Karen Bates made a disturbing discovery at Granton breakwater yesterday …
In contrast to the positivity of wild swimmers at Granton Harbour, we have, in the B listed WWII outposts on the Eastern Breakwater, a pop-up toilet & skip decorated with hostile, racist graffiti.
It can’t be the responsibility of #volunteers to clean up this health hazard. These structures now belong to Granton Central Developments Ltd, bought from Forth Ports.
They either need to be preserved & enhanced as historic buildings, or at least cleaned up so that the many fishers & walkers who enjoy this amazing place, can have a healthy shelter.
I didn’t want to hang around in the stench of urine to read all the #graffiti, but the photos speak for themselves.
Fascist graffiti at Granton Breakwater?! It MUST go. Utterly unacceptable, as are the piles of beer cans, #plasticbottles & fishing litter that strangle our #sealife.
The Council could perhaps put pressure on Granton Central Developments Ltd to maintain their property in a way that is even vaguely in accordance with acceptable standards for a public place, enjoyed by the many.
KAREN BATES,
Wardie Bay Beachwatch
Graffiti comments include “Gas them”, “Kill Poles”, “Hitler was right”, “Polish c**** and more of the same.
Karen has contacted the relevant authorities. Here’s hoping for prompt action – Editor.
Keep Safe is an award winning initiative developed in partnership with Police Scotland and I Am Me Scotland.
The initiative works with a network of local businesses to create ‘Keep Safe’ places in the community for anyone feeling lost, frightened or who has been a victim of crime. Keep Safe staff are trained to offer assistance if required.
What is the aim of the initiative?
The initiative aims to ensure that people feel safe when participating in community life. Many people can feel scared, frightened or vulnerable when out in the community and this can in many cases lead to social isolation.
Keep Safe aims to offer a network of safe places to help encourage people to participate in daily community life free from the fear of harassment and abuse.
Sometimes due to disability or age related illness, people can easily become disorientated, lost or become confused, especially in and around unfamiliar surroundings. Keep Safe can offer a reassurance that there is somewhere people can seek assistance if required.
What is the Keep Safe Card?
Keep Safe cards are available for elderly, disabled and vulnerable people. The cards detail information such as communication requirements, health concerns and who to contact in the event of an emergency.
The cards are particularly useful for people who have a learning disability or have dementia/Alzheimer’s.
How can a business become a Keep Safe place?
If a business wants to become a Keep Safe place, they can either contact their local Police Office directly to ask if they are supporting the initiative or they can contact I Am Me project on iammeproject@yahoo.co.uk.
What is involved?
If a business wants to become Keep Safe, a criteria form is completed and sent to Police Scotland to check that the premises are suitable to become Keep Safe. If approved, a training date will be arranged.
This can be tailored to suit each business and can be anything from 20 minutes to 2 hours depending on what the business would like delivered.
When staff training is complete, the Keep Safe sticker will be displayed in the window and the business will be advertised on I Am Me Scotland webpage and the new Keep Safe App.
A business pack is left with each Keep Safe place to ensure that any new staff can be made aware of the initiative.
What is the Keep Safe App?
A phone app called ‘Keep Safe Scotland’ has been developed and is available to download. The app maps out all Keep Safe places across Scotland and can help people to plan routes, highlighting Keep Safe places along the route.
The app also enables people to report hate crimes directly to the Police if they have been a victim or have witnessed an incident.
There is no cost for participating businesses and all resources for the initiative are provided free from iammeproject@yahoo.co.uk.
Are there any restrictions?
A criteria form must be completed and all new Keep Safe places must be approved by Police Scotland. This is to ensure that Keep Safe places are safe and accessible places for people to seek assistance.
The Keep Safe premises information must be sent to the I Am Me project to ensure that there is a national database of Keep Safe places and that all Keep Safe places can be identified on the phone app.
The Keep Safe logo and resources must remain unchanged as this will ensure recognition when people are travelling across local authority boundaries. Local information and advertising can be inserted into the business packs, if required.
What is I Am Me?
I Am Me Scotland is a community based charity based in Renfrewshire. The Charity works with Police Scotland and Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Office to raise awareness of disability hate crime.
Although the focus of the charity and the training resources is Disability, Keep Safe has been designed and developed to support any person who may require support and assistance when out in the community.
Transport and Environment Convener, Councillor Lesley Macinnes, writes in The Scotsman on the need for radical thinking to create a city fit for the future:
There is little doubt that the time is now for widespread, ambitious change if we are to create a truly liveable city worthy of future generations.
Our population is projected to rocket over the next 20 years, while we face a significant challenge in terms of congestion and air quality – it’s abundantly clear that we must build resilience to these pressures, and to do so we need to think radically.
Last week we cemented our commitment to do so when members of the Transport and Environment Committee moved forward two game-changing reports focusing on the transformation of our city centre and proposals to bring the tram to Newhaven.
This is about much more than solutions for traffic management or congestion though. We see the development of modern, inclusive and efficient transport infrastructure as an enabler for improving communities. By putting people at the heart of placemaking, we want to drive sustainable, economic growth while creating a better environment to walk, play and live in.
It’s extremely important that we bring the people of Edinburgh with us as we progress this vision. That’s why I’m delighted by the immense response to our major Edinburgh: connecting our city, transforming our places consultation, which engaged more than 5000 people and gathered a huge amount of valuable feedback.
What was apparent from the thousands of comments was that people really want to see change happen – 88% to be precise. And not piecemeal, gradual change – more than half of participants told us that they wanted a radical approach to deliver a more liveable city, fit for the future.
Recent artist’s impressions of a pedestrianised Cowgate or scaled-back traffic on Lothian Road are not only eye-catching but they’re helping us to explore how a combination of different measures, based on feedback and research, could help us achieve this desired change. These aren’t proposals yet – they’re scenarios, visualisations of what our World Heritage Site could be, created as part of our ambitious Edinburgh City Centre Transformation (ECCT) project.
ECCT will take a strategic approach to how the city centre is managed, with the aim of creating a more vibrant, people-focussed Capital through a range of ‘interventions’. Our project team has undertaken an enormous amount of work to identify emerging principles and potential actions for achieving this, and last week committee heard about types of changes that could enable a smarter, fairer and transformed city.
In doing this we have looked to place-making best practise in forward-thinking cities around the world. We want to lead the way when it comes to sustainable transport and inclusive design but it’s worth noting that many of the kinds of innovations we’re looking at have already been seen internationally – with great success.
Just last month I accompanied Daisy Narayanan, ECCT Project Director, when she delivered a key speech on our plans to the Smart Sustainable Cities Workshop in Madrid, an extremely beneficial experience. Not only did we gain a great deal from engaging with an international contingent on the topic of delivering smart, low carbon and healthy travel, but we were heartened by the passionate response to our own aspirations. People from around the globe are really beginning to sit up and take notice.
One of the areas in which we are leading the way, in the UK at least, is in the introduction of Open Streets, which will see vehicle-free days in key parts of the city centre every month.
In line with our desires for ECCT, these events will return our streets to the people, encouraging community interaction, activity and an appreciation of our beautiful historic backdrop. It’s already attracting interest from authorities around the country, and will help us to better understand how new approaches to pedestrianisation and traffic can impact the city.
Physical transformation is just one piece of the jigsaw – our co-ordinated approach will only improve community, economic and cultural life if it is aligned with planning, housing, economy and the range of other services we manage.
Key to this is our commitment to introduce an LEZ in Edinburgh, something which three quarters of respondents to our consultation support, and we are making great strides to develop proposals. As part of our broader work to improve air quality, including an ambitious electric vehicle action plan, an LEZ will control the effects of the most polluting vehicles, which have been proven to have a detrimental impact on our health and the environment.
Many of the issues described – an increasing population, issues transporting people from A to B, the need to drive economic vibrancy – can be seen clearly in Leith. Therefore it makes absolute sense that we should bring the tram to Newhaven, and I’m pleased that, following the first public debate on the Final Business Case, committee voted to bring it to Council for the final decision. This will be pivotal to our overall ambition to create a greener, more liveable city, and I sincerely hope fellow elected members recognise this when we come to make the decision this summer.
Ultimately, no growing city can expect that the status quo should last forever. Over the years we’ve seen major evolution in the way city centres operate around the world, from Copenhagen to Barcelona or Amsterdam, and now it’s our turn. This is very much an ongoing discussion, but I have every confidence that we are moving in the right direction towards making Edinburgh the innovative, inclusive and economically viable city it deserves to be.
Edinburgh College recently welcomed a group of Japanese students to the Scottish capital for a study visit focused on Airline Operations.
The group of ten students, most of whom are hoping to forge careers in the airline industry, were in Edinburgh for four weeks undertaking a bespoke course that combined English Language and Airline Operations.
While the English Language classes took place at the College’s Sighthill campus and included specific sessions aimed at improving English in a tourism context, the practical Airline Operations classes, which included sessions on ground operations, cabin crew, and customer care, were delivered at Granton campus, where the group made use of the airline cabin facility to hone their skills.
The students also visited Edinburgh Airport to get a first-hand look at what it’s like to work in a large international airport.
In addition, the group took part in a social programme organised by Edinburgh College, which included visits to Edinburgh Castle, Holyrood Palace, the National Museum of Scotland, the Camera Obscura, the Royal Yacht Britannia and a traditional Scottish ceilidh, as well as trips further afield to St Andrews, the Kelpies, Callander, Loch Katrine and the Museum of Flight.
The group, who attend the Immaculate Heart College in Kagoshima, Southern Japan, stayed with local homestay families during their time in the capital.
International business manager Sarah Gore said: “It was great to welcome students from the Kagoshima Immaculate Heart College to Edinburgh College for this course.
“The group brought a huge amount of energy and enthusiasm to their classes and also made the most of their time in Scotland. I’d like to wish the group all the best for the future and we look forward to continuing our partnership with the Immaculate Heart College in the years to come.”
Miharu Nagasaki said: “I really enjoyed staying in Scotland. I love Scottish people, food and ceilidh dancing. We went to three ceilidhs! The College was really great too and I liked the teachers very much. Our course was so amazing and when I go back to Japan I think I can use what I learnt here in my career.
“I also loved getting to know the host family I was staying with. We went to Loch Ness together and it rained a lot, but it was so beautiful and a great experience. I definitely want to come back to Scotland again!”
