Police in Edinburgh are appealing for information following a series of fires in Silverknowes and Davidson’s Mains early this morning
A number of incidents were reported to Police Scotland in the area between 4.55am and 5.55am.
These included four vehicles on Silverknowes Eastway, Silverknowes Avenue and Cramond Road South as well as within a property of Main Street, Davidson’s Mains and a post box on Silverknowes Road.
Nobody was injured in any of the incidents. Each of the fires is being treated as deliberate and enquiries are ongoing to establish the full circumstances.
Detective Sergeant Dougal Begg of Edinburgh CID said: “Our enquiries into this series of incidents are ongoing and we are working to establish the full circumstances.
“We would urge anyone who may have seen any suspicious activity to come forward as soon as possible.
“In particular we would be keen to speak to anyone with dashcam footage or private CCTV in the area.
“If you have any information which help our investigation please call 101, quoting incident 0341 of 27 January, or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.”
The efforts of 14 Edinburgh groups have been acknowledged by environmental charity Keep Scotland Beautiful at an online seminar yesterday.
North Edinburgh is well represented among these green-fingered groups, with awards for Drylaw Neighbourhood Centre, Fresh Start Growers, Friends of Granton Castle Walled Garden, Friends of Lauriston Castle Estate, Friends of Starbank Park and North Edinburgh Arts Gardening Group.
The other capital groups to receive awards are Balerno Village Gardeners, Craigentinny Community Gardening Project, Craigentinny Primary Parent Council, Friends of Morningside Cemetery, Friends of Saughton Park, Inch View Care Home, Inspiring Hillside and Northfield Community Growing Group.
Annually Keep Scotland Beautiful runs two community environmental improvement programmes in partnership with the Royal Horticultural Society; the competitive Beautiful Scotland campaign and the It’s Your Neighbourhood initiative.
Faced with the challenges of 2020, there has never been a more important time to recognise and celebrate the achievements of communities and individuals across Edinburgh.
Throughout lockdown and the following months, groups have worked tirelessly to improve their communities through horticulture, environmental responsibility and working in partnership for the benefit of residents, visitors and our natural environment.
Despite circumstances this year, 47 new entrants were welcomed to the network, and although judging and mentoring visits were not able to take place due to restrictions across Scotland, groups were still supported with online seminars, networking events, question and answer sessions and a weekly e-newsletter.
Barry Fisher, CEO of Keep Scotland Beautifulsaid, “We know that lockdown resulted in many people reconnecting with green and blue spaces local to them. Yet, it has also been a particularly challenging year for the communities who strive every year to protect and enhance the places they live and work in.
“I’d like to thank all the groups in Edinburgh for the efforts they have made to keep Scotland beautiful this year.”
Although many of the groups had to stop or curtail their planned activities for the year, we have been blown away by what they have managed to achieve – whether that be setting up a food bank, encouraging and supporting others to grow their own, creating virtual garden tours, connecting their members through online catch ups and keeping their neighbourhoods bright and cheerful.
Lauriston Castle is in danger from it’s Trustees who have mismanaged Lauriston Castle over many years, say Friends campaigners.
The castle and grounds were left to the Nation in 1926 by Mr & Mrs Reid. There are rooms in the Castle that the public have not been allowed to see contrary to Mr & Mrs Reid’s Will and Trust Deed.
There are treasures that the Trustees have allowed to significantly deteriorate/be damaged and not restored.
· why there is only £42,000 in the endowment fund when the Trustees were left the equivalent of over £2,000,000 and the potential to increase that amount?
· why over £190,000 of Council Taxpayers money is not recorded in the Lauriston Castle Trust Accounts?
· when are the Trustees going to restore Lauriston Castle Glasshouse (above) and other historic monuments?
· when are the Trustees going to restore the grounds to their former glory envisaged by the donors, Mr & Mrs Reid?
A stand needs to be made to restore Lauriston Castle to it’s rightful glory.
To this end you may wish to join Friends of Lauriston Castle where you can have your say and hear of action that needs to be taken:
Edinburgh Agroecology Co-operative CICI is putting forward a proposal to the council for a new Urban Agroecology project at Lauriston Farm, with three main areas of focus: food growing at scale, habitat creation and biodiversity enhancement, and community engagement and activity.
It is really important to us to get the views of the local community and find out what they think of the proposed plan and if and how they would like to engage with or get involved with our project.
We would have loved to have hosted a community event but current circumstances mean that we will be hosting an online community consultation instead.
The consultation is now live and will be open until the 20th November – NOTE NEW DATE.
We would like to get input and feedback from as many people from the surrounding local community as possible.
Please see above for details.
You’ll find the site link for the community consultation at Lauristonfarm.scot
Drive-through clinics have been opened by the Edinburgh Health and Social Care Partnership (EHSCP) in Edinburgh this weekend to make it as quick, safe and easy as possible for people to get their flu vaccine.
The clinics will continue to operate on weekends in October and November and each site can vaccinate up to 500 people a day.
As well as over 65s, pregnant people and those at risk due to existing health conditions, this year unpaid carers and those who lived with people who shielded during lockdown will be offered a free flu jab.
By developing flu drive throughs, everyone entitled to a free flu vaccine from a household can attend at the same time. For those who don’t have access to a car, a series of walk through clinics are being arranged and Edinburgh locations will be available on the NHS Inform website once confirmed.
Keeping the people of Edinburgh safe and healthy is a priority, so before the jab is administered, a nurse will ask some questions to make sure it is safe to administer the vaccine. The person receiving the jab doesn’t need to leave their car and will also be asked to wait 15 minutes before leaving the clinic to ensure there’s no reaction to the vaccine.
If you are eligible for a free flu vaccine, or for more information, go to www.nhsinform.scot/flu to find out where you can get your jab in Edinburgh. If you qualify for a free vaccine you’ll be given a time to attend a clinic after completing a short questionnaire.
Judith Proctor, Chief Officer for the Edinburgh Health and Social Care Partnership, said: “As part of our mission to support a caring, healthier and safer Edinburgh, we’re committed to making it even easier to get a flu vaccine this year. The flu vaccine is an important health protection measure and we want to make sure that everyone who is eligible has access to the vaccine.
“To keep the people of Edinburgh safe, and to respect physical distancing measures, we have confirmed a range of Edinburgh venues to offer access to the flu vaccine, including a drive through service at sites across the city. This is the first time a drive through model has been used for vaccinations in Scotland, and could provide a blueprint for how to deliver vaccination programmes successfully in the future.
“Details of where people can go to receive a flu vaccine will be available on the NHS Inform website.”
Blackhall Medical Centre, Muirhouse Medical Group, Crewe Medical Centre and Davidson’s Mains Medical Centre patients will be directed to a walk-through facility at Pennywell All Care Centre or the drive-through at Scottish Gas HQ on Granton waterfront.
We at Ye Olde Inn have loved seeing so many of you come out and support us over August and we don’t want it to stop, so we are exclusively going to continue the Eat Out To Help Out scheme ourselves for September and October!
Yes that means for Monday – Wednesday you can have 50% off your food and soft drinks on us! We are doing this to say thank you to you guys for your continued loyal custom to be a part of this great deal you must call and book and quote “Ye Olde Eat Out”
This is bookings only so we advise you get booking ASAP as this will fill up fast!
Once again thank you so much to each and every one of you for your incredible support,
Silverknowes Golf Club issued the following statement last night:
We found out this morning that a member entered the clubhouse on Saturday morning for a very brief period of time, after having returned from Spain. He did not self isolate and we have been left with no other option but to close the club.
Myself and the staff have santised all of the clubhouse today but as a precautionary measure, we are closing the club for 72 hours. If you were in the clubhouse on Saturday and show signs of Covid please contact us as soon as possible so we may inform the track and trace team.
The club will be open for business on Thursday unless there are any repercussion from this.
Thank you for your understanding in this matter and I hope you appreciate that your safety and the staffs are paramount to us.
Regards
Carol
The Norhet Bar in Davidsons Mains has appealed to any customers who visited Silverknowes Golf Club on Saturday to stay away as a safety precaution.
Meanwhile, life in Aberdeen will begin to get back to something like normal this week ….
Following a SGORR meeting yesterday (Sunday 23 August) the First Minister has set out a timeline for the lifting of travel restrictions, limits on indoor meetings and the opening of hospitality.
A number of restrictions were lifted at midnight tonight so that today (Monday 24 August) Aberdeen will be broadly in line with the rest of Scotland. The five-mile travel limit, restrictions on gatherings and limitations on hospital and care home visits will be lifted.
Businesses due to open in line with the national route map can also reopen, with the exception of cafes, restaurants or any hospitality element within them.
These, along with restaurants, pubs, casinos and other hospitality premises, will be able to open from Wednesday 26 August, only once an environmental health check has been completed.
Hospitality business owners are being urged to get in touch with Aberdeen City Council if they have not already had an environmental health check.
The SGORR meeting included partners from Aberdeen City Council, NHS Grampian and Police Scotland, and heard the latest update from the Incident Management Team on the level of the virus and its transmission in Aberdeen.
The latest figures show a total of 427 cases have been identified in the Grampian Health Board area since 26 July. Of these 259 are associated with the same cluster linked to Aberdeen pubs, and 1,258 contacts have now been identified from those.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said: “I am grateful to people in Aberdeen – the local authority and health board, local businesses, and everyone who lives there – for complying so well with the rules that were put in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19. In particular I am grateful for the understanding of the businesses that were required to close in order to help beat the virus.
“It’s due to the commitment of people in the city, as well as world class contact tracing that means we are now able to lift some of these measures from Monday and then again from Wednesday, but it is vitally important that everyone follows the FACTS rules in order to prevent an outbreak of this scale occurring again.
“That way we can move forward and get our economy, our society and our lives generally back to as much normality as possible.”
Susan Webb, Director of Public Health for NHS Grampian said: “We must be cautious to ensure the progress we have made is maintained.
“Crucially, we must all be observing physical distancing from those not in our immediate household; whether at work, meeting socially, in a supermarket or out for exercise and recreation. It is also vitally important that anyone identified as a close contact of a detected case follows the guidance on isolating for 14 days.”
The Scottish Government has not ruled out extending restrictions if necessary to protect public health.
Remember FACTS for a safer Scotland:
F – Face coverings. These should be used in shops and on public transport (buses, trains and taxis) A – Avoid crowded places. C – Clean your hands frequently, using water and soap whenever possible. T – Two metres – observe physical distancing. S – Self-isolate and book a test if you are suffering from COVID-19 symptoms.
With coronavirus continuing to have an impact across the country, one woman speaks out about the desperate need to support a social care system on the brink of collapse …
Diana McGovern, who lives in Davidsons Mains, suffers from MS and is confined to a wheelchair. She relies on her carers to complete the simple day to day tasks we all take for granted. Without ‘her angels’ as she calls them, it would be impossible for her to remain in her own home.
She is deeply concerned about the crisis facing the social care system in this country and believes any further pressure on it, such as a second wave of COVID19, would lead to its collapse.
“Protect the NHS is their claim but who is protecting the carers?” asks Diana. “An army of unsung heroes dedicated to looking after patients in their own homes with compassionate dignity and respect, preventing bed blocking in hospitals, allowing doctors and nurses to continue the vital work of saving lives.
“They work seamlessly as a team, but could the NHS function without carers? Nurses study diligently to become qualified and proudly wear their badge of office but carers also wear badges!
“Their challenge is to enhance and retain a quality of life for people who suffer from a complex and wide range of medical conditions. It’s a demanding, responsible, and emotionally draining career but one which offers tremendous job satisfaction. They are compensated with a wage less than that of a supermarket worker, while having to provide their own car and phone to carry out their duties.
“On top of an already difficult situation they were handed the challenge of COVID-19. They were expected to care for and nurture patients discharged from hospital, cope with distressed relatives and battle to save the lives of the sick and dying, with little support or guidance – all while trying to protect their own lives and the lives of their families.
“The media has highlighted how wonderful our carers are and revealed the very inadequate wages they receive. Has any policy maker or government addressed this disgraceful situation? NO.
“Have we not learned from past mistakes? We may be living with a pandemic now, but we may be facing an even greater crisis soon, with winter flu and further lockdowns possible. Doctors and nurses are making contingency plans, but what about recruiting carers? The strain on the skeleton level of care workers we have now is enormous. Any additional stress placed on the system would surely see it collapse.
“Does it take the voice of a person completely wheelchair bound, living independently with the support of carers, to highlight the urgent problem of recruiting and paying an appropriate decent living wage to all carers? Is the government ignoring this crisis?
“Nicola Sturgeon has stood up for Scotland and been applauded. Can she now take urgent action to recruit and increase the pay to compensate and reward our dedicated carers? We are dependent on the NHS, but in a crisis, we rely on our trusted carer.
“How do we keep and recruit careers when they don’t receive a decent pay? We need to pay now not tomorrow, or the government may have bigger crisis on their hands.
“Unless action is taken now, the system will crash. We must act before it’s too late.”
