MONDAY 1st MAY
10am – 1pm at NORTH EDINBURGH ARTS
All Welcome
Month: April 2017
North Edinburgh kids score with healthy eating message
Charity calls full time on Responsible Business Week with Food Fuel Football event
Business in the Community Scotland (BITC), the Prince’s Responsible Business Network is bringing Responsible Business Week to a close with an exciting healthy session for kids in Edinburgh with a focus on football. Continue reading North Edinburgh kids score with healthy eating message
A blast from the past
Yesterday saw Miles Tubb from the Living Memory Centre test the ladies with artefacts you would use when you went for a night out (writes James McGinty). This piece of equipment (above) was used to cure cellulite! Continue reading A blast from the past
Spring into action this morning!
Join the Big Spring Clean today!
granton:hub celebrates five year lease with Open Weekend
granton:hub, the creative and cultural group based in the heart of Granton, will open the doors of Madelvic House to the public this weekend – and celebrate the signing of a five-year, rent-free, lease agreement with the EDI Group for the ground floor of the historic building.
Established to create a thriving cultural centre to benefit both the local and wider community, granton:hub has been working closely with the EDI Group for a number of years to develop a proposal that would allow them to be permanently based at Madelvic House. The upcoming Open Weekend has been designed to mark this agreement, whilst giving a taster of the workshops, classes and events planned over not just the next few months, but coming years.
Visitors to the Open Weekend can try their hands at book binding with artist Cassandra Barron, help design a mosaic for granton:hub with Toni Dickson or take part in group-singing sessions with Creative Facilitator, Clare Watson. All this, along with many other activities and events, including planting in the new community garden and the history:hub exhibition, will take place over the two days, with free tea, coffee and cake available in the proposed new café.
Speaking ahead of the Open Weekend, Wendy Wager, Chair of the granton:hub Steering Group, said: “We’re really looking forward to welcoming everyone to Madelvic House this weekend to showcase what granton:hub has to offer. We’ve been working hard with various expert tutors to put together an exciting and diverse programme of activity, open to all ages and interests.
“The signing of this lease agreement with the EDI Group for Madelvic House is a major milestone for granton:hub. It will help us to build on our vision to create a vibrant community facility in Granton, one that local residents and those from the wider area can enjoy and be proud of.”
Following this Open Weekend, granton:hub will be launching its first full time programme, Madelvic:May, featuring a host of activities, workshops and community events – bringing together a wealth of expert tutors, whilst helping to establish Madelvic House as a centre for creative and cultural activity in Granton.
Denise Havard, Community Development Manager at The EDI Group, added: “It’s been great to partner with granton:hub on this exciting project, one that will bring significant and lasting benefits to the local community.
“The EDI Group is always looking for innovative and flexible ways to maximise use of our portfolio, including pop up events and meanwhile uses, ensuring that community development is a real tool for change alongside physical regeneration. The granton:hub’s ambitious proposals perfectly aligned themselves wiith this and I look forward to seeing them continue to grow and thrive, making great use of this important, historical building in the heart of Granton.”
Along with this programme of events, granton:hub has wider aspirations to create a new community garden in the grounds surrounding Madelvic House, and has already partnered with landscape architects HERE + NOW and the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh to create a Butterfly Garden, Coastal Grassland and establish a community growing project.
Beating the big boys: Castle Community Bank raises interest rates
Castle Community Bank, the Edinburgh-based not-for-profit financial institution, has raised its fixed term rates for savers. It now offers 1.65% for two years and 1.75% for three years for fixed term deposits of up to £15,000 – a much better rate than the big banks currently offer. Continue reading Beating the big boys: Castle Community Bank raises interest rates
Protecting children from abuse in sport: “Action needed NOW”
Scottish Football Association ‘asleep on the job’
A scheme intended to protect children from abuse in sport may not be working and needs to be rectified now, according to a Holyrood parliamentary report. The Scottish Parliament’s Health and Sport Committee says there is a compelling case for the current voluntary Protecting Vulnerable Groups scheme (PVG) to be made mandatory for all sports organisations in Scotland.
Whilst the report notes that Ministers plan to have new legislation in place by 2019, the Committee believes action needs to be taken now to strengthen the PVG scheme and to ensure ‘unsuitable people’ are prevented from doing regulated work.
The report also calls for a strengthening of the ‘Minimum Operating Requirements’ that sports governing bodies (SPGs) are required to meet in relation to child protection, recommending that future grants from SportScotland to SPGs “be conditional on adequate procedures not only being in place but being timeously adhered to”.
The committee’s inquiry into Child Protection in Sport followed allegations of historical child sexual abuse in football. The inquiry sought assurances that current safeguards in place across football and other sports clubs are such that child sex abuse in sport could not happen today.
On football, the report highlights concerns raised about a backlog of checks waiting to be carried out on coaches and officials working with young players.
MSPs say the Scottish Youth Football Association “misled government officials and the committee in relation to the levels of backlog being experienced since at least August 2016” and that the Scottish Football Association has been “asleep on the job” and complacent.
Neil Findlay MSP, Convener of the Health and Sport Committee, said: “Our evidence highlighted variations in how the PVG scheme operates in sports across Scotland. Ultimately, we believe the current system of PVG checks may not be preventing unsuitable people from doing regulated work with children.
“We’re talking about the safety of children – urgent action is needed now to strengthen the scheme as 2019 is too long to wait for new legislation.
“In relation to football, we have raised serious concerns about the ability of the SYFA to ensure PVG checks are carried out efficiently. We cannot even now be confident that the SYFA is being truthful in relation to the size of their backlog and consequently that as an organisation they are committed to undertaking the appropriate PVG checking expeditiously. We consider the SFA to have been asleep on the job and continuingly complacent in this area. Based on the information provided, we are left with concerns about the current protections being afforded to youth footballers in Scotland.”
The committee noted the relationship between the SFA and SYFA and the measures being adopted to ensure child protection policies are in place. However, the report goes on to say:
“A soft touch approach may have been previously warranted, however it is clear from the evidence we have received this is no longer applicable. The SFA have, whatever they claim, responsibilities. The current approach is simply not working effectively to protect children and young people in football and in our view the ultimate responsibility for this lies with the SFA as the governing body.”
The report also makes reference to concerns raised in evidence by the Children and Young People’s Commissioner about a “power imbalance” in the relationship between children and football agents acting on behalf of children, pointing out that agents are not covered by the need for child protection checks. The report calls for “this anomaly to be addressed and rectified immediately by the Scottish Government to prevent agents who have not been through the full disclosure procedure having access to and contact with children and young persons”
Letters: election broadcast by a working man
Dear Editor
Cooperation and Peace between all people is fundamental for our existence, every working family in the country would agree.
The opportunity though for those families to express their concerns is limited in that most ways of doing so
through the press and television are denied them. Most of these means are owned by very wealthy individuals
and corporations, whose interests are to keep control and make as much profit as possible: and they do.
through the press and television are denied them. Most of these means are owned by very wealthy individuals
and corporations, whose interests are to keep control and make as much profit as possible: and they do.
To maintain that control it is essential to mould peoples thinking into accepting that only competition is good, that there is no other way. They are aware this does lead to economic slumps but comfort themselves they can
always pass the cost onto the working population, and if necessary fight for markets. These few very wealthy people believe it is their right to exercise control.
always pass the cost onto the working population, and if necessary fight for markets. These few very wealthy people believe it is their right to exercise control.
The opportunity to change things on June 8th by the people of the UK in electing as many Labour MP’s to
finally get rid of these savage anti-working people Tories. They can and do misrepresent, cut short or ignore Jeremy Corbyn sometimes completely – but we have the V O T E.
finally get rid of these savage anti-working people Tories. They can and do misrepresent, cut short or ignore Jeremy Corbyn sometimes completely – but we have the V O T E.
A. Delahoy, Silverknowes Gardens
16th birthday vote for city pupils
Two Edinburgh secondary school pupils will head to the polls for the very first time – on their 16th birthday. Liberton High School S4 pupils Jade Jenkinson and Louis Baigan will both become eligible just in time to cast a vote in the local elections on Thursday 4 May. Continue reading 16th birthday vote for city pupils
Edinburgh to take centre stage on World Fringe Day
Fiona Hyslop, Cabinet Secretary for Culture, Tourism and External Affairs and Shona McCarthy, Chief Executive of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society have announced plans for the inaugural World Fringe Day, an international day of celebration that will take place on Tuesday 11 July. Continue reading Edinburgh to take centre stage on World Fringe Day