Lothian could be on track to win a share of a new £2 million Local Rail Development Fund set up during the Scottish Greens’ negotiations with the Scottish Government over the 2018-19 budget. Continue reading Local rail fund is just the ticket for Lothian, say Greens
AMANDA KANE SCHOOL OF DANCE OPEN DAY
Saturday 12 May 10am & 12.30pm
DRYLAW PARISH CHURCH
A new global hub will bring together scientific and technical expertise to share latest thinking on sustainable alternatives to plastic and stopping plastic entering oceans.
The UK, working with other Commonwealth countries, will launch a research and innovation hub for experts to develop solutions to stop plastic waste from entering our oceans and find environmentally-friendly alternatives to plastic. Continue reading UK launches new research and innovation hub to tackle scourge of plastic in our seas and oceans
A fund which supports the introduction of new walking and cycling infrastructure will be more than doubled, Transport Minister Humza Yousaf has announced. £36m will be available through the Community Links Fund in 2018/19, the highest amount since it was launched in 2010.
The fund has previously helped projects like the cycling and walking path between Elgin and Lhanbryde, a cycle path linking Glasgow City Centre with its southern suburbs, and plans to redesign Stirling Road in Dunblane.
Mr Yousaf said: “We want Scotland to be an active nation, where people lead healthier and more active lifestyles. Cyclists often tell me they want to see more safe cycling infrastructure, which I fully endorse and is one of the reasons why this is the highest amount we’ve ever invested in the Community Links Fund.
“We want this extra money to create pleasant and safe routes which make it easier for people of all ages to choose to walk and cycle as part of their everyday lives.
“This is a great opportunity for organisations to bring forward projects that will encourage people to make active travel a bigger part of their daily lives and realise the health and environmental benefits that come with it.
John Lauder, National Director for Sustrans Scotland, which delivers the fund, said: “Increasing everyday levels of active travel can hugely benefit a person’s health and wellbeing, boost local economies and create greener, more pleasant local environments to live and travel through.
“This increased funding for active travel routes from the Scottish Government demonstrates its continued commitment to creating safe and accessible walking and cycling routes across the country.
“We look forward to continuing to work in partnership with Transport Scotland, local authorities, community trusts and other partners up and down the country to help deliver the Scottish Government’s vision for an Active Nation.”
TWO of Edinburgh’s most iconic Old Town institutions are joining forces in a move that is set to deliver a multi-million-pound boost into the heart of the city. The prestigious Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (RCSEd) and the Festival Theatre are pooling their resources to create a one-stop ‘large conference destination’ with unrivalled character – utilising the best qualities of some of the capital’s finest settings. Continue reading Old Town partnership takes centre stage with new conference destination
The chronic, neurological condition myalgic encephalomyelitis (M.E.) affects more people in Scotland than MS and Parkinson’s combined – but doctors receive almost no training on the illness. The urgent need to change this is the focus of a special event at the Scottish Parliament tonight, hosted by Gail Ross MSP and supported by UK charity, Action for M.E. Continue reading Edinburgh patients and professionals to show MSPs: This is M.E.
BANK ‘NOT LISTENING’ TO ANGER OF CUSTOMERS AND BUSINESSES
SNP MP Deidre Brock says RBS ‘failed to answer‘ many questions as three senior executives appeared before the Scottish Affairs Committee (SAC) at Westminster yesterday. Continue reading RBS ‘failed to answer’ questions, says local MP
The Scottish Greens will today outline distinct plans for the proposed Scottish National Investment Bank to have robust policies on ethical investments, a push towards a zero carbon economy and overall greater scrutiny.
Green MSP Andy Wightman will attempt to win backing from Holyrood’s parties for his amendment to provide the new bank with better “social and environmental outcomes”, including an obligation to deliver strategic housing investment.
Wightman is also expected to challenge Scottish Labour to ditch its proposals for a bank focussed on “increased growth” and to instead put forward a strategic programme in line with the left-wing ideology embraced by the party’s leadership.
Mr Wightman, a Lothian MSP, said: “As a national financial institution, we all have vested collective interests to ensure that this bank will invest in projects and programmes that deliver a sustainable future. With our proposals, the bank will be required to have a strategic focus on the future of the Scottish economy by investing in new low-carbon technologies to build energy resilience.
“It’s surprising to see Labour insist that the bank’s main focus should be for it to ‘drive increased growth’. It’s far from being even remotely socialist and their insistence on profit being the bank’s key goal is disheartening. No economy can be sustainable when growing numbers of its young people cannot afford basic, affordable and warm homes. With social renting off-limits to all but the most financially challenged and affordable housing not worthy of the descriptor, an investment bank has a key role to play in providing the kind of strategic housing investment that is desperately needed.
“We also want Holyrood to have a key role in establishing the bank’s ethical investment code, which in our view should be enshrined in the primary legislation establishing the bank. We also propose that the bank could provide a Scottish payments company to reduce the costs to small businesses of processing payments. This cost reduction will lower GDP, but increase productivity. Currently around 2% of the value of payments is lost to the Scottish economy – some £1 billion per year at a rough estimate.”
Dear Friends Group members and supporters,
Continue reading Friends of Granton Castle Walled Garden AGM report
Delays and skills shortages are making recruiting staff with the right skills for the job so difficult, it is costing British businesses £1.7 billion a year], highlights the first of a series of Skills Shortage bulletins published today the Edge Foundation. Continue reading Finding the right person for the job costs UK plc £1.7 billion
