The Money Advice Service gives clear, unbiased advice to help you make informed choices.
The Money Advice Service team will be at
West Pilton Neighbourhood Centre
on Friday 22 February and Friday 1 March
between 10am – 2pm to offer a free money health check and benefits advice.
These sessions are by appointment only, so to arrange your meeting with an adviser call West Pilton Neighbourhood Centre on 551 3194 to book an appointment.
For more information about the Money Advice Service could help you, visit moneyadviceservice.org.uk
The Tory/Lib government slogans of a ‘big society’ and ‘we are all in this together’ are shown as a complete sham by their actions against the many.
They are also past masters at diverting attention from the effects of their actions, for example:
• People on work versus the unemployed on benefit
• People on housing benefit labelled as scroungers and layabouts, ignoring the fact that the landlord receives the benefit!
• People on disability benefit made to undergo a further ‘fit for work’ test, run by a private company.
Creating scapegoats is deliberate policy; they fear a people united against their policies of destroying universal benefits and replacing them with means-tested benefits based on the lowest possible level.
Police in North Edinburgh are offering free crime prevention surveys to businesses in the area.
Officers from the Safer Neighbourhoods Team at Drylaw Police Station will be delivering letters to businesses and offering security surveys to highlight additional measures that can be taken to maximise security, following a spate of night-time break-ins which have occurred since Christmas.
Five men have been arrested and charged in relation to separate alleged break-ins in the last three weeks and additional police resources have been patrolling the area during the night to check premises. Despite this, thieves have continued to target businesses and on occasions returned to several premises that have broken into previously.
In an effort to raise awareness, the police have also alerted other night-time private security staff and council workers to encourage them to immediately report any suspicious or unusual activity when they are working in the area.
Inspector Mark Rennie of Drylaw Police Station said: “It’s really important that businesses review the robustness of the security measures they have in place and ensure all equipment is working. We hope that by offering free surveys and highlighting appropriate measures to take, businesses will do everything they can to make themselves a hard target.
“We’ve informed a lot of local people of the issue but worryingly we haven’t always had calls from residents when noises have been heard emanating from premises during the night. I’d like to encourage people to phone us immediately so that we get officers there quickly.”
Anyone with any information should contact Lothian and Borders Police on 0131 311 3131, or the independent charity Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
The Scottish Community Drama Association (SCDA) Edinburgh District’s One Act Festival takes place at St Serf’s Church Hall on Clark Road from 14 – 16 February. Over three evenings, theatregoers will be entertained by:
Thursday 14 February
1. Leitheatre ( Kirkgate) with ‘Still Life’ by Noel Coward
2. Edinburgh People’s Theatre with ‘Ritual For Dolls’ by George MacEwan Greene
3. The Mercators with‘Cupboard Love’ by Jean McConnel
Friday 15 February
1. Edinburgh Makars with ‘Just Passing’ by Colin & Mary Crowther
2. St Serfs (Afton) with ‘Scent Of Honeysuckle’ by Jean Lennox Toddie
3. Leitheatre (Sunnyside) with ‘A Private Affair’ by Charles Emery
Saturday 16 February
1. Livingston Players with ‘The Donahue Sisters’ by Geraldine Aron
2. St Serfs (Bangholm) with ‘You Really Got Me’ by Neil Robertson
Tickets are priced £8 per evening, or a season tickets for all three nights is £21. Season ticket holders are eligible to vote for their favourite performance in the Best of the Fest Audience Award
Three winning teams will be selected to go forward to the SCDA East Division finals, which will take place in Larbert next month.
Reduce Reuse Recycle Repair Roadshows are coming to a ribrary near you!
Want to find out more about recycling? The city council’s recycling roadshow is out and about in city libraries – in fact, if you’re really quick, you’ll catch it at Muirhouse Library – it’s there until 1pm today!
Creative reuse maker and educator Jamie MacDonald will be running drop-in workshops, suitable for all the family – showing you how to create simple and playful decorative items from reused materials.
Remade in Edinburgh will provide repair drop-in sessions, where people can bring in clothes and get advice on how to repair and transform them
Changeworks will also be there to provide practical advice and informaiton on reducing waste
Dates and times:
·Muirhouse 13th Feb 11 to 1 (i.e NOW !!!)
·Blackhall 23rd Feb 11 to 1
·Leith 8th Mar 1 to 3
·Stockbridge 13th Mar 3 to 5
·McDonald Road 14th Mar 2 to 4
·Granton 19th Mar 3 to 5
For more information visit: http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/info/20048/waste_education/480/recycling_roadshows_and_events/2
Thieves have stolen bikes to the value of £6,000 from a local bike shop on Granton Road.
The thieves struck at 2.20am on Tuesday morning and locals reported hearing glass smashing before seeing two men cycle of on the bikes.
A Giant Trance X0 29er, worth around £3500 – one of only two in Scotland, and a Diamondback Sortie 3, worth around £2400 were taken in the robbery. The thieves also stole the money that was left in the till.
The owner of the shop, Neil Hope, has offered a reward on Facebook for the recovery of the bikes.
He said “The thieves stole the two most expensive bikes in the shop, there will be a reward for the recovery of the bikes or for information that leads to the thieves being caught.”
Lothian and Borders Police are appealing for witnesses to the break-in and are asking anyone with information to contact them on 0131 311 3131.
A free personal development programme in Muirhouse is looking for new participants to start on 1st March.
If you are aged 16 – 24, unemployed, not in education or training and keen to learn new skills, meet new people and gain new experiences then please get in touch.
The Working It Out programme runs for 16 weeks and offers a range of activities and challenges that allow you to develop personal skills, volunteer in your own community and improve your job prospects. Participants are supported throughout the programme and for up to 12 months after. You can earn up to £40 in expenses every week and receive a free Ridacard.
Working it Out is run by Tomorrow’s People, based in North Edinburgh Arts Centre. If you are interested in making a positive change in your life, increasing your skills, or getting a job, then please contact Heather on 0798 966 Opportunities to make a new s9019 or e-mail hlaw@tomorrows-people.co.uk
The popular Pork Butcher’s shop on Pennywell Road reopened for just a week recently – not to sell meat, but as a community drop-in resource. Muirhouse Link Up project worker Julie Crawford explains all:
“The purpose of the week was to do a few things –
Promote Link up project which started in May last year. I work with local people in Muirhouse and West Pilton to identify activities that bring different groups of people together to take part and contribute on an equal footing. The activities could be anything, from people having a cup of tea together to taking part in an activity. We’ve been working with local people to develop a monthly bingo evening, which has seen over 60 people attend the last few months, supporting the Tenants and Residents In Muirhouse Group (TRIM), an Arts and Baking group at North Edinburgh Arts, establishing community cinema and much more.
During the week we had a huge map on the shop wall and local people were invited to write on it and give us views about places that are important to them, what people do in the community and things that they would like to see. Over the course of the week 250 people came through the door, which was fantastic. The highlight was seeing local artists using the space to work with young people doing light photography and some film-making. The shop window will be used by City of Edinburgh Council to advertise 21st Century homes and community activity – I believe there is massive potential to use the space by community organisations.
Link up will continue to work with local people to set up activities which they have skills or interests in, just get in touch! Local people are already running new activities this year, including chess and archery!”
To get in touch with Julie, call 315 6405 or email Julie@mydg.org.uk
You can also check out Muirhouselinkup on Facebook or ‘tweet’ @linkup11
Our thanks to P5 teacher Ian Holden for keeping us up to date with everything that’s going on at Forthview Primary School:
We put out an appeal for used stamps last year and the response was really good – they were able to support a local charity called Pass It On, who help disabled children with access to computers, with a big donation. We’ll continue collecting until June, when we hope to sell the stamps to collectors and give the raised funds to The Sick Kids Hospital and Pass It On. I’ve tried to up the pace of our appeal now, contacting lots of local businesses to see if they can help – United Wire have already been helpful, as have City of Edinburgh Council and I am sure others will be too in due course. If you can help please get in touch!
Forthview’s P5a appeared at the childrens’ exhibition in the Mews at The Queen’s Gallery at Holyrood last month, one of four local schools involved. I’m also pleased to say that 16 pupils from my class won the best film category in the Children and Families department’s Safer Internet Day competition, designed to increase awareness of how to work safely online.
And last but definitely not least, Forthview’s Family Support teacher Tracey Berry received an MBE in the New Years Honours List for services to education.
Head Teacher Moira Heatly said: ‘Tracey Berry has been working with families at Forthview Primary and previously at Craigmuir for 18 years. As a teacher she took on the role initially as home link teacher but over the years that followed, the value of the role was recognised and it has since evolved to being a crucial part of Forthview’s school community. Tracey sees her role being about making the sure that the children are ready to learn and to do this she reaches out to all the parents, carers and families, many of whom did not have positive experiences at school, to help them to engage in learning with their child. Tracey is highly valued by the families at Forthview, who know that she always goes above and beyond to support them. They are happy to acknowledge the impact she has had on their lives. This award of an MBE is well deserved.’
Everyone at Forthview is very proud of Tracey – congratulations!
