August 2014 – Page 3 – The NEN – North Edinburgh News

Farewell then, Festival Fringe

Following 49,497 performances of 3,193 shows in 299 venues across Scotland’s capital city, The Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2014 has come to an end for another year.

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society has announced that by Monday afternoon, with hundreds of performances still to take place, an estimated 2,183,591 tickets had been issued for shows and events in 299 venues across the city, reflecting the continuing popularity and cultural significance of the Fringe. This is 12% more than the overall number of tickets estimated to have been issued by the same point last year.

Kath M Mainland, Chief Executive of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society said: “Once again audiences from Edinburgh, Scotland, the UK and across the globe have been exposed to a completely fantastic cultural experience. Over the last 25 days performers, writers and artists have given their all on stages across Edinburgh in a truly international celebration of culture and entertainment.

“On behalf of everyone who visited and enjoyed this year’s Fringe, I would like to thank all of the immensely talented and courageous participants who brought their work to the Scottish Capital during August – without them this festival would simply not be possible.

“It’s wonderful that after 67 years the Fringe remains the ultimate destination for audiences embrace the arts. With over 2,183,591 tickets issued and many thousands seeing over 706 free shows it seems there is still a huge cultural appetite amongst audiences in Edinburgh and much further afield. In a year that places Scotland on the world stage, the Fringe has once again responded by being the greatest explosion of arts and entertainment on the planet.”

The 2014 Fringe saw a range of new developments to enhance the experience of the world’s largest arts festival for both audiences and participants. Customers could use a new online ticketing experience designed to make searching for shows and buying tickets easier, particularly for the increasing number of people accessing Fringe information on tablets or smartphones.

Visitors to edfringe.com could also create their own calendar of events and share booked and favourite shows with their family and friends. They have also been able to use the website to search for information on venue accessibility. For the first time ever audience members were able to post reviews of any shows they saw directly onto edfringe.com, bringing the concept of word of mouth recommendations into the twenty first century.

Fringe participants were able to add more content to their online show listings by adding social media links, sneak previews and other media files.

The number of Ticket Collection Points around Edinburgh was once again extended to make things easier audience members. New collection points this year included the Institut français d’Ecosse in the west end of the city and the Domestic Arrivals Hall at Edinburgh Airport. For the third year running Fringe tickets could also be collected from Glasgow Queen Street Train Station, allowing those at the Commonwealth Games a convenient collection point.

There were a number of new venues for audiences to visit during the 2014 Fringe proving the continuing growth of the festival. Northern Stage moved to a new premise at the King’s Hall on South Clerk Street whilst for the first time ever The Famous Spiegeltent was located in St Andrew’s Square, alongside Stand in the Square. The city also boasted some new pop up venues for site specific works including Sandy’s Boxing Gym, Summerhall@Portobello Beach and even a rickshaw.

During August the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society hosted the second World Fringe Congress as part of the Culture 2014 Programme which accompanied the Commonwealth Games taking place in Glasgow. This year’s congress was attended by 56 delegates from 38 fringes from around the world and was supported by the City of Edinburgh Council, Creative Scotland, Event Scotland and the British Council Scotland. The World Fringe Congress underlined the important role of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe at the heart of a worldwide network of fringe festivals. This network offers huge possibilities for artists to present their work across the globe.

Following the success of last year’s inaugural Fringe Central Welcome Address, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society once again invited distinguished Fringe alumni to welcome participants to the Fringe and introduce them to the extensive range of events on offer throughout August. This year’s addressed was delivered by multiple award-winning director Rachel Chavkin and four time Fringe First winning writer Chris Thorpe.

Awards continue to be an integral part of the Fringe and as always a huge number were on offer throughout the festival arranged by a wide range of organisations. 2014 marked the 20^thyear of The Stage Awards for Acting Excellence which exists to recognise outstanding theatre performances on the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. A Special Award was created to mark the anniversary and was presented to performer, writer and director Chris Goode from Men in the Cities (Traverse Theatre).

Full list of awards (and it’s a long list!)

Allen Wright Award
Ben Williams from Time Out Magazine

Amused Moose Laughter Award 2014
Celia Pacquola: Let Me Know How It All Works Out

Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award
Cuckooed (Traverse Theatre)

The Arches Brick Award
Christeene: The Christeene Machine (Underbelly)

Brighton Fringe Emerging Talent Award
Lorraine & Allan (Pleasance)

The Broadway Baby Bobby Awards
Thrill Me: The Leopold & Loeb Story (C Venues)
Semi-Toned: Toned Up! (SpaceUK)
The Duck Pond (Bedlam Theatre)

Carol Tambor Best of Edinburgh Award
The Object Lesson (Summerhall)

The Chortle Student Comedy Award
Jamali Maddix (Laughing Horse@The Free Sisters)

Dave’s Funniest Joke of the Fringe
Tim Vine

The Foster’s Edinburgh Comedy Awards

Best Comedy Show
John Kearns: Shtick (Voodoo Rooms)
Best Newcomer
Alex Edelman: Millennial (Pleasance)
Panel Prize
Funz And Gamez (Just The Tonic)

Fringe Review Outstanding Theatre Awards
Death, Duck and Tulip (Summerhall)
Belfast Boy (Spotlites)

2014 Fringe Sustainable Practice Award
The Handlebards/Peculius (Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh)

The Herald Angels

Archangel:
Olwen Fouere from RIVERRUN (Traverse Theatre)

Angels:
Lippy (Traverse Theatre)
Falling in love with Frida (Dance Base)
La Loba (Zoo)
Clara Brennan for Spine (Underbelly)
HUFF (Traverse Theatre)
Black Grace (Assembly)
Chris Stout and Catriona McKay for Scotland’s Harps (St Andrew and St Georges West)

Little Devil Awards:
Andrew Maxwell: Hubble Bubble (Assembly Rooms)
Louisa Adamson, Production Manager for The God That Comes (Summerhall)

Holden Street Theatres Awards
Mush and Me (Underbelly)
Blood at the Root (Assembly)

The Malcolm Hardee Awards

The Malcolm Hardee Award for Comic Originality:
Candy Gigi: I’m Not Lonely(The Hive)

The Malcolm Hardee Cunning Stunt Award (for best Edinburgh Fringe publicity stunt):
Christian Talbot: Hello Cruel World (Underbelly)

The Malcolm Hardee Act Most Likely/Act Least Likely To Make A Million Quid’ Award:
Luisa Omielan

The Musical Theatre Network Awards 2014
Alba – A New Scottish Musical (SpaceUK)
Bonenkai (Underbelly)
The Duck Pond (Bedlam Theatre)
The Future for Beginners (Summerhall)
Janis Joplin: Full Tilt (Assembly)
Lorraine & Alan (Pleasance)
The Outback Games: A New Musical (SpaceUK)
Riptide: The Slasher Musical (Sweet Venues)
Symphony by Ella Hickson, Nick Payne and Tom Wells (Assembly)
Victorian Vices – The Picture of Dorian Gray (SpaceUK)

Primary Times Children’s Choice Award
Arabian Nights (Gilded Balloon)

The Scottish Arts Club / Edinburgh Guide Award
Donald Robertson is Not a Stand-up Comedian (Traverse Theatre)

The Scotsman Fringe First Awards

Winners – Week 1:
Cuckooed (Traverse Theatre)
Chef (Underbelly)
The Collector (Gilded Balloon)
Confirmation (Northern Stage)
Men in the Cities (Traverse Theatre)
Spoiling (Traverse Theatre)

Winners – Week 2:
Sanitise (Underbelly)
The Carousel (Traverse Theatre)
Pioneer (Zoo)
The Day Sam Died (New Town Theatre)
The Object Lesson (Summerhall)
The Initiate (Summerhall)
Lippy (Traverse Theatre)

Winners – Week 3:
Spine (Underbelly)
Travesti (Pleasance)
Letters Home (Edinburgh International Book Festival)
No Guts, No Heart, No Glory (Northern Stage)
Hand Made in China: Moons, Migration and Messages (Summerhall)
Pondling (Underbelly)

So You Think You’re Funny?
Aidan Strangeman

The Stage Awards for Acting Excellence
Benny Young for Unfaithful (Traverse Theatre)
Olwen Fouere for RIVERRUN (Traverse Theatre)
Rosie Wyatt forSpine (Underbelly)
The ensemble of Tumanishvili Film Actors Theatre Company of Tbilisi for Animal Farm (Assembly)
The ensemble of Sirens (Summerhall)
The ensemble of The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quijote of La Mancha (ZOO)
Declan Perring from Belfast Boy (Spotlites)
Bryan Burroughs from Beowulf: The Blockbuster (Pleasance)
April Hughes from Freak (Assembly)
Special Award Winner:
Chris Goode from Men in the Cities (Traverse Theatre)

Three Weeks Editors’ Awards
Bec And Tom’s Awesome Laundry (Gilded Balloon)
Tamsin Clarke for Manuelita (Underbelly)
Cariad Lloyd
Matt Panesh for Monkey Poet: Shit Flinging (Banshee Labyrinth)
Klanghaus (Summerhall)
Unbound Productions for Travesti (Pleasance)
Divallusion with Christina Bianco and Velma Celli (Assembly)
The cast and crew of The Bunker Trilogy: Agamemnon (C Venus)
Will Franken: The Stuff They Put in Sleep (Just The Tonic)
Ricardo Garcia

Total Theatre Awards

Emerging Company/Artist:
Backstage in Biscuit Land (Pleasance)

Physical/Visual Theatre:
The Object Lesson (Summerhall)

Innovation, Experimentation & Playing with Form:
Lippy (Traverse Theatre)
Near Gone (Summerhall)

Total Theatre & Jacksons Lane Award for Circus:
Bromance (Underbelly)

The Judges Award:
Looking for Paul (Summerhall)
Kim Noble: You’re Not Alone (Traverse Theatre)

Significant Contribution Award:
Ridiculusmus

And remember – if you just can’t get enough culture, the official Edinburgh Festival goes on until this weekend!

Eleven years jail for Mikaeel’s mother

‘“You clearly needed help, but did not know how to ask for it.”

Rosdeep Adekoya, the mother of three-year-old Mikaeel Kular, has been jailed for eleven years after she admitted killing her son and hiding his body in a suitcase.

The 34 year old mother of five was initially charged with murder, but plead guilty to the reduced charge of culpable homicide.

Sentencing Adekoya in Edinburgh’s High Court yesterday, Judge Lord Glennie told Adekoya what she did was “cruel and inexcusable”.

He said: “Striking a child even once is bad enough. Striking him heavily and repeatedly with hand and fist when he was being sick again and again simply beggars belief.

“Mikaeel was by all accounts a healthy, happy little boy. By your actions, however unintended, you have not only robbed Mikaeel of his young life but left a gaping hole in the lives of all who loved him.”

Lord Glennie said he accepted Adekoya’s remorse was genuine and heartfelt, and continued: “You are clearly an intelligent and articulate young woman. “There is no history of violence by you towards any of your children. That makes it all the more difficult to understand your actions. I do not suppose that you really understand why you did what you did.”

Mikaeel died two days after being beaten by his mother at the family’s home in Muirhouse in January.

She then put his body in a suitcase before burying it behind her sister’s house in Kirkcaldy, but called police to say that Mikaeel had disappeared from her home – she claimed Mikaeel had got out of bed and climbed on a stool to unlock the front door of his home.

Police officers who attended the flat reported that she initially appeared “very upset and distressed” but inconsistencies began to appear in her account of events, who by the Friday evening “suspected that all was not as she had indicated”.

The alert led to a huge public search, called off when police enquiries led to the discovery of Mikaeel’s body in Fife two days later.

The truth of Mikaeel’s final days were revealed in Court.

His mother, who has a history of depression, “lost her temper” when he was repeatedly sick following a trip to a Nando’s restaurant at the city’s Fountain Park. She smacked him and struck him on the body and head with a clenched fist, the court was told.

When Mikaeel was sick for a third time, his mother dragged him to the shower by his arms and “beat him heavily” on his back as he lay over the bath edge – it’s thought that the internal damage was inflicted during this last beating.

Over the next few days Mikaeel’s condition worsened and he was kept off nursery at Flora Stevenson’s. He was assaulted again on the Monday after being sick and became “listless” – the court was told his mother did not take him to a doctor because of the bruising.

By Tuesday night, Mikaeel was said to be “quiet” and was giving a “limited” response to his mother’s questions: he died on the night of Tuesday 14 January from injuries inflicted the previous Sunday, and Adekoya subsequently admitted wrapping Mikaeel’s body in a duvet cover, putting it in a suitcase and driving to Dunvegan Avenue in Kirkcaldy, where she hid the case under a bush in woods behind a house.

The final cause of death was found to be “blunt force abdominal trauma” – Mikaeel had more than 40 separate injuries to his body, including bruises to his back, chin and cheek, trauma to the brain, haemorrhage in the spinal cord and injuries to his arms.

Adekoya pleaded guilty to repeatedly punching her son and causing his body to hit against a hard object or inflicting blunt injuries on his head and body between 12 and 15 January at their home in Ferry Gait Crescent.

The local community – who responded magnificently to appeals for help in searching for Mikaeel – is now discussing ideas to create a lasting memorial to the wee boy whose short life touched so many lives.

Soon be time for Septemberfest …

Septemberfest 2014 Community Festival

at Broughton High School

Saturday 27 September 2014

11am – 4pm

Free Entry and lots of free activities for all ages

Fun for all the family! This years Septemberfest has a Commonwealth flavour with lots of sports to try out: Indian Dance, Commonwealth food and all the usual bouncy castles, inflatable assault course, gladiators, sumo suits and climbing tower.

The craft fair has loads of fantastic handcrafted goods. Have a go at drumming and listen to the samba band.

There will be magic shows from Gary and Stone the Crow, Mr Puffins fantastic balloons, face painting, dance workshops and displays, music, unicycles, circus skills, bikes, hula hoops, judo, fencing, crazy science, massage and henna tattoos.

Come and ring the siren on a heritage and a real fire engine.

There will be a special Commonwealth themed treasure hunt and craft activities plus leather working and jewellery making.

Get your bike fixed for free with Edinburgh Cycles.

Tea and cakes, BBQ, La Favorita pizza, curry, paella, crepes and ice cream.

Septemberfest 2014 is partly funded by Activcity and the Big Lottery Celebrate Fund.

http://broughtonhighpc.org

Facebook: Septemberfest Broughton High School

Naomi Crowley

Support St. Columba’s Great Pentlands Push!

Join the biggest Charity Challenge Event in our history: Experience the Pentlands like never before!

The Great Pentlands Push in association with Franklin Templeton Investments is a sponsored cross-country trek, walk or run around the stunning landscapes of the Pentland Hills.

This fantastic outdoor event allows you, your family or your team, to choose a level: From the 5 mile ‘Nudge’, 14 mile Bronze, 20 mile Silver up to the 25 mile Gold Route.

All routes begin and end at The Swanston Hub, and the event will take place over 14 hours culminating in some tasty Scottish fare, well deserved drinks and plenty of pampering to soothe those aching joints!

The event aims to be as inclusive as possible, from fitness fanatics to children. Looking to involve your company or group? The Fundraising Team at St Columba’s will happily come and present the event to your organisation at a convenient time.

St Columba’s is delighted to have Wildfox events as our event partners. Wildfox has a fantastic track record of delivering hugely enjoyable and expertly managed large scale sport events.

The event takes place on Saturday 20 September

Visit the Great Pentlands Push website or call our fundraising team on 0131 551 1381 to learn more and sign up for this healthy challenge!

This has got to be more fun than pouring ice-cold buckets of water over your head?

Searching for the Great British High Street

High Streets Minister Penny Mordaunt today urged town and cities across Britain to get their applications in for the Great British High Street competition before it closes on 30 August.

The minister has written to all town teams and the local community to encourage them to take part in the competition, run by the Future High Street Forum, to find Britain’s best high streets. Many town teams have already entered the 7 separate categories: city centres, town centres, market towns, coastal communities, villages, parades and London.

The minister said this national competition was a fantastic way to celebrate the nation’s greatest high streets and it was essential that all parts of the United Kingdom are represented.

The winners will win £50,000 of prize money and dedicated support and mentoring from industry experts. This could range from one to one coaching to advice on creating business plans to attending workshops on digital marketing.

The government is committed to high streets as part of it long-term economic plan. It is supporting local shops and businesses with a billion pound package of investment that includes targeted business rate discounts, sensible planning changes and action that reins in over-zealous parking practices.

High Streets Minister Penny Mordaunt said: “This competition is about celebrating the work local people do to make their high streets great places to live, work and shop. Our high streets are bustling again and we want to find the hidden gems the country has to offer and share their tips for success.

So if your area hasn’t entered already then get cracking – don’t miss the chance to be named the Great British High Street.”

Help get goods to Gaza

Toy convoy leaves on Friday

Edinburgh Direct Aid who are the group behind the collection – they have been amazed by the response so far.

However they tell me they are in desperate need of:

Stationery Items
Arts and Crafts
Pencils etc

These items will be head to Gaza for the children

They also need:

Parcel tape
Card Board boxes all the same size
Marker pens

These will be used for packaging the items for shipment

Do you know anyone who can help?

Maybe you have a few things to donate?

DEADLINE is FRIDAY at 5pm

*Note – Toys will also still be accepted

Robert Pearson
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

Community classes starting soon at Craigroyston

New classes starting at Craigroyston

We have some free classes aimed primarily at local people in our community at Craigroyston:

Cook your tea
Sometimes the hardest thing about cooking is deciding what to make!

It is all too easy to run out of ideas for offering something delicious, healthy and within a tight budget. The friendly tutor for this class has a wide range of ideas which can be made quickly and cheaply making this the highlight of your culinary week.

Favourite dishes range from Thai curry, to mushroom risotto as well
as home made lemon chicken. If there is anything you really want to learn to make, the tutor will be able to help.

Come along, cook your tea and take it home to surprise all the family and friends!

Please bring £1.50 each week towards the ingredients.
The class is *FREE.

Saving Money (and the Environment)
Small steps = big changes!

This practical maths course takes everyday situations and shows you how to make the maths work for you!

Work out the running costs of many household appliances, decipher your
energy bill, compare special offers while out shopping and even find out how to make the most of a square foot garden!

Don’t worry if you didn’t get maths the first time round, this course allows you to start small and build up at your own pace. It uses examples from everyday life that affect everyone, from recipes to recycling
and will help you quickly gain confidence in handling your finances!
Not only that, we are running this course in partnership with Edinburgh’s
very own Science Museum at Dynamic Earth and several sessions will take place there (all transport & entry fees provided).

Creative Expressions

Bringing together creative writing, photography and other forms of creative expression, this class offers a range of combined art forms. The informal setting means that everyone can take part in different forms of self expression and gain a satisfying experience.

*(This class is FREE)
And also some classes that we hope will be of interest and are very good value:

Fee is £50 for the standard 10 weeks of 2 hours per week courses – £25 for a senior citizen or student – £14 for anyone receiving benefits. (half of this for the 5 week course or a 1 hour course)

These can be booked online as well as by phone or in person – www.joininedinburgh.org

Make and Mend
Creative Upcycling Projects (5 weeks)

Upcycling is about converting old or discarded materials into something
useful and beautiful for your home or to give as a personalised present. Join this weekly course to learn all sorts of original ways to refashion and redesign things you have at home already, with a friendly tutor full of inspiring ideas and different craft techniques.

Pottery
This class teaches the basics of hand building and wheel throwing in clay and introduces different artistic styles & methods of creating successful ceramic pieces.

It also offers an introduction to the use of the potter’s wheel and stone
wear firing. There is an additional £10 to pay towards materials used.

Creative Writing
Do you feel you might like to have some guidance in developing your creative writing skills, to express ideas and show you how to overcome writer’s block?

A very friendly tutor can help you develop characters, transform experiences into storylines and encourage you to share your writing with
the group. The class is supportive and will look at wide ranging in creative styles.

NOW STARTING SEPTEMBER:

Computing for Not Quite Beginners
This course is ideal for people who can create a word/text document and would like to start experimenting with pictures and tables in order to create a poster, newsletter, invitation or flyer.
Potential students should be able to create a simple document with some
text in it.
The course will cover:
Inserting pictures from clipart, inserting photos from a memory stick, downloading pictures from the Internet, arranging text size, colour etc, using Wordart, designing page layouts and using columns and inserting tables.

Scots History through Scottish Novels

This enjoyable course will to explore the relationship between 20th and early 21st century Scottish literature, history and the culture and politics of contemporary Scotland.
The books the course will be looking at will be James Douglas Brown, The House with the Green Shutters; Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Sunset Song; Jessie Kesson, The White Bird Passes; Muriel Spark, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie; James Robertson, And the Land Lay Still.

There will be a small amount of advised reading to support a deeper understanding of the texts and their historical and cultural background.

and there are many more – language, music and others – and it it would be great to have some local people take advantage of these great classes!

Fiona Henderson

Ebola: should we be alarmed?

The Department of Health confirmed yesterday that a British national residing in Sierra Leone has tested positive for Ebola virus infection. Should we be concerned?

The simple answer is no, there is no immediate cause for alarm – but the health authorities remain vigilant.

‘the risk of any traveller to West Africa contracting Ebola is very low without direct contact with the blood or body fluids of an infected person.’

Professor John Watson, Deputy Chief Medical Officer, said: “The overall risk to the public in the UK continues to be very low. Medical experts are currently assessing the situation in Sierra Leone to ensure that appropriate care is provided. We have robust, well-developed and well-tested NHS systems for managing unusual infectious diseases when they arise, supported by a wide range of experts.”

Ebola haemorrhagic fever is a rare but severe disease caused by the Ebola virus. Ebola is highly transmissible by direct contact with organs or bodily fluids of living or dead infected persons and animals.

An Ebola outbreak was first confirmed in Guinea back in February and quickly spread to Liberia and Sierra Leone. The outbreak is the world’s deadliest to date.

Ebola kills up to 90% of those infected but patients have a better chance of survival if they receive early treatment. The latest outbreak has caused more than 700 deaths since February.

The UK government is closely monitoring the Ebola outbreak – the largest outbreak of the virus in recent times – but said in a statement:

‘This is not an issue that affects the UK directly. We have experienced scientists and doctors including at the Royal Free Infectious Disease Unit, the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. We also have a lot of experience of dealing with dangerous diseases. The risk of this disease spreading fast in the UK is much lower because of that.

‘The UK government is taking precautionary measures and looking at capability but is confident that the UK has experienced people who are ready to deal with anything if it were to arrive here.’

Following a meeting of government committee COBR, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said: “We’ve looked at how we are co-ordinating with our French and American colleagues under the World Health Organisation, we’ve considered what additional measures the UK could take to help control the outbreak in West Africa and we’ve also looked at what measures we need to put in place on a precautionary basis in case any UK nationals in West Africa should become affected by the disease.

We do not, at the moment, think this is an issue that affects the UK directly.”

Guidance has been issued to front line Border Force staff on how to identify and safely deal with suspected cases of Ebola – it makes clear what steps need to be taken should a passenger arrive at the border unwell.

If a person is identified at the border as being a potential carrier they will be immediately referred by a Border Force officer to a specialist medical care provider and reported to public health authorities.

There was a local scare earlier this month when an athlete from Sierra Leone fell ill during the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, but he tested negative for Ebola. Dr Colin Ramsay, of Health Protection Scotland, said then: “There’s been no programme of actively screening athletes simply because of the Commonwealth Games.

“The situation is that if someone presents with symptoms suggestive of the possibility of Ebola virus infection and who has come from a country affected by the current outbreak – and that’s Sierra Leone and Guinea and Liberia – they would be investigated accordingly and that would involve managing them with a set of standard precautions. People in this sort of situation would be investigated for a number of conditions, not just Ebola.”

No cases of imported Ebola have ever been reported in the UK.

West Pilton & Muirhouse Gala is OFF

Organisers: ‘gutted that it’s been hit on the head over a piece of paper’

Tomorrow’s West Pilton & Muirhouse Community Gala has been CANCELLED. Organisers say they have had to cancel as they have not received the necessary Entertainment Licence in time, but now plan to stage the event next month.

The group’s Facebook page was updated yesterday to say:

‘Ok folks , sadly we have to break some bad news , after multiple lots of paperwork , and permissions it seems the galas Entertainment Licence has not been granted yet. With insurance , park permission and suppliers all in place it’s a shame it’s all come down to one bit of council legislation ….

Therefor the gala will be cancelled and rescheduled to a date tbc near the end of September… Please share with as many as possible so as everyone knows it won’t go ahead this Sunday..

The committee and truly gutted that it’s been hit on the head over a piece of paper. But we will strive to get this pushed through for Sept…’

West Pilton & Muirhouse Gala was also cancelled last year because of ‘supplier issues’.

Events today at Drylaw, Silverlea and Craighall Centre all go ahead as planned (see previous posts).

Police target stores selling ‘legal highs’

Shop raids mark start of ‘legal highs’ campaign

Police in Edinburgh yesterday executed search warrants at three premises following intelligence that New Psychoactive Substances – so-called ‘legal highs’ – were being sold there.

Around 70 officers from across the city were involved in the activity, which took place in the Leith Walk, Newington and Wester Hailes areas as part of a national operation to stem the sales of these items and to raise awareness as to their risks.

Representatives from Scotland Fire and Rescue, City of Edinburgh Council Trading Standards and Environmental Health also carried out visits to a further eight premises to provide appropriate guidance on legislation and licensing issues relating to NPS.

Over 3,000 sachets of substances were seized from the three stores and have been sent for further analysis.

The operation is being backed by a two-week nationwide campaign to help raise awareness of the dangers of taking New Psychoactive Substances.

The campaign is aimed at young people aged 11-18 year-old as well as their parents and teachers. It also targets young professionals aged 25-35 years and will include a national radio commercial.

Posters and screens highlighting this issue will also be on display in train stations and on local buses across the country.

Furthermore, a range of initiatives are taking place with local community officers visiting schools, youth groups and community events to help raise awareness and educate young people on the dangers of NPS.

Detective Chief Inspector Stuart Houston, who led yesterday’s activity said: “Police Scotland is committed to keeping people safe and to stopping the sale of any substances, which may cause harm to our communities.

“The items seized during the operation will now be subject to detailed analysis and we will be continuing to engage with our various partner agencies throughout.

“Enforcement, however, is only a small part of this operation and we are keen to educate the public on all the associated risks of NPS so that less people are inclined to buy and consume them.

“School Liaison Officers and Community Policing Teams will be engaging heavily with the public in the coming weeks in relation to the dangers of New Psychoactive Substances.

“I would strongly urge our communities never to consume any of the NPS material currently being sold at premises across the country. They may contain extremely harmful chemicals, which could seriously impact upon your long-term health.”

Further information on NPS can be found at:

If you have any information about NPS, or indeed any drug activity, contact the police on 101 or, in an emergency by dialling 999.

Information can also be reported anonymously and in confidence to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

If you are a young person, information can also be reported anonymously atFearless.org.