Substance use in North Edinburgh is the main theme of next week’s Forth & Inverleith Voluntary Sector Forum meeting, which will take place at 10am on Wednesday 23 October at North Edinburgh Arts.
The meeting offers an opportunity to hear from the organisations who work in this field and learn how your organisation can work more closely with them. Substances use impacts not just on the user but on families and the wider community too, so all local voluntary and community organisations are invited to join in the discussion.
For further information call EVOC’s Neighbourhood Partnership Development Officer Kate Kasprowicz on 555 9100 or email kate.kasprowicz@evoc.org.uk
NHS Lothian is looking for children, young people and parents to give their views on the services it will provide for children and young people from now until 2020.
A public consultation on the organisation’s draft strategy, ‘Improving the Health and Wellbeing of Lothian’s Children and Young People’, is now underway and will run until 17 January 2014.
The consultation documents and a short questionnaire are available on the NHS Lothian website and have also been sent to the four local authorities and to voluntary organisations that work with children and young people.
NHS Lothian’s vision is that every child should have the best start in life and grow up being healthy, confident and resilient.
The draft strategy and approach has considered the changes that may be made to services in anticipation of the Children and Young People (Scotland) Bill coming into effect and should allow the Board to respond to this while maintaining high quality healthcare services for children and young people.
The priorities identified in the strategy include a focus on prevention, more integrated working across services and the building of a high quality replacement for the Royal Hospital for Sick Children.
Sally Egan, Associate Director and Child Health Commissioner, NHS Lothian said: “We provide a wide range of services for children and young people, from conception through the life stages, helping them grow up to become confident healthy people. For those young people that need ongoing specialist help we need to ensure a smooth transition to adult services.
“We want to make sure that our vision and outcomes for the next six years fit with those of the Scottish Government’s 20:20 Vision and are areas the people of Lothian want to see us focusing investment and resources on. I hope people take this opportunity to give us their views.”
Mark Lazarowicz MP put down a Parliamentary motion, an ‘Early Day Motion’, last week to congratulate Edinburgh’s Professor Peter Higgs on the award of this year’s Nobel Prize for Physics. Among those supporting the North and Leith MP’s motion were fellow Edinburgh MPs Alistair Darling and Mike Crockart.
Professor Peter Higgs, who is now Emeritus Professor of Theoretical Physics at the University of Edinburgh, was awarded the prize in recognition of his theoretical discovery of the origins of mass of the fundamental particles that make up the world. His theoretical work first published in 1964 was confirmed in July 2012 – almost half a century later – by the Hadron Collider based in Switzerland showing just how groundbreaking his work was.
A shy and modest man, Professor Higgs shares the prize with a Belgian physicist,François Englert, who also published on the same subject in the summer of 1964.
Mark Lazarowicz said: “Professor Higgs’ achievement has at last received the long awaited recognition of the award of the Nobel Prize, and as the MP for the constituency where Professor Higgs lives I wanted to make sure that achievement and award was marked by Parliament also.”
Professor Higgs has announced that he will formally retire next year, when he is 85.
Local people wishing to vote in three city Community Council elections will be able to do so online for the first time.
Following the closure of the nomination period, there were more prospective community councillors than there were places available in three areas – Craigmillar, Liberton & District and Portobello – so elections are now taking place, and for the first time an online option has been introduced making it easier for more people to take part. Votes can now be registered securely over a special website until the voting period closes at 8pm on 24 October.
All voters on the electoral roll in the three areas are being given the opportunity to vote over the internet, or they can attend a polling place on the 24 October to vote in person if they would prefer. Postal votes are also available for residents who prefer this option.
Councillor Maureen Child, Convener of the Communities and Neighbourhood Committee, said: “Our aim is to deliver democratic processes that people can take part in and trust. To offer a range of options for voting, including online voting, we hope to make it easier for people to have a say and that can only be a good thing for local communities. We hope that by offering flexible ways to vote that it will attract even more interest in these elections.
“Community Councils are an ideal way to support communities to thrive, to allow people from all backgrounds to meet and share ideas and to make change happen. They are a fantastic way of making public sector agencies aware of the needs of local areas, and can really help to make changes for the better.”
Community Councils each receive a grant to cover running costs and training is available for the members. They are represented on each of the city’s 12 Neighbourhood Partnerships and work alongside elected members, representatives from NHS Lothian, Police Scotland, the voluntary sector and Scottish Fire and Rescue Service.
Community councils were first established in Edinburgh in 1980 and now more than 500 people are members of 41 community councils across the city. While elections are needed in three neighbourhoods, however, other areas are still looking for local people to make up their full complement of community councillors. Nominations are currently being sought for new members of the Gilmerton/Inch Community Council, and Drylaw Telford – one of the city’s original community councils – is one of a number of community councils with vacant positions.
“Following the nomination period we have five vacancies so we are very keen to encourage residents – old and new – to get involved”, said Alex Dale, chairman of Drylaw Telford. “Anyone interested in find out a bit about what we do should check out our website, or better still come along to our next regular monthly meeting on Wednesday 30 October at 7pm in Drylaw Neighbourhood Centre. Our meetings are always open to the public and It would be great to sign up some enthusiastic new members.”
Alex Dale (left) with former DTCC chair Mike Clark
The combination of a quality spacious apartment, coupled with a very competitive price tag at Miller homes’ Varcity North development has proved to be a game changer for First Time Buyers looking to get a foot on the property ladder in Edinburgh.
The recent announcement that the Scottish Government has introduced Help to Buy (Scotland) is already attracting more first time buyers in to view and with over 75% of the current Belford campus now sold, buyers will need to move quickly to secure one of the remaining apartments.
Varcity North is a contemporary development offering 209 one, two and three bedroom apartments across five campuses off Crewe Road North.
Combining functionality and style, the apartments offer a good-sized open-plan lounge and dining area, together with a substantial master bedroom, creating a sense of space throughout, and with prices starting from £99,000 for a one bedroom apartment, Varcity North is fast creating a thriving Edinburgh community.
Anne Marie Britton, Sales Director for Miller Homes Scotland East said: “We are delighted that first time buyers are attracted to the quality, value and affordability at Varcity North. The spacious apartments offer an excellent opportunity for first time buyers to get onto the property ladder at a time when stability is starting to return to the market in Edinburgh. Varcity North is proving to be a popular destination for savvy house-hunters.”
For more information, go towww.millerhomes.co.uk or call 0808 250 6468. The sales centre is open Thursday to Monday from 11am to 6pm.
Househunters can also logon via the Miller Homes’ website to book an appointment with an adviser at the development.
Thinking of building a bonfire? The simple advice from the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service is: DON’T!
It is much safer to attend an organised public display.
Fire crews in Scotland are up to four times busier on 5 November than any other night of the year. Wasting time and resources attending unsafe or uncontrolled bonfires could mean a critical delay in local fire crews attending a real life threatening emergency.
Within neighbourhoods affected by deliberate fire setting and fire vandalism at this or any other time of year, the public safety message is that fire setting is an offence: don’t accept it, report it.
The public are requested to pass on any information about who may be responsible for fire setting and fire vandalism to Police Scotland using the 101 non-emergency number or Scotland Crimestoppers 0800 555 111.
The firework safety message to teachers, parents and young people is that fireworks are dangerous explosives that must be purchased and handled by adults. It is an offence for young people to purchase, be in possession of or set off fireworks.
A £125,000 investment by the City of Edinburgh Council is to make swimming more accessible and more affordable for hundreds of young children and families across the Capital. A range of measures will be introduced over the next two years that will increase swimming provision and access to pools and schools for those who need it most – with free swimming for primary school children during the October school holidays!
The programme involves a ‘raft’ of measures including:
· free swimming during school holidays,
· top up swimming classes for P2-3 pupils,
· free family splash time sessions
· swimming classes for women and children from BME communities.
Councillor Richard Lewis, the city’s Culture and Sport Convener, said: “Swimming is a fantastic activity that is not only fun but keeps you fit and healthy too. The purpose behind providing a free programme of swimming is to open up our pool facilities to those that may never have tried swimming before or to encourage parents to take their children along for a fun family swim.
“We’ve worked closely with our partners in Edinburgh Leisure and sportscotland to produce a programme that specifically targets children and adults who need support the most and also benefits the most number of people for the money available. It builds on what was proposed by Splashback and, I believe, goes even further to ensure that children from all over the city have the opportunity both to learn to swim and enjoy it at the same time.”
Between Saturday 12 October and Monday 21 October, free swimming for primary school children will be available between 12-4pm in four city pools every day during the school holidays (with some exceptions – see Edinburgh Leisure website and Wester Hailes Education Centre websitefor details). The pools are Leith Victoria Swim Centre, Gracemount Leisure Centre, Dalry Swim Centre and Wester Hailes Education Centre.
These free swim session for juniors will be repeated during school holidays until April 2015 and will also include the pool at Ainslie Park Leisure Centre when it reopens after rfurbishment and upgrading later this month.
Further to this, from January, the Council will also provide additional swimming lessons for P2/3 pupils in eighteen schools designated as ‘positive action’ schools (where over 40% of pupils are entitled to free school meals). These will be run with Edinburgh Leisure who will provide additional teaching support to help these children develop early aquatic skills, knowledge of pool safety, and in many cases, introduce them to swimming for the first time.
Also early next year the Council will launch a ‘Family Splash Time’ programme which will provide parents and their children with eight weeks of fun, two-hour, swim sessions funded as part of this investment.
The Council also proposes to extend the successful ‘Female Only Swim’ sessions held at Leith Victoria to other parts of the Capital next year. These sessions are targeted specifically at the BME community where cultural and religious barriers may prevent women from participating in swimming.
The £125,000 funding for accessible and affordable swimming was agreed by the Capital Coalition earlier this year in recognition of Splashback’s commitment to increasing swimming opportunities for young people.
Graeme Gardiner, Director of Operations at Edinburgh Leisure said: ‘We are delighted to be supporting this swimming initiative. We passionately believe in the positive impact that sport and physical activity can have on individuals and communities and we want to inspire everyone in the city to be more active and healthy. This swimming initiative provides a great way of encouraging people to get active and try out swimming.”
People in Leith will soon be asked by Leith Neighbourhood Partnership to decide how a pot of more than £20,000 in funding should be spent on projects that benefit their local community.
Now in its fourth year, £eith Decides, allows community groups to apply for grants of up to £1,000 each. Once the applications are in, local people are invited to vote on which projects they would most like to see receive the money. A special public event will take place in February, at which members of the public will get the chance to learn about applicants and their projects.
Previous successful applicants include Prospect Bank School Parents’ Association for an outdoor climbing frame, the Goosander Resident’s Association for a living garden, the Citadel Youth Centre for a young mums’ parenting course, and the North Edinburgh Dementia Care group, which ran podiatry sessions for older clients.
This year’s application period is now open and runs until November 8, when a Steering Group made up of local people will consider all applications to make sure that they meet the criteria – Advice is available on how to meet the criteria.
Councillor Maureen Child, Convener of the Communities and Neighbourhoods Committee at the City of Edinburgh Council, said: “£eith Decides has proven to be extremely popular, and many new applicants came forward last year. It was fantastic that so many worthwhile projects, all of which have made a difference to people, were given help in this way.
“The public event held as part of the process gave community groups the opportunity to raise awareness about their work too. Neighbourhood Partnership events like this are valued by people who welcome the opportunity to make decisions about the area in which they live.”
![Varcity North - living, dining, kitchen (approved)[144196]](https://i0.wp.com/nen.press/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/varcity-north-living-dining-kitchen-approved144196.jpg?ssl=1)
