Month: June 2013

Drylaw Telford Community Council chairman Alex Dale was presented with the Thomas Tierney Award for Good Citizenship at Drylaw Neighbourhood Centre last week. Alex was joined by friends and family, members of the Tierney family and community councillors at a short reception to celebrate the event. 

Tam Tierney was a celebrated community activist from Wester Drylaw who was heavily involved in many of the positive things that were happening in the Greater Pilton area in the eighties and nineties. Goodness, we are talking about the last century here …

To mention just a few of Tam’s many community activities, he was a mainstay of Pilton Sporting Club, chaired Craigroyston Community Centre, was an active member of Drylaw Telford Community Council and was also part of the steering group – and then a member of the management committee – of Drylaw Neighbourhood Centre which opened in 1995.

Tam’s death came as a real blow; of course to his family, but also to Drylaw and the wider community. After all, Tam was involved in so much: he had huge experience and a legion of useful contacts he’d built up over the years. No-one’s irreplaceable, but Tam’s passing left a considerable void.

Drylaw Telford Community Council wanted to mark Tam’s contribution to community life in Greater Pilton, not only celebrating his achievements but also to try to encourage others to become active within their community. We came up with the idea of the annual Thomas (note the ‘posh’ use of the Sunday name!) Tierney Award for Good Citizenship.

Every year since 2000, the community council has chosen a new recipient of the Award. They are all very different, and each was nominated for a wide variety of reasons. The one thing they have in common, however – indeed the one thing they must have in common – is that they do something that makes the Drylaw Telford neighbourhood a better place to live. Individuals do that in so many ways – helping out as a volunteer with local projects, doing their neighbours’ shopping, supporting local groups by serving on management committees … there are lots of ways to do things for your community.

Last week, Alex Dale became the latest recipient of the award. Alex’s nomination was well-deserved. He first got involved in community activities shortly after his retirement from the Forestry Commission – and I don’t think he’s put his feet up since!

Alex got involved when he opposed a proposal to build houses on designated green spaces in Drylaw, and it was a natural progression that he went on to get involved in the community council’s fledgling Open Space sub-group in 2006.

In the Open Space sub group the community council worked in partnership with other organisations including the Pilton Partnership and Edinburgh and Lothians Greenspace Trust to map all of Drylaw Telford’s green spaces, then consulted with local residents to find out what we should try to do with these spaces. It was no small task – indeed, it was the biggest initiative the community council had ever undertaken, by far – but it proved worthwhile, with open spaces in both Easter and Wester Drylaw upgraded with the ongoing support of the city council.

Volunteers like Alex helped to make that Open Space initiative a success, and all that legwork clearly didn’t put him off – he joined the community council at the last elections and became Chair last May. He’s also an active and enthusiastic member of North Edinburgh News’ board of directors.

I’ve never known anyone to have a greater appetite for meetings than Alex. I think he lives by the philosophy: ‘a day without meetings is like a day without sunshine!’ But the key to successful participation at meetings is to understand what is being discussed, make a contribution and then report back in a way that your colleagues can understand – and Alex is excellent at this. Whether it’s Neighbourhood Partnerships, NEP group or Transport Forum, Alex will attend, comprehend and then explain what transpired there. Our community council is now possibly the best informed in Edinburgh!

Diligent, reliable and conscientious may not be exciting adjectives, but activists who possess these qualities are worth their weight in gold; every community needs one and Drylaw Telford is very lucky to have one in Alex.

Dedicated activists are thin on the ground – North Edinburgh has lost two leading lights this year in Billy Anderson and, more recently, Brian Robertson – and it makes you appreciate all the more those unsung heroes who quietly go about their business to make their neighbourhood a better place to live – not for personal gain or reward, but because they care for and about their communities. Commitment like that is needed just as much now as it ever was.

All types of people do still give up their time, joining together to campaign for improvements – often uniting over threats or unwelcome intrusions into their communities, but sometimes coming together to campaign for positive things too: like the upgrading of green spaces or a new Neighbourhood Centre in Drylaw – or the reopening of a community asset like Leith Waterworld. In Drylaw, we can identify with and feel the pain of the Splashback campaigners – we’ve tasted that bitter taste of defeat on occasion too. Community activism can sometimes feel like one step forward, two steps back – but it does mean that, when you do win a small victory, it tastes even sweeter. You remember the ones you win because they don’t come around too often.

So many thanks and congratulations to Alex, indeed to volunteers everywhere – and with community council elections looming let’s hope a few like him can be encouraged to step forward: your community needs you!