Buses back on: Lothian operating Sunday service

Lothian Buses is now operating a Sunday service. Buses began leaving garages into service from 10am and the full Sunday service is expected to be operational by midday.

Subject to weather conditions not worsening, Lothian Buses also plan to operate a Sunday service tomorrow, (Saturday 3rd March) but there will be NO night buses on service this weekendl.

A decision on Monday’s (5th March) service levels will be posted by 1200hrs on Sunday on the company’s website and social channels.

Closing schools: putting families and staff first

Education Convener Councillor Ian Perry writes about how decisions are reached when closing schools:

Closing just one school for a day is not a decision anyone takes lightly so Tuesday night’s move to close all our schools was taken after much consideration.

Always at the forefront of all our planning is the health and safety of our pupils, staff and parents/carers. The advice we received from the Met Office, Police Scotland and the Scottish Government on Tuesday night was that travel into and within the amber weather warning areas was a risk for anyone making those journeys – that was a message we could not ignore.

With the red weather warning issued yesterday by the Met Office for Edinburgh and surrounding region we kept our schools, nurseries and early years centres closed today and they will remain closed tomorrow.

We recognise that parents and carers appreciate the earliest possible notice of any potential closure and of course we need to balance that with changing circumstances that might result in schools being able to open.

The unique aspect of the weather warnings this time has shown that initially the forecast for severe weather was amber and was escalated yesterday to red during what would have been a school day. We anticipate that the weather warnings will be updated over the coming days and hopefully will indicate more settled circumstances.

I expect that normal services will resume on Monday but should there be any need for further school closures these will be communicated direct to parents, via the Council website, social media channels and local radio stations.

And lastly can I thank all the Council staff, including our road services teams and health and sopcial care staff, and members of the public who have rallied round during this extreme weather situation to keep the city moving.

I would remind everyone to visit our website www.edinburgh.gov.uk/schoolclosures, listen to media broadcasts, especially local radio, visit the Traffic Scotland website, follow @edintravel and Police Scotland on Twitter to get the latest updates about the weather situation over the coming days.

 

NHS Lothian: severe weather update

Statement issued yesterday Thursday 1 March:
Due to severe weather conditions and transport difficulties, NHS Lothian has taken the difficult decision to cancel all routine, non-urgent  elective procedures and all hospital outpatient appointments today (Thursday 1 March) and tomorrow (Friday 2 March).   

Continue reading NHS Lothian: severe weather update

Have your say on Lower Granton Road cycle path improvements

Wednesday 7 March 6.30 – 8pm

Royston Wardieburn Community Centre

Granton and District Community Council is to hold a consultation session to give local people an opportunity to find out more about proposed cycle path improvements on Lower Granton Road and to give their views on the plans. Continue reading Have your say on Lower Granton Road cycle path improvements

North Edinburgh Arts to open for CAN market event this morning

North Edinburgh Arts will be open for reduced hours today to enable the Community Action North event to go ahead in the morning (above) and have the cafe open for a while.

However Gentle Exercise, the Arts Strategy event in the afternoon and North Edinburgh Theatre group in the evening are POSTPONED.

Muirhouse Youth Development Group’s annual general meeting, also scheduled to take place at North Edinburgh Arts this afternoon, has been POSTPONED until further notice.

Pilton Central Association looking for volunteers this Saturday

Pilton Central Association will be making up bags of food and household items for local distribution at their office on Ferry Road Drive tomorrow – and they could use your help.

Pilton Central Association’s Willie Black said: “We are going to meet at the Pilton Community Association shop next to the Thrift Shop, on Saturday morning, bagging up tons of donated food and household items for distribution around the area. There is a lot of produce to pack so we would welcome all the help we can get – we will be there on Saturday from 10am until 1pm.”