Leith singer songwriter Dean Owens has won the UK Song of the Year Award at the fourth annual UK Americana Awards which were held last Thursday at London’s Hackney Empire. The awards were compered by BBC legend “Whispering” Bob Harris. Continue reading Leith’s Dean Owens wins UK Song of the Year Award
The charity Raeburn Place Foundation (RPF) announced today that the main building works have started on site for the redevelopment of the historic sports ground at Raeburn Place, Stockbridge.
In redeveloping the famous sports ground, where the first rugby international was held, RPF will create first-class sports and recreational facilities, including a Museum of International Rugby, that are fit for the 21st century, open and accessible to all and financially sustainable.
David Newlands, Chairman of the Raeburn Place Foundation, said: “This is a momentous day for the trustees and all involved in the project. The development will transform Raeburn Place into a sports hub and community resource, thereby improving lives through sport, which has been our vision from day one.
“Much hard work has gone into bringing our plans to fruition and to see the preliminary works completed and the building works beginning on site is a wonderful start to 2019 for everyone who has shown their belief in our vision.”
The contract has been let to Robertson Central, who carried out the enabling works on the site in 2017.
The contractor’s Regional Managing Director, David Cairns, said: “This is a landmark project for Robertson to be involved with, due to its central location and the importance of the ground in sporting heritage terms. We have been involved in the detailed design stage and are now pleased to be on site and bringing our experience to bear on realising the building.”
The redeveloped site will be financially sustainable due to the inclusion of commercial units and function space within the building. This commercial element, with units let to quality tenants including Marks & Spencer Foodhall, Waterstones and Charlie Miller, has attracted funding from the Bank of Scotland.
Work on this part of the contract is scheduled for completion in the autumn this year.
Funding Cuts: When all else fails, order a report … or two
Campaigners representing local community organisations affected by impending cuts to Health and Social Care grants put their case for continued funding to the North West Localities Committee last week.
The projects were told that the Locality Committee is in no position to restore lost funding, however, and councillors committed only to call for reports into the EIJB’s grant funding process.
In particular, officers were tasked to look at activity (or lack of it) to support projects affected by discontinued funding since the decision was made in December. The reports will also analyse the funding spend to determine whether or not North West has been impacted more severely than other localities.
While it’s important that lessons are learned for the future, this action won’t help those projects who need support NOW, though: the Localities committee doesn’t meet again until 28th March – by which time projects will have had to issue redundancy notices to staff and, in some cases, look at closing projects down. Continue reading “You might as well build an abbattoir at the top of Pennywell Road: we’re being put to the sword”
Chaos, confusion and Uncertainty: Troubles at home – but First Minister flies the flag in the US and Canada
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon will today outline her position on Brexit and Scotland’s future as she addresses an audience at Georgetown University in Washington DC at the start of her visit to the United States and Canada. Continue reading UK “not remotely ready for Brexit”, says Sturgeon
Students and young professionals join to shine spotlight on cyber security
Students and young professionals will get the chance to test their cyber skills when a leading industry event returns to Edinburgh next month. Continue reading Edinburgh Napier: Le Tour de Hack cyber event is coming to town
Back this week: Wednesday Cooking Club
A Scottish firefighter is preparing to run his first ever marathon and admits the prospect “gi’es him the fear!” Continue reading Firefighter ready to run his first marathon to raise money for charity
Young people from across Scotland are being asked to send a letter to the Scottish Parliament setting out their hopes and aspirations for the institution over the next 20 years. Continue reading Young people invited to set out their future hopes for the Scottish Parliament
Wednesday 13th February from 12 – 2pm at The Prentice Centre
ScottishPower is launching an exclusive new tariff aimed at electric vehicle owners that allows users to access discounted charging during off peak hours, taking advantage of cheaper electricity rates through their smart meter for the first time. Continue reading Electric vehicle drivers can charge for up to TEN TIMES LESS than the cost of petrol
