Rehearsals under way for Red and the Wolf

Some of our local young people have been hard at work at North Edinburgh Arts this week, working with professional group Liminal Dance on a new dance production they will perform in public next Wednesday evening.

Red and the Wolf by Liminal Dance is an immersive dance theatre performance working with locally based community cast of young people.

The work explores movement and dance through storytelling and suggestion based on the familiar source of the story Little Red Riding Hood.

The audience will be taken on a unique ever changing journey as the story unfolds. Participants have been exploring movement, dance and storytelling with professional artists who have helped them explore their own creativity and imagination to create a truly unique experience for dancers and audience.

Over July and August Liminal dance will be working in partnership with the Aberdeen International Youth Festival, Citymove Dance Agency, Aberdeen, Woodend Barn, Banchory, North Edinburgh Arts, Edinburgh and The Brunton Theatre, Musselburgh.

The project is led by Gemma Williams, Choreographer and artistic director of Liminal dance, She is interested in producing new ways to produce dance work which involves young people directing shaping and making the work alongside her.

This project is open to up to 25 young people each week, ages 8 – 16. The company will take them through a series of workshops and creative sessions looking at storytelling, developing and using their imagination, improvisation, dance technique and choreography. At the end of the week the group will present a final show created from the various workshop sessions.

The project is designed to be accessible to any level of participant as part of the same process, with opportunities to use, extend and develop their artistic experience whatever level it may be.

Red and the Wolf is designed to explore movement and dance through storytelling and imagination with a group of young people working and performing with professional artists. The project will create unique journeys for the participants as they are given the freedom and tools to develop their own roles, becoming a creative cog in an ever changing collective journey.

Liminal Dance are currently working with participants at North Edinburgh Arts , with their performance on Wednesday the 5th of August at 7.00pm

People involved in local performance:

Liminal Dance Company:

Choreographer Gemma Williams

Dancers Justine Lim and Christina Duncan,

Audio and visual Artist technician Jason Lim

Production Advisor Matthew Hawkins

Community Cast at North Edinburgh Arts:

Katherine Rennie, Jiayi Li, Stanley and Ferdie McKay, Julie Dorozynska, Freya MnNicoll, Inez MacIntosh, Sorcha Minto, Gabrielle Glean

Police Scotland launch annual Festival safety campaign

Love it or loathe it, you just can’t ignore it … yes, it’s Festival time in Edinburgh, and Police Scotland have launched their annual safety campaign

LAUNCH OF FESTIVAL POLICING OPERATION

We have today launched our annual campaign to keep people safe during the Festival.

In the coming weeks, hundreds of thousands of visitors are set to join the Capital’s local residents to enjoy a month of artistic performances and events, culminating in the fireworks display at the end of August.

To ensure the Festival is a secure and welcoming environment for tourists and locals alike, police will have a high-visibility presence throughout the city centre to offer a range of useful advice aimed at preventing the public being targeted by criminals.

All of this information will be available on the Police Scotland website or by following Edinburgh Division’s Facebook and Twitter pages.

Chief Superintendent Mark Williams, Divisional Commander for the City of Edinburgh said: “The Edinburgh Festival is a fantastic spectacle and results in worldwide attention for the city. We will be doing everything we can to prevent crime happening in the first place and I would appeal to the public to help us in that effort.

“By taking a number of simple steps, visitors and locals can ensure their experience of the Festival is memorable for all the right reasons.

“Remember to always keep an eye on your valuables when you’re out enjoying the sights and events within Edinburgh and never leave any belongings unattended. If you are enjoying the nightlife then please make sure you drink responsibly and have a plan to get home.

“This year, for the first time, we have helpful advice for tourists and visitors on-line that they can access before they arrive in the city, so that they can equip themselves with all the information they need to safeguard themselves against opportunistic criminals.

“I would ask that anyone planning on visiting Edinburgh in the coming weeks to visit our tourist and visitors advice page on the Police Scotland website.”

Community Safety Leader, Councillor Cammy Day, said: “Our environmental wardens will be working closely with Police Scotland in the city centre over the Festival period to help keep people safe and offer reassurance through a high visibility presence. I would encourage people to do their bit too, by acting responsibly and taking time to look at the latest safety advice.

“Edinburgh is a safe city and we want to maintain this, ensuring that visitors enjoying the Festival have the best possible experience of the city.”

Have your say on proposed electoral arrangements

Five more city councillors under latest proposals

The independent Local Government Boundary Commission for Scotland (LGBC) has announced a 12 week period of consultation with the public on proposed electoral wards as part of the Fifth Review of Electoral Arrangements.

Its proposals contain recommendations for councillor numbers in each of Scotland’s 32 council areas and the number, boundaries and names of wards.

Proposed changes in Edinburgh would see an increase in councillor numbers: the city would have 63 elected members instead of the current 58.

Both Forth and Inverleith would retain four councillors under the latest proposals, but neighbouring wards Almond and City Centre would both gain an additional elected member to ‘address forecast disparities’.

Ronnie Hinds, Chair of the Commission, said: “Consultation is a vital part of our work and having completed our consultation with councils, and amended a number of our proposals in the light of these, we now want to hear from local residents, community groups and organisations.

“We have a statutory obligation to conduct reviews and we are required to ensure that the number of electors per councillor in each ward in a council area is as nearly as may be the same – but subject to that we also need to take account of local ties and the public are best placed to tell us about these.

“We look forward to positive engagement with communities across Scotland over the next 12 weeks and have today launched our consultation portal which will allow people to see our proposals and submit their comments to us online including suggested revisions to the maps setting out ward boundaries. Paper copies of our proposals are available at display points across council areas.”

When reviewing electoral arrangements the Commission is required to take account of the following factors:

 the interests of effective and convenient local government;

 within each council, each councillor should represent the same number of electors as nearly as may be;

 local ties which would be broken by making a particular boundary;

 the desirability of fixing boundaries that are easily identifiable; and

 special geographical considerations.

The proposals for consultation with the public:

 provide for 1,219 councillors in 352 wards: a decrease of 4 councillors and 1 ward relative to existing arrangements.

 preserve 120 existing wards.

 contain 95% of wards that are forecast to be within 10% of parity (only 83% of existing wards are within 10% of parity).  contain only 3 wards that are forecast to be 15% or more from parity (19 existing wards are forecast to be 15% or more from parity).

 mean that councillors will, on average, represent electorates that are forecast to be 4.6% larger or smaller than the council average – under the existing arrangements councillors would represent electorates that are forecast to be on average 6.0% larger or smaller than the council average.

Proposals for Edinburgh

LGBCS’ proposals for wards in City of Edinburgh council area present an electoral arrangement for 63 councillors representing five 3-member wards and twelve 4-member wards, increasing councillor numbers in the area by 5. The proposals:

improve overall forecast parity;
increase the number of councillors by 1 in ward 1 (Almond), ward 2 (Pentland Hills), ward 11 (City Centre), ward 14 (Craigentinny / Duddingston) and ward 17 (Portobello / Craigmillar);
address forecast disparities in ward 1 (Almond) and 11 (City Centre);
re-name ward 10 to Morningside and ward 16 to Gilmerton but make no changes to other ward names; and
make changes to ward boundaries throughout the council area to reflect the change in councillor numbers and to align with “natural communities” (a local geography used by City of Edinburgh Council).

A summary of ward boundary proposals is available in this Guidance Booklet part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5 and part 6.

You can respond to this consultation by using the Consultation portal, or by email or post (details on this webpage). The consultation period ends on 22 October 2015.

The Guidance Booklet for this review contains a summary of the whole process.

LGBC has made material on the proposals available at Display Points agreed with the council across the city. They are:

City of Edinburgh Council, City Chambers, High Street, Edinburgh EH1 1YJ
Central Library, 7-9 George IV Bridge, Edinburgh EH1 1EG
McDonald Library, 2 McDonald Road Edinburgh EH7 4LU
Portobello Library, 14 Rosefield Avenue, Edinburgh EH15 1AU
Newington Library, 17-21 Fountainhall Road, Edinburgh EH9 2LN
Oxgangs Library, 343 Oxgangs Road, Edinburgh EH13 9LY
Kirkliston Library, 16 Station Road, Kirkliston EH29 9BE
South Queensferry Library, 9 Shore Road, South Queensferry EH30 9RD
Blackhall Library, 56 Hillhouse Road, Edinburgh EH4 5EG

LGBC expect to submit recommendations to Ministers in 2016. The resulting wards will be available for the local government elections in May 2017.