Eyes down for final session of 2014

Jackie’s Christmas Bingo

Wednesday 17 December  

Doors Open 7.00pm, Eyes Down 7.30pm

bingo1Jackie ends her Bingo sessions for 2014 with a Christmas Extravaganza tomorrow (Wednesday 17th). This will be some Bingo Session, Jackie says!

We at the Centre would like to thank all the faithful followers of the bingo (with a difference!)

Our thanks to Link-Up (Scotland) – a Scottish Government initiative who recognised the need for a venue to replace the local bingo hall and surveyed the community on the closure of the Granton bingo venue.

Our thanks to Jackie for all her hard work

Finally ( On behalf of the Board and Bingo fans) our gratitude and thanks to staff and volunteers staying on at night, throughout the year making all this possible.

Happy Christmas and an enjoyable last Bingo Session of 2014!

Jim McGinty, Muirhouse Millennium Community Centre

Festive Waste Collections

calton hillMost households in Edinburgh will have their rubbish and recycling collected as normal over the Christmas holidays.  Other than Christmas Day and New Year’s Day, collections will not change for residents across the city.

Rubbish and recycling will not be picked up on Thursday 25 December (Christmas Day) and Thursday 1 January (New Year’s Day) only.

For those who would usually have a collection on these days, it will be rearranged from Thursday 25 December to Saturday the 27 December and from Thursday 1 January to Saturday 3 January.

Normal service will resume on 26th December and 2nd January.

Residents can arrange a special uplift for bulky items online or by phoning 0131 529 3030. Collection of re-usable furniture and white goods can be arranged by contacting the national re-use phone line on 0800 0665 820.

Christmas tree recycling

Those who receive a garden waste service can recycle real Christmas trees after Christmas Day by placing it at the kerbside next to their brown bin by 6am on their garden waste pick up day. Bases should be removed and trees over 6ft tall should be cut it in half.

Residents living in a communal bin area can leave their trees beside their nearest shared bin on one of the dates below. These will be picked up and turned into compost for use in parks and gardens.

City Centre and Leith – Monday 5, 12 and 19 January
North – Tuesday 6, 11 and 20 January
East – Wednesday 7, 14 and 21 January
South – Thursday 8, 15 and 22 January
South West – Friday 9, 16 and 23 January
West – Saturday 10, 17 and 24 January

Christmas trees can also be taken to any of the city’s Community Recycling Centres. These will be open every day except on 25 & 26 December and 1 & 2 January.

Residents are being reminded that a range of materials can be recycled over Christmas, in addition to Christmas trees, including wrapping paper, glass bottles and food waste. Check the Council’s rubbish and recycling pages to find out what goes into which bin.

Environment Convener, Councillor Lesley Hinds, said: “It is essential that we keep the city moving, regardless of the time of year, so I am pleased that we are able to continue collecting rubbish and recycling almost as normal over the festive period. This is thanks to the staff who work hard to keep things ticking over during the holidays.

“So much of the rubbish that we generate over Christmas can be recycled – from wrapping paper to empty bottles or leftover food – so I would urge people to make the most of their recycling facilities during this time.

“Households can also easily recycle their real Christmas trees thanks to additional uplifts, allowing them to be composted for use in our parks and making way for a green Christmas.”

2015 calendars

There will be no changes to collections in 2015. New bin calendars will be available on the Council’s bin collection day page at the end of December. Copies can also be ordered by contacting the Council on 0131 529 3030 from today (15 December).

Find out more about rubbish and recycling in Edinburgh on the Council’s website.

New puzzles for Sick Kids

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The Royal Hospital for Sick Children (RHSC) has taken delivery of a haul of new puzzles thanks to the generosity of the local community.

Hoards of brand new puzzles have been gifted to the hospital by company Jumbo Games following its ‘Bring Back Jigsaw Puzzle’ amnesty. The appeal, which ran in October and November, asked members of the public to donate old puzzles to the Hobbycraft store at Fort Kinnaird in exchange for money off new ones. For every jigsaw puzzle received, a brand new one was donated to the hospital.

Lorna Galbraith, Play Specialist at the Sick Kids said: “We’re thrilled to see these new puzzles delivered in time for Christmas. Play is so important for children in hospital. It lifts their spirits and helps them to relax by making a really abnormal environment, normal.”

Gray Richmond, Managing Director, Jumbo Games said: “It has been great to see the community rally together and lend its support to the recent amnesty. For each puzzle donated by a member of the public to the Hobbycraft Fort Kinnaird, we are able to provide the Royal Hospital for Sick Children with a brand new jigsaw for patients and their families to enjoy. “We hope that these donations will bring as much joy to those who use them as it has to us overseeing this project.”

 

 

Sturgeon ‘confident’ over votes for young people

Entente cordiale over votes for 16 and 17 year olds

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First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has expressed confidence that the powers necessary to allow 16 and 17 year-olds to vote will be devolved to Holyrood in time for the next Scottish Parliament elections.

Speaking outside Number 10 Downing Street yesterday after her first meeting with Prime Minister David Cameron since she took office, Ms Sturgeon said she believed both Scottish and UK governments would give the matter the required focus to allow the franchise to be extended before the 2016 vote.

The First Minister said the talks had been “constructive and cordial” and that there was a will on behalf of both governments to work together in the interests of the people in Scotland.

But she warned that the early devolution of the necessary powers via a Section 30 order, would offer a significant early test of Westminster’s desire to implement the wider Smith Commission proposals.

The First Minister said: “The talks with the Prime Minister in Downing Street were constructive and cordial. Clearly David Cameron and I have big political differences and different views on the constitutional future of Scotland, but there was a real appetite on the part of both to find ways of working together in the interests of the people of Scotland.

“Following the meeting, I am confident that we now have the basis of a deal on the necessary devolution of powers to extend the franchise to 16 and 17 year-olds in time for the 2016 election, giving us the opportunity to build on the huge success of the engagement we saw in the referendum.

“But we need to move quickly if this is going to happen. We need to see a Section 30 order that will transfer the legal power to the Scottish Parliament before Westminster breaks up for the General Election to give us the requisite time to enact primary legislation. Following my discussions today, I think that timetable has been accepted and we now need to see a focus by both governments to make it happen.”

Ms Sturgeon added: “The process necessary to transfer the franchise powers is not just important because it will extend the right to vote to 16 and 17 year olds in Scotland. It offers a significant early test of the desire on the part of Westminster to implement the wider proposals contained within the Smith Commission.

“Given the goodwill outlined by both parties during today’s discussions, there is no reason that the focus and desire to take forward this particular change so swiftly should not be extended to the rest of the Commission’s recommendations.”

s300_number10Downing Street said the first official meeting between the two leaders had been ‘very cordial and constructive’.

A spokesperson said:  “They discussed the Smith Commission’s recommendation on the Scottish Parliament having the power to extend the vote to 16 and 17 year olds, and the Prime Minister told the First Minister that he will do all he can to ensure 16 and 17 year olds can vote in next Holyrood elections.

“They also agreed to establish a joint ministerial working group with UK and Scottish Government ministers to look at practical implementation and transitional issues around Department for Work and Pensions programmes.

“The Prime Minister made clear that he wants to work with the First Minister, forging even stronger ties between our governments and our Parliaments and working together on the big issues for the future of Scotland and the United Kingdom.”

Breakthrough for Friends of Granton Castle Walled Garden?

granton castleIt has taken over a year to finally get the amazing news, but planning permission to demolish listed structures and build 17 luxury townhouses in the Historic Garden is now officially being WITHDRAWN !!!

Our Friends Group members recently met with the development company to propose community-led restoration and productive use of the walled garden. We hope that Waterfront Edinburgh Ltd’s board members will now hear the voices of hundreds of community members and recognise the value of this fertile ‘secret’ garden to local people. The Oldest Walled Garden in Edinburgh deserves a chance to survive!

  • Tree Preservation Orders have been applied for, to protect the remaining Victorian apple trees
  • Historic Scotland and other suitably qualified conservation organisations have been contacted to advise on restoration work needed and costs
  • New access track idea, to allow community members to restore and work in the garden without disturbing nearby residents.

What next for Friends of Granton Castle Walled Garden?

November was a very busy month for the Friends Group, productive meetings and new members adding their energy and enthusiasm to help save this walled garden.

We now have a draft constitution, rising community interest and possibilities of funding to get started. Let’s hope that our councillors and community voices will be heard and this garden treasured for future generations to enjoy!

A ‘timeline’ of our community campaign was put together to help everyone understand the story How the Friends Group started

This is posted on the Friends Group webpage along with the history of the garden, what happened to the castle, and some of our ideas for the garden’s restoration and community use.

Our next meeting:

Should Granton Castle Walled Garden become Common Good Land?

 General Meeting of Friends of Granton Castle Walled Garden

Thursday 8 January at Royston Wardieburn Community Centre

6-7.30 pm, seating limited to 30

Please get in touch if you want to come along or add points to the meeting agenda:

grantoncastlegardengroup@gmail.com

or catch us on FB or wordpress where an update on the meeting and notes will be posted in the new year!

 Kirsty Sutherland, Friends of Granton Castle Walled Garden

NHS 24 is ready for winter

NHS 24 Annual Review 2Public Health Minister Maureen Watt MSP visited NHS 24 yesterday to see how Scotland’s unscheduled care and health information service is preparing to support thousands of patients across the country during the winter months.

The Minister was given a demonstration of the range of services and information that the organisation provides to support patients across Scotland.

With just weeks to go before the busiest time of year over the festive break, Ms Watt, spoke with frontline staff in NHS 24’s Clydebank Contact Centre and saw how the seasonal initiative was supporting staff to deliver first class care for patients over the winter.

She was also shown a range of winter health information which is available on both NHS24.com and Scotland’s national health information service, NHS inform, websites where a winter zone and new winter self help guides have been created to give people high quality, trusted information about how to look after themselves and their families over the winter period.

The Minister also saw how NHS 24 is delivering support to other parts of NHSScotland with a Donor Response unit for the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service, which was recently established. The unit receives calls to record new donor registrations and responds to inquiries from existing donors. Early in 2015 the service will also be used to contact existing donors if blood stocks are running low.

Just a few weeks ago, Ms Watt launched the new Be Healthwise this Winter campaign, which is delivered by NHS 24 on behalf of NHS Scotland. This comprehensive public communications campaign advises the public to make sure they have over the counter remedies for seasonal illness, check prescriptions and GP surgery opening times over the festive holidays and to seek advice from pharmacies if needed.

NHS 24 Annual Review 1Ms Watt said: “NHS 24 provides a valuable service to patients across Scotland when their GP surgery is closed. It allows people at any time of day, in any part of Scotland, to have access to health care advice when they need it.

“As they do every year, NHS 24 are now gearing up for the expected surge in demand over the festive and new year period and I’m confident the additional resources NHS 24 have put in place will meet this demand.
“It is also important though that the general public play their part in helping to support NHS services over winter – making sure they have ordered prescriptions in advance and checking when their GP surgery is close.

“If you do fall ill over the festive period, remember you can seek advice from NHS 24, an out-of-hours GP, or the local pharmacy if your condition is not life-threatening. Using these services, rather than turning up at A&E, will keep our emergency departments free for those who really need them.”

The demonstration took place ahead of a series of meetings looking at NHS 24’s performance over the 2013-14 year, including a public session this afternoon. The event was also being webcast to staff across the service’s main centres around Scotland.

NHS 24’s Chairman Allan Watson said: “We welcomed this opportunity to demonstrate NHS 24’s winter service preparations to the new Public Health Minister and her team today. NHS 24 made sound progress in 2013/14 and the Annual Review provided an important opportunity to review performance and to identify key areas for further work and development.”

For more information find NHS 24 at www.twitter.com/nhs24 and on Facebook  www.facebook.com/nhs24

People across Scotland can call NHS 24 using the free phone number 111. 111 gives people access to the help and advice they need when it can’t wait until their GP surgery reopens.

Spartans supporting the community at Christmas

Help us help our local community this Christmas

SCFAThe Spartans Community Football Academy would like to extend support to local charities in the North Edinburgh area this Christmas. This year we are continuing our annual support of the Ashbrook Salvation Army based on Ferry Road.

We would also like to extend our support to food banks in our local area. We will be supporting the food banks based at the Granton Baptist Church and The Prentice Centre.

Christmas Appeal Poster

You can support the Academy appeal by donating:

  • clothing and toiletries
  • Tinned fruit/veg, pasta sauce, tinned fish, breakfast cereals and bars

Donations can be dropped off at the main office at The Spartans Community Football Academy, 94 Pilton Drive, Edinburgh.

We will arrange for all donations made to be delivered to the local charities we are supporting on Monday 22 December.

The Spartans Community Football Academy

Seasonal health advice from NHS Lothian

Holiday Health Advice

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Check you have cold and flu remedies

Many children and adults pick up common winter ailments such as a cold or flu-like illness. These can often be effectively treated at home with readily available medicine. Parents are reminded to restock their medicine cabinet with remedies suitable for children.

Use your local pharmacy

Your local pharmacy is an accessible resource for you and your family. Your pharmacist can offer advice or help if you have run out of any prescribed medication. You can also collect medicine for minor ailments or illnesses.

Make sure you have repeat prescriptions. Only order what you need and pick it up in plenty of time. 

If you, or someone you care for, require medicines regularly, check that you have enough and if you need more remember to order and collect repeat prescriptions in good time to ensure you or your family have enough medicine to last over the Christmas holiday period. Only order what you need.

Know when your GP surgery will be open

Your local doctor’s surgery will be open on Wednesday December 24th and will then reopen on Monday 29th December. This means there are four days when it is closed – Christmas Day, Boxing Day, Saturday 27th and Sunday 28th.

Doctors Surgeries will follow normal opening hours on Wednesday 31 December and will then reopen on Monday 5 January.

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Benefit Cap: 'a clear incentive to work'?

jobcentre (3)The benefit cap is providing a clear incentive to work, according to new research released by the Department for Work and Pensions today. However opponents say welfare reforms have damaged society and have not produced savings promised by the government.

The Westminster government says it has long suspected that the benefit cap was having a positive impact on people’s lives, compelling them to find work, and that the publications ‘now show this is undoubtedly the case’.

The benefit cap was introduced as part of the government’s long-term economic planso that people on out-of-work benefits do not receive more than the average working family earns.

The research shows that:

  • those who would be impacted by the cap are 41% more likely to go into work than a similar group who fall just below the cap’s level, but this trend didn’t exist before the cap was in place – indeed those with higher weekly benefit used to be less likely to move into work
  • before the benefit cap fewer than 300 of the highest claiming families got over £9 million in benefits every year – the cap is preventing this and saving millions of pounds a year
  • 38% of those capped said they were doing more to find work, a third were submitting more applications and 1 in 5 went to more interviews
  • where households said they intended to seek work because of the cap in February 2014 (45%) by August the vast majority of them (85%) had done so – 2 in 5 (40%) of those who said they had looked for work because of the cap in February actually entered employment by August.

DuncanSmithWork and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith said: “We know that the benefit cap has had a real impact in changing attitudes and behaviours, and now we have evidence showing that our welfare reforms are encouraging people into work.

“By putting an end to runaway benefit claims and introducing a system which guarantees you will always be better off in work, we are incentivising people find employment. Every month hundreds of people who have been affected by the cap are making the positive move into work – gaining the financial security and esteem that comes with a job and a pay packet.

“As part of our long-term economic plan, we’ll continue to support people to break free from welfare dependency so they can look forward to a better, more secure future for themselves and their families”.

The DWP cites London as a good example of the policy working.

‘In London where the highest number of people are subject to the benefit cap, scare stories claimed that people would be pushed out of the capital. In actuality, of those capped households living in inner London that moved, 84% continued to live in the central boroughs. In London there is also larger likelihood of capped households moving into work with those in scope for the cap being 70% more likely to go into work than their equivalents just below the cap’.

One interviewee in the research said: “It gave me the shock of my life. But it’s given me the kick I need. I can see what the gentleman was saying, why should we pay for your lifestyle. We should want to work. We shouldn’t sit on our backsides watching Jeremy Kyle. I genuinely do want to work.”

While the government may believe it is on the right track, it’s fair to say that not everyone is convinced that the controversial cap is working, however. Trades Unions, disability rights organisations, charities, anti-poverty campaign groups, churches and opposition political parties all continue to condemn the government’s ‘draconian’ welfare reforms. They point to record numbers of families using food banks as evidence that the welfare reforms are hurting poor families – both in work and on benefits.

There’s also doubt about how much – or how little – money is being saved by the welfare reforms. Today, the Institute for Fiscal Studies said savings from the cap were ‘small’.  They say the cap affects about 27,000 families in the UK – less than 1% of working-age families who receive housing benefits – and saved around £100m a year.

More about the benefit cap

Introduced in April 2013 the benefit cap is set at a rate of no more than £500 a week for couples and families and £350 for single people – £500 a week is equivalent to a salary of £34,000 a year after tax.

Over 50,000 households have had their benefits capped since April 2013 and since then 23,900 are no longer impacted – 12,000 because they have found work or are no longer claiming Housing benefit at all.

Praise for Scotland's volunteers

Make volunteering your New Year resolution!

volsCommunity Empowerment Minister Marco Biagi has applauded the work of one million Scots who volunteer in their communities and is encouraging more people to take up volunteering in 2015.

Around three in ten adults gave up their time for organisations in Scotland in 2013, with those numbers expected to rise thanks to the record numbers of volunteers who helped make Glasgow 2014 the greatest ever Games.

Of those who volunteer regularly, around 23 per cent contribute to youth or children’s organisations, 21 per cent help with health, disability and social welfare organisations and 20 per cent volunteer with children’s activities at schools.

Mr Biagi made the plea as he wrapped up warm for a morning volunteering with the Bethany Christian Trust’s Caring Christmas Trees project in Edinburgh.

treeThe charity relies on volunteers giving up their time to help customers pick out, wrap and carry their trees, with proceeds from the purchase of Caring Christmas Trees in Edinburgh funding the charity’s Winter Care Shelter, which gives rough-sleepers a hot meal and a safe place to sleep during the freezing festive period.

Scotland’s passion for volunteering will be maximised in 2015 by a £114,400 funding boost to Volunteer Scotland to build on the passion of the 15,000 Clyde-siders.

Mr Biagi said: “Over the next few weeks, thousands of volunteers across the country will be giving up their time to help their communities. Whether it’s through bag packing, befriending, carol singing or helping out at homeless shelters, these people are making a real impact and bringing cheer to those who need it most.

“Projects like Caring Christmas Trees provide a crucial life-line to some of the most vulnerable people in our communities and it’s been great to spend time at the project helping out and listening to people’s stories. It really brings the message home about the value of volunteers.

Volunteering is for everyone and can open up new opportunities to develop talents, boost self-confidence and help others. It’s something I’d encourage everyone to think about this Christmas and consider as a resolution for 2015.”

Iain Gordon, Chief Executive Officer, Bethany Christian Trust said: Without volunteers, much of our work would not be possible. We are delighted that the Scottish Government is encouraging people to volunteer and that Marco Biagi is supporting our Caring Christmas Trees project in aid of homeless people in Edinburgh.”