September 2014 – Page 12 – The NEN

Award-winning theatre company seeks young performers

Creative Electric Young Company are creating a new piece of theatre, Flux, and are looking to cast young performers aged 16-22yrs.

Flux noun
1. a flowing or flow.
2. continuous change, passage, or movement:
3. a performance by Creative Electric which is subject to change, is yet unknown!

Creative Electric is a critically acclaimed, award winning company who create contemporary performance based on real experiences. Often their work is interactive, sometimes its personal, at times it’s one to one.

Their work has been performed in both Scotland and Sweden, in theatres, studios, skate parks, nightclubs, on trains, in fields, city centre squares and on rooftops!

They are dedicated to working with young and emerging performers and so run a young company in Edinburgh for artists age 16+. Creative Electric Young Company have showcased their work at the Bongo Lives Festival Edinburgh, The National Festival of Youth Theatre (2010, 2011 & 2012) and the National Theatre of Scotland’s Exchange 2010 as well as performing in their resident space The Bongo Club.

Flux will be devised and performed by Creative Electric Young Company. Workshops will take place on Wednesday evenings 7-9pm at The Bongo Club. Young company members pay a fee of just £5 per week for workshops with bursaries (free places!) always available.

There are two start dates for new performers: Wednesday 10th September & Wednesday 17th September.

For more information or to register your interest please email Heather at Creative_electric@hotmail.com

New exhibition reveals ‘another world’ of Scottish film

Changing experiences of childhood documented on film

Films and videos shot by some of Scotland’s pioneering amateur filmmakers will be showcased in a new exhibition now open at the City of Edinburgh Council’s Museum of Childhood.

This new archive has been developed through a four year research project undertaken by experts at the University of Glasgow. They have helped locate over 2,000 home movies, fiction films and sponsored documentaries made in Scotland throughout the twentieth century.

The project, entitled ‘Children and Amateur Media in Scotland’, charted the changing experiences of childhood. Together the films offer a unique and important insight into Scotland’s hidden cultural history.

It shows how children were represented by amateur filmmakers throughout the twentieth century, how they became film-makers themselves, and offers our only visual window into many domestic and community scenes, now lost, but once familiar to many.

Councillor Richard Lewis, Convener of Culture and Sport at the City of Edinburgh Council, said: “The Museum of Childhood is one of Edinburgh’s most loved museums with an extraordinary collection of toys and games. For over 50 years, the museum has charted the changing environments children have grown up in, and the different ways they have played.

“The films involved give a fascinating glimpse into the past and the exhibition will perfectly complement the existing collections, while offering something completely new for visitors.”

Professor Karen Lury, Professor of Film & Television Studies and Principal Investigator of the project said: “What we have discovered is that there is ‘another world’ of Scottish film – many, many amateur film-makers, community arts workers and school teachers all making films that reveal a lively and imaginative culture that deserves to be celebrated. The industry and creativity of these amateur film-makers – young and old – rivals the professional industry in Scotland in terms of its global reach and historic importance.”

“We believe that when brought together, the resources produced through this project will create a unique and compelling visual document of Scottish popular history and of Scottish childhood that otherwise would have been lost.”

Working in collaboration with the Scottish Screen Archive, researchers have made these films available for study by experts and for public enjoyment via the SSA’s online catalogue.

The archive will allow the children of today to look back in time to see the culture and society that their parents and grandparents experienced as part of their own childhood.

The free exhibition will run until 18 May 2015 at the Museum of Childhood.

Click the link to Find out more information on the ‘Children in Amateur Media in Scotland’ project.

Friends of Granton Castle Walled Garden invite

Deadline looms for historic local treasure

The Friends of Granton Castle Walled Garden group is holding an informal ‘meet and eat’ event at Royston Wardieburn Community Centre on Tuesday (9 September) at 3pm.

Organiser Kirsty Sutherland said: “It is really important folk know what’s happening before the 3rd October as that is the last date anything can be done to change local development plans. Our local community council agreed with our aims and will write a letter of support for our group, but we hope more people will get involved to help save this precious community asset.”

For further information see the group’s Facebook page.

Lazarowicz backs ‘bedroom tax’ amendment

Mark Lazarowicz MP has joined Labour colleagues in giving a partial welcome to a Private Members’ Bill being debated today in the UK Parliament designed to exempt some people from the so-called ‘bedroom tax’.

The Housing Reform Act 2012 included the removal of the spare room subsidy, which means that social tenants can see their housing benefit cut severely where they are deemed to be occupying a property larger than they need.

The Bill is being introduced by Andrew George, LibDem MP for St Ives, and although committed to abolition of the bedroom tax the Labour Opposition is aiming to strengthen it as a step towards that.

The North and Leith MP said: “The Bill is welcome in so far as it goes in seeking to exempt some people hit by the bedroom tax and in encouraging the building of new affordable housing but the real answer is simple: scrap the bedroom tax as Labour is committed to do.

“This unfair and vicious policy has left vulnerable tenants like disabled people and their carers under threat of having to move and the Government has been forced to apply sticking plaster to the wound it has caused by increasing discretionary housing payments in dribs and drabs.

“It is all very well for some LibDem MPs to be calling for the bedroom tax to be modified to exempt them a few months before the UK General Election – if they had opposed it from the start, the government would not have been able to bring it in at all!

“The real answer to the desperate shortage of affordable housing is not to victimise existing social tenants but to tackle it at root by building more of it.”

Creative cookery on a budget at Craigie

We have a great cookery course at Craigroyston Community High School – the focus is on inexpensive, nutritious cooking for families – using only own brand items – and they make really delicious rissottos, thai curries and other tasty dishes all for a weeny weeny amount of money.

The course is free but we do ask for a £1.50 fee to pay each week towards ingredients. The idea is that participants come with containers and take away a substantial meal for a family of four – if there are more in the family, I am sure there would be enough food!

The tutor is very friendly, patient and helpful and very enthusiastic about cooking. If people can get here they will really enjoy and benefit from the class – and be assured of a good dinner on Wednesday nights!

Unfortunately we do not have a creche.

Craigroyston Community High School is on good bus routes – along Ferry Road or the 27 which comes down Pennywell Road.

If you would like to enrol, it can be done anytime online by clicking onto www.joininedinburgh.org and use the search box – put in Craigroyston Cook – and then just go through as with any online purchase, or you could telephone the school on 477 7801 to book.

The new cookery class starts on Wednesday 24 September, 6 – 7.30pm

The Joininedinburgh site has information about all the other classes all round the city as well – take a look, there are lots of new things to try!

Fiona Henderson, Craigroyston Community High School

Result! Super Spartans £150,000 fundraiser

A fundraising dinner and charity auction at Prestonfield House Hotel has raised an incredible £150,000 for local social enterprise The Spartans Community Football Academy.

BBC SportScotland’s Richard Gordon was Master of Ceremonies and entertainment was headlined by comedian Kevin Bridges and Graham Souness.

A few sore heads this morning no doubt but all in a good cause!

Free fun for under-fives this weekend

One, two, free fun with Edinburgh Leisure!

Edinburgh Leisure is hosting free under 5’s Open Days at three venues this Sunday (7 September).

Experts agree the best way to help kids enjoy healthy, active lives is to start as you mean to go on, and Edinburgh Leisure has lots of activities that wee ones, and their parents, can enjoy starting from 4 months through to 5 years old.

Come and try out classes specifically designed for pre-school children. And look out for lots more fun around the different centres too, including face painting, bouncy castle and adult health checks!

The three Centres?You’ll find fun aplenty at Craiglockhart Leisure and Tennis Centre (9.15 – 12.15), the Royal Commonwealth Pool (midday – 3.30pm) and Gracemount Leisure Centre (1 – 3.30pm).

For more information visit: www.edinburghleisure.co.uk

Ta-ta, tax disc

From 1 October, the paper tax disc will no longer need to be displayed on a vehicle windscreen. If you have a tax disc with any months left to run after this date, then it can be removed from the vehicle windscreen and destroyed. This includes customers with a Northern Ireland address, however they will still need to display their MoT disc.

You can apply online to tax or SORN your vehicle using your 16 digit reference number from your vehicle tax renewal reminder (V11) or 11 digit reference number from your log book (V5C)

What this means to you

To drive or keep a vehicle on the road you will still need to get vehicle tax and DVLA will still send you a renewal reminder when your vehicle tax is due to expire. This applies to all types of vehicles including those that are exempt from payment of vehicle tax.

Buying a vehicle

From 1 October, when you buy a vehicle, the vehicle tax will no longer be transferred with the vehicle. You will need to get new vehicle tax before you can use the vehicle.

You can tax the vehicle using the New Keeper Supplement (V5C/2) part of the vehicle registration certificate (V5C) online or by using our automated phone service – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Alternatively, you may wish to visit a Post Office® branch.

Selling a vehicle

If you sell a vehicle after 1 October and you have notified DVLA, you will automatically get a refund for any full calendar months left on the vehicle tax.

Vehicle tax refunds

You will no longer need to make a separate application for a refund of vehicle tax. DVLA will automatically issue a refund when a notification is received from the person named on DVLA vehicle register that the:

vehicle has been sold or transferred
vehicle has been scrapped at an Authorised Treatment Facility
vehicle has been exported
vehicle has been removed from the road and the person on the vehicle register has made a Statutory Off Road Notification (SORN)
person on the vehicle register has changed the tax class on the vehicle to an exempt duty tax class.

Paying vehicle tax by Direct Debit

From 1 October 2014 (5 October if setting up at a Post Office®), Direct Debit will be offered as an additional way to pay for vehicle tax. This will be available for customers who need to tax their vehicle from 1 November 2014:

annually
6 monthly
monthly (12 months tax paid for on a monthly basis)

Provided an MOT remains valid, the payments will continue automatically until you tell DVLA to stop taking them or you cancel the Direct Debit with your bank. Valid insurance should also be in place for vehicles registered in Northern Ireland.

The Direct Debit will be cancelled and payments automatically stopped when you tell DVLA that you no longer have the vehicle, or the vehicle has been taken off the road and a Statutory Off Road Notification (SORN) has been made.

When the Direct Debit scheme can’t be used

Paying by Direct Debit will not be available to:

first registration vehicles
fleet schemes
HGVs that pay the Road User Levy (all other HGVs can pay by Direct Debit)

Checking the tax status of a vehicle

You can check the tax status of any vehicle online. This can also be used for rental vehicles.

DVLA

Talking about regeneration

Forth Neighbourhood Partnership and Community Councils are in the process of developing an event focussing on the wider regeneration of the area to take place on Saturday 27 September from 10am – 2pm in Edinburgh College Granton Campus.

We are currently working to bring together the community, landowners, the Council and its partners to share information about current and future regeneration plans and any opportunities that this can bring. This will also be an opportunity to learn of where key community aspects such as health, leisure, environment and social benefits are linked into any future developments.

It is intended that the event outcomes will help shape proposals wherever possible and keep people informed with what is happening in the Forth neighbourhood. It should also support the creation of a new vision for the area and potentially establish a wider Forth Regeneration Development Group.

We are awaiting confirmation of key speakers and felt that it was important to gauge interest in the event . I would be grateful therefore if you could use the link below to let me know if you and/or colleagues will be interesting in attending. A light lunch will be available on the day.

Please use this link to note interest. Responses will be checked regularly.

Further information is available from Michelle Fraser 529 3150 or myself.

Scott Donkin