Inverleith Young People’s Forum is starting up again and looking to recruit new members (see poster below).
Interested or like to find out more?
Contact Callum McLeod, Community Learning & Development Worker on 332 6316 or email Callum.mcleod@ea.edin.sch.uk
Debt counselling charity Christians Against Poverty (CAP) is launching its third Edinburgh debt help centre in Comely Bank next month.
CAP has partnered with St. Stephen’s Comely Bank Church (above) to extend its award-winning free service to those in need across the city. It joins two other busy centres at Central Church and Holy Trinity Wester Hailes, and brings the total number of CAP centres in Scotland to 22.
Manager of the new Edinburgh centre Claire Baggaley said: “The Church has always been about offering hope and we’re really pleased to be able to give more people a tried-and-tested route out of debt alongside other great free debt agencies in the area.”
“There is a lot in the Bible about looking after the poorest. In our society, a lot of poverty is debt-related so our congregation at St. Stephen’s Comely Bank Church has been working hard to open a CAP centre to help get people back on track.”
CAP offers a uniquely in-depth, caring service to people with spiralling personal debt regardless of their age, gender, faith or background. Every client is visited in their own home; the charity does all the negotiating with creditors and local volunteers offer support to each person face-to-face until the day they are debt free.
Statistics show that one in three callers seeking debt help are feeling suicidal but find huge relief through the non-judgemental service that treats every person as an individual.
The new service will be launched at St Stephen’s on Comely Bank Road on Thurday 10 September.
For debt help call 0800 328 0006 or visit capuk.org
Inverleith Neighbourhood Partnership Public Meeting
Monday 24 August 6.30 – 8.30pm, Stockbridge Library
The attached poster gives information about Monday’s public meeting which is focusing mainly on raising awareness of, and giving people a chance to have their say on, changes to the way Health and Social Care (HSC) Services in Edinburgh are provided.
An easy to read version of the consultation plan is available here https://consultationhub.
and the full documents can be seen here https://consultationhub.
All Welcome
Hundreds of primary school children will start learning in their new classrooms today as the city council continues to tackle the issue of rising school rolls. Local primaries Wardie and Flora Stevenson are among the schools to start the new school year with additional classrooms.
The Council has provided 24 new class spaces, delivered in conjunction with partners Hub South East Scotland Ltd and Morrison Construction, for the start of the 2015/16 school session.
The primary schools where the new class spaces have been provided are: James Gillespie’s (4 classes), Clermiston (4), Flora Stevenson (3), Gilmerton (4), Pentland (3), Ratho (4) and Wardie (2).
In addition South Morningside Primary School now has a significant new temporary annexe which has been created for P1 and P2 pupils at the former Deanbank Resource Centre and extra internal space has been provided at both Brunstfield and Liberton Primary Schools.
Since 2013 the Council has provided 70 new class spaces to accommodate the city’s increasing primary school population, ensuring catchment pupils can get a place at their catchment school. At the start of the 2014/15 school year there were 28,010 primary school pupils but latest estimates show this is anticipated to rise to 31,700 by 2020 and then increase further to 35,400 by 2030.
New classrooms or not, good luck to all the children starting their new school today!
Victory for community councils bus campaign
Local residents will be able to get a 42 bus to Craigleith Retail Park again from October. Lothian Buses have agreed to reinstate the service and support the alteration to the 42 route following a joint appeal by local community councils.
Drylaw Telford Community Council chairman Alex Dale, who coordinated the campaign, said local residents will be delighted to hear the news. “The 42 service into the Retail Park has been missed and I’m often being asked: ‘when are we getting our bus back?’ It’s taken a while but it’s great to be able to tell people that the service is to be reinstated from the beginning of October. It’s good news and I hope local people will take the opportunity to use the service.”
Drylaw Telford CC joined forces with Stockbridge Inverleith, Blackhall Craigleith and Muirhouse Salvesen community councils to petition for the return of the service back in March, and Alex received confirmation from Lothian Buses earlier this week that the 42 will return to the local Retail Park this autumn.
The service was withdrawn because traffic problems around the shopping centre caused delays and disruption to the timetable, but it’s hoped that improvements to traffic signalling will reduce excessive delays.
A spokesperson for Lothian Buses confirmed that the 42 bus service will return to Craigleith Shopping Centre from 4 October on Monday – Fridays as a trial.
Follow-up inspection finds there’s still room for improvement at Western General
The Healthcare Environment Inspectorate (HEI) has published its report following an unannounced follow-up inspection visit to the Western General Hospital on Tuesday 26 and Wednesday 27 May – and further improvement is required before the local hospital can be given a clean bill of health.
HEI, part of Healthcare Improvement Scotland, was set up to help reduce healthcare associated infection risk to patients through a rigorous inspection framework.
The HEI inspection team examined NHS Lothian’s self-assessment information and then inspected the hospital to validate this information, meet patients and staff, and visit wards and departments to assess how clean the hospital was and if it was meeting national standards.
This follow-up report should be read along with the previous report produced last November, as May’s inspection follows up on the requirements made at that inspection. (See NEN blog post 26 January ‘Simply Unacceptable’).
Inspectors found that the NHS board has met six of the requirements made at the previous inspection in November last year, and partially met two other requirements.
This latest inspection resulted in no new requirements or recommendations.
Jacqui Macrae, HEI’s Head of Quality of Care, said: “Our inspectors found that NHS Lothian has met six of the eight requirements we made in our previous inspection. Progress has been made in addressing the remaining two requirements but these have only been partially met.
“As a result, NHS Lothian must take further action to maintain a clean environment in the acute receiving admissions unit. It must also ensure that a consistent system is in place to check all mattresses across all wards and departments.
These requirements will be carried forward to the next inspection and we expect NHS Lothian to address these areas as a matter of priority.”
The full HEI inspection report can be found at: http://www.
We’re just one week into the school holidays – only SIX weeks to go! See below for a list of what’s available locally to keep your little darlings amused …
Summer Programme 2015 All in One
Operation RAC: Crime crackdown continues
Police have arrested and charged a 25-year-old local man following a number of thefts and housebreakings in north Edinburgh. The arrest follows the arrest of two others in connection with drugs offences in West Pilton earlier this week.
On Wednesday, officers executed a search warrant at a property on Ferry Road Drive following intelligence received from the public. Various stolen items were recovered and officers are currently conducting enquiries to reunite the stolen goods with their rightful owners.
The man was subsequently arrested and charged for housebreakings to business premises on Queensferry Road, Cheyne Street and Raeburn Place as well as an attempted break-in on Dean Street.
He was also charged in connection with the recovery of an abandoned Mercedes C-Class, which had previously been stolen alongside another vehicle from an address on Prospect Bank Road, and used in several business housebreakings in the Capital.
Superintendent Alan Porte said: “This arrest should reinforce that we will we act on any intelligence we receive and will pursue all possible lines of enquiry to bring perpetrators of housebreaking and vehicle crime to justice.
“The public can be assured that any information given to us will be treated with the utmost confidence, and used to keep our communities safe for everyone.”
The latest breakthrough follows the arrest of two men who were arrested under the Misuse of Drugs Act earlier this week, following the discovery of a significant quantity of Class B drugs in West Pilton.
Drugs Team officers executed search warrants at flats in West Pilton Drive and West Pilton Loan, where they found cannabis with a potential street value of approximately £90,000.
A total of 128 mature cannabis plants were found at a home on West Pilton Drive along with a further 15 vacuum sealed bags each containing 1oz of herbal cannabis and six 250g bags of herbal cannabis worth a potential street value of approximately £55,000. A 30-year-old has been reported to the Procurator Fiscal in connection with this incident and will appear in court at a later date.
Police Scotland officers also recovered 51 mature cannabis plants and 32 seedlings at an address on West Pilton Loan with a potential street value of approximately £35,000. A 20-year-old man was arrested on Wednesday and a report has been sent to the Procurator Fiscal.
Detective Inspector Stuart Harkness from the Gayfield CID Proactive Unit said “These searches removed a significant amount of illegal drugs from our streets and highlights that Police Scotland continues to tackle those involved in organised crime within the city.
“We will continue with a robust approach to tackle crime in the communities we police and I would appeal for the public to provide us with the information we need to disrupt those involved in criminality. This information may be provided to your community officers, through contacting police on 101 or alternatively in anonymity by contacting Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.”
Anyone with information can contact Police Scotland on 101 or contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
Think BIG. Think bold. Be creative. And there’s no such thing as a daft idea! That was the message to participants at an event held at Pilton Youth & Childrens Project last week – and the results of the day’s work will help to guide youth service provision across Forth Neighbourhood.
Organised by Forth Neighbourhood Partnership and Total Craigroyston, YouthTalk brought together young people from across Forth with community representatives and decision makers to discuss three key issues.
‘Positively Engaging Young People’ is one of Forth Neighbourhood Partnership’s main priorities and Convener Cllr Cammy Day explained to delegates: “We want young people’s views and aspirations to influence decisions that are taken locally and to listen to their suggestions about how things can be improved for them. We want them to have a real say in the future of this community and how it develops over the next ten or more years”.
A background report to aid discussion was prepared prior to the Youth Talk event. During the review young people across Forth were approached in schools, libraries, at youth groups, basically anywhere they assembled – and asked their opinions on the area. North Edinburgh Young Peoples Forum organised and conducted a survey in four local High Schools and the local Street Work team also gathered views: all told around 1400 young people gave their opinions on their local community -what they like, what they hate and what Forth needs to make it better for young people.
Assisted by motivational speaker Mike Stevenson from Thinktastic, Wednesday’s YouthTalk event saw young people and ‘seniors’ working together in small groups to discuss three ‘ideas’:
How do we involve more young people in positive activity?
How do we better promote the positive contribution our young people make in their community?
What should an ideal youth-friendly community look like – and how do we get there?
Once participants got into the swing of things, the conversation – and the ideas – began to flow. Some of the ideas generated – for example a common social media address for local youth groups to share information, and an annual celebration of young people’s achievements – proved very popular and could be acted on almost immediately. Others, however, may take longer – you did ask the young people to think BIG, Mike!
All of the ideas generated – big and small – will be recorded and a report of the YouthTalk event will be circulated in due course. It will make interesting reading!
And finally, thanks so much for the warm words and that round of applause for the NEN – it was really touching and much appreciated!
It’s here! Edinburgh’s community gardeners take centre stage this weekend as The Power of Food Festival takes place at venues and locations across the city.
For further info visit https://poweroffoodfestival.wordpress.com/
