Author: davepickering

Edinburgh reporter and photographer

Letter – Forgotten Estate?

Muirhouse and Pennywell will be regenerated as part of the council’s 21st Century Homes initiative, but Muirhouse resident Robert Pearson has written to the city council expressing concerns over the current state of the area:

I feel it necessary and appropriate to email you. I have lived in Muirhouse for eight years and have seen a steady decline in the area. Most recently the flats on Muirhouse Avenue were brought down to make way for the so called 21st century homes. No work has started since these flats where demolished months ago, instead you felt it necessary to plant some sort of wild flowers. These have never been maintained and as a direct result we now have a large open area which has now been taken over by weeds in excess of 4ft in height. If maintained correctly the area could be used by local children until such time the building work starts.

I made contact with my councillor regarding this matter but I feel I need to chase it up myself; I fail to understand why 21st century feel its appropriate to leave the area in such a mess. I know Muirhouse is not the most pleasant area but you’re certainly not helping.

There is a path which kids are expected to walk along to and from school which runs from Muirhouse Park to Muirhouse Avenue; this is overrun with weeds either side, flies, slugs and snails. Whilst I understand this can’t be totally prevented, this is something I would expect on a nature trail not on a walk way in the middle of a housing estate. So why is this happening, I ask? I’ll explain why: it’s because we have substantial amount of weeds either side.

I truly believe that we live in a forgotten estate, I think it would be beneficial for you to visit the area to understand my concerns. Simple resolution: cut the weeds down and a general clean up of area.

I am more than happy to meet up and discuss in person, I have photographic evidence if you require.

I await a prompt reply

Robert Pearson

 

Broughton welcomes Iraqi Youth Orchestra

Broughton High School welcomed the National Youth Orchestra of Iraq yesterday.

Tudor Morris, who is Director of The City of Edinburgh Music School based at Broughton, explained: “This is the orchestra’s first ever visit to the UK, where they are performing at the  Edinburgh Festival with Julian Lloyd Webber, Khyam Allami and players from the Edinburgh Youth Orchestra, conducted by Paul MacAlindin.

“The National Youth Orchestra of Iraq is a remarkable project set up by a brave 17-year-old Iraqi, Zuhal Sultan, just four years ago. Although many musicians had fled the country during the war, Zuhal was determined to create a national youth orchestra, which has since enjoyed great success in Iraq and abroad.

They were featured in a Channel 4 documentary last week and have been on several news programmes this week, and we are delighted to welcome them to Broughton.”

The Iraqis are spending three weeks working with the Edinburgh Youth Orchestra
before the 26 August concert at Greyfriars Kirk. They will join cellist
Julian Lloyd Webber and their repertoire will include a concerto by Scottish composer Gordon McPherson.

Find out more at www.nyoiraq.com.

 

Happy anniversary, State Street

It’s forty years since State Street moved to the UK, and the corporation’s 750 Edinburgh staff will celebrate at Crewe Toll today with a giant barbecue attended by Olympic silver medallist Roger Black.

Sate Street purchased Deutsche Bank’s securities division and moved into the 146,000 sq. ft. Crewe Toll complex in 2003, and since then the banking giant has played a significant role in supporting local community initiatives, both through staff volunteering and through the organisation’s Foundation Community Support programme.

Among the many local organisations with particular reason to wish their Crewe Toll neighbours a happy birthday are Stepping Stones, North Edinburgh Childcare, Oaklands School, PROP Stress Centre, Drylaw Rainbow Club and Craigroyston Community High School – and there are more.

Speaking ahead of today’s celebrations (fingers crossed for a little sunshine!) State Street’s senior vice-president Jeanette Patrizio said: “This is a time to feel a little more optimistic, and to share that with people. It is up to us as business leaders to remind people that it is not all doom and gloom.”

Forth Neighbourhood Partnership meets on Tuesday

Forth Neighbourhood Partnership’s next public meeting will be held on Tuesday 21 August from 7 – 9pm in Craigroyston Community High School, Pennywell Road.

The Total Craigroyston initiative will be the main agenda item.

For further information visit the website www.edinburghnp.org.uk/neighbourhood-partnerships/forth or telephone 529 5082. All welcome.

Teenager stabbed in Trinity

A teenager was stabbed as thieves robbed two friends in Trinity last night.

The 16-year-old victims were walking under East Trinity Road, near Bangholm Recreation Grounds at around 9pm when they approached by two men. One of the thieves, described as 18 to 19 years old with a local accent, was carrying a knife and demanded the girl and boy hand over their belongings.

One of the vivtims was stabbed as the thieves made off with a phone and a handbag containing an iPod, purse and other personal belongings.

Lothian and Borders Police are appealing for witnesses to come forward.

Both of the suspects are described as white males, aged between 18 and 19 years old and had Edinburgh accents. One is thought to be about 5’9″ tall and of a slim build with short dark hair. He was wearing a dark or black-coloured hooded top. The other suspect thouoght to be 5’8″ tall, with short blond or fair hair. He was wearing a light-coloured hooded top.

Anyone with information about the incident is asked to contact Lothian and Borders Police on 0131 311 3131 or call Crimestoppers in confidence on 0800 555 111.

Total Craigroyston – update

Manager Christine Mackay gives an update on the Total Craigroyston initiative:

Consultation meeting at West Pilton Neighbourhood Centre

I hope you have all had a good summer in spite of the dreary weather.

Many thanks to all of you who contributed to our consultation events. In total, 215 local residents and front line staff, from 37 different teams and organisations were involved in nine events.

We had expected to be ready to share the outcome with you earlier in August but in the end, processing all the information we received took longer than we thought. However, we now have a draft ‘Road Map’, which will set the direction for the Total Craigroyston Initiative. The information and insights that we gathered have been grouped into themes and we have identified a range of short and long term actions that we would like to achieve over the life of the initiative.

What is obvious is that there is a real strength within the community and a desire to build on the good work that is already going on. Of course, some challenges were identified and we hope that we can make progress on these in order to achieve the kinds of changes that people would like to see.

We have organised a range of meetings to present the findings of the research back to people who were involved and other stakeholders.

The meetings will take place on the following dates:

Tuesday 4 September at 2pm in West Pilton Neighbourhood Centre

Wednesday  5 September at 7pm in Craigroyston Community High School

Thursday 6 September at 10am in North Edinburgh Arts Centre.

Everyone is welcome but please book a place by contacting Julie Innes by telephone on 469 3162 or by email on julie.innes@edinburgh.gov.uk. Childcare can be arranged for those who need it. Please let Julie know when you book a place.

The draft Road Map will be available on Monday 20 August from the Total Craigroyston Blog at totalcraigroyston.wordpress.com and if you have any comments or observations please let us know.

As well as the meetings above, there will be a short presentation to the Forth Neighbourhood Partnership on Tuesday 21 Aug at 7pm, which is open to everyone.

Two Play Out days were organised by Total Craigroyston

Letter – Stairwell fire

Dear Editor

You might be aware of the fire that took place on Tuesday (14 August)  in the back stairwell of the middle block of houses in Royston; a stairwell I may add that is populated by families with small children – we can all just be grateful that it happened during the day and was spotted and contained.

Although I am not aware of how the fire started it would have required materials for it to get going.

Last year I complained to the Edinburgh North office of how a culture of tipping and the accumulation of materials was taking over the back gardens of Royston and it would not be a leap to surmise that the stairwells might be affected by this culture of people getting rid of an excess of materials from their houses into the bottom of stairwells.

Given the demographic of people in the Royston area there will be people who can not afford for items to be uplifted by the council or hire vans to take them away or have no cultural awareness of the etiquette of living in a communal stair in a city.

It would be interesting for someone in the council to do the arithmetic on how much it takes to do a free uplift compared to how much it is going to cost to fix a back stairwell that has been fire damaged? Or how much it takes to fix the problem of a culture of fly tipping taking over?

Maybe some sort of inspection of the state of the stairwells is required throughout that area to asses the potential to prevent any future incidents like this happening again.

I make this suggestion as it would appear by the nature of the questions asked by the police officer who knocked on my door and the neighbours’ doors that the police are looking for someone who was seen running from the scene at the back of the gardens shortly after the fire was started.

Secondly there is now a culture of people smoking at their back stairwell doors in the last few years and if they are not extinguishing cigarettes properly there is the potential for more fires as well if people are storing or tipping materials.

 

Padraig O’Neill

Pilton Drive North

 

Royston Wardieburn women go global!

WIG (Women’s International Group) is a new group for local women interested in issues affecting women. The group was established in March this year after a successful event organised by local women to celebrate International Womens’ Day.

Since then the group has organised a number of local events including a hustings before the Council elections in May, a public meeting on housing issues and a film show. The group meets every second Thursday from 1.30 – 3pm in Royston Wardieburn Community Centre on Pilton Drive North.

First meeting this term will be on Thursday 6 September – new members welcome. For more information, contact CLD worker Lynn McCabe on 552 5700 or email Lynn at lynn.mccabe@ea.edin.sch.uk.