in store for the citizens of Edinburgh if we sit back and wait for it to happen.

The cuts are real.

There will be reductions in the service. Things will stop being done.

A brief glimpse at what could happen – based on information taken from the Council budget web site and meetings:

  • Education Welfare Officers cut from 18 to 16 (jobs lost)
  • Community Centres – the budget proposals states:

redesign the service to meet local needs using co-production models”.

Now you may be wondering just what that means.

At a meeting for Community Centre management boards on 20 November we were told that this could mean setting up social enterprise models that need to make a profit, owned and managed by the community or other self-financing models.

Do the current management boards have the capacity and capability to undertake these roles? The audience at the meeting was not convinced.

There is no point talking about empowerment if there is no investment in the people within the communities who will be asked to undertake this type of ‘work’.  And it is work – it is no longer volunteering – it becomes a business model that needs accountancy skills so that the books are balanced, people who know employment law if they are to employ staff directly, business managers to project plan the activities.

What would be the role of the current staff in the Centres if it was decided to go down a particular business model route?  I don’t know – so many unanswered questions.

  • Leisure Centres (e.g. Ainslie Park) the report highlights “It is likely that the scale of the reductions identified may lead to facility closure”.
  • Staff – there is a hope to reduce sickness absence across the council workforce. There is an irony here. As posts are not filled and a recruitment freeze – this of course puts pressure on those in jobs, thus increasing their levels of stress and of course increasing levels of sickness absence!
  • Parking charges – increase in permit and on street charges
  • Increase in charges for allotments
  • Close public toilets – Granton Square to close?
  • “Proposed to accelerate and extend the development of the ‘Living Landscapes’ approach” – or put another way – let grass areas grow wild.
  • “Five libraries recategorised leading to a reduction in opening hours in Piershill, Corstorphine (from 51 to 42 hours) and Sighthill, Granton and Kirkliston (from 42 hours to 32 hours).” Cut in library hours.

This is the reality of the situation.

Spending on public services in Britain is set to fall to the lowest share of national income since 1938 which is a sign of how dramatically the UK government’s austerity programme is reshaping the state. The Child Poverty Action Group stated in August of this year that “more people are income-deprived in Edinburgh than in any other local authority area except Glasgow and North Lanarkshire”.

Two-fifths of adults aged 45 to 64 with below-average incomes have a limiting long- term illness, more than twice the rate for adults of the same age with above-average incomes in areas of economic deprivation – of which north Edinburgh has its share.

To mitigate some of the worst excesses of the impact of poverty and exclusion the council advocates that Community Learning and Development (CLD) will play a “pivotal role” (a direct quote from a council paper).  Yet at the same time this part of the organisation is hit with a budget cut of over £2million.  So how do you square this with the intention towards getting rid of poverty?

It is all very well suggesting that there can be an increase in volunteering opportunities – but do the volunteers have the necessary skills to deal with and help break down social isolation amongst adults and young people – it’s not just a case of turning up.

We need to be clear on what we want to save. What is worth preserving.

We can sit back, have fun playing the ‘budget’ game and hope for the best. Or decide that these services are our services. That the libraries are our libraries. The Community Centres and Leisure Centres are ours.  That we will do something about it.

We will be campaigning to raise awareness on what is at stake and giving you an opportunity of having your say.  Tell your councillor. Go to your respective Community Council meetings, go to public meetings and get your voice heard.

Dave Macnab

Community Councillor – Granton and District Community Council

www.grantonanddistrictcommunitycouncil.com

Contact nabs89@blueyonder.co.uk