Local organisations have put together a booklet listing mental health & wellbeing support services in North Edinburgh (see below).
If you need support call the new Community Wellbeing Helpline on 0131 332 8773.
The public are being encouraged to shop local as retail businesses across the country prepare to re-open this morning.
Under the move to phase two of the Scottish Government’s route map out of lockdown street-access retail can now re-open once guidance is implemented.
Today also marks the easing of restrictions on housing moves, outdoor markets, the construction sector, factories, warehouses and labs and research facilities.
Retail is an essential part of Scotland’s communities and is one of the country’s largest employers.
The re-opening is underpinned by a new Scottish Government campaign to ensure shopping is safe.
The national campaign, which includes posters for retailers, encourages the public to enjoy shopping again as they safely support businesses in their local area.
It asks shoppers to pay attention to signs, guidance and instructions from shop staff, to shop outside of peak hours and to follow current health guidance. This includes the wearing of face coverings.
Economy Secretary Fiona Hyslop said: “The progress made in tackling COVID-19 because of compliance of the public with lockdown rules means we are now in a position to ease some restrictions.
“Shops with street access in high streets across the country will be re-opening from today in a significant step towards the recovery of our economy, which has been very severely hit by coronavirus.
“High street retailers have shown huge resilience since the start of lockdown and the work they have done to safely prepare for re-opening, with close engagement between industry and trade unions, has been very welcome.
“As the high street re-opens we are making it clear shoppers are welcome back to their local high street as long as they shop safely and observe key safety messages such as the wearing of face coverings.”
Scotland Policy Chair for the Federation of Small Businesses Andrew McRae, said: “We all have a part to play in breathing life back into our high streets and town centres. Local independent retailers have had a very long, tough few months and they need the public’s support now more than ever.
“We know that money spent locally stays in the local community – and local communities can’t recover unless local economies do so too.”
David Lonsdale, director of the Scottish Retail Consortium, said: “The last fourteen weeks have been very challenging for retailers. Lockdown has forced them to rely on their limited reserves of cash and short term financial support, including the Scottish Government’s grants and rates relief, to survive.
“Being able to reopen today is a chance for those businesses to recover, and hopefully thrive.
“In preparation shop owners have put in an immense effort to take every step possible to be ready to safely open and our hope is customers will come out and support their local town centre and high street.”
I’m writing to you today to update you on the range of ways we are helping to get food and essential items to those who need them most (writes Sainsburys Chief Executive MIKE COUPE).
We continue to prioritise elderly and vulnerable customers for online delivery and have offered over 725,000 elderly and vulnerable people access to slots so far. We identified 450,000 of these customers based on our own data and from customers registering with us.
We have also been able to match over 275,000 additional customers in England, Scotland and Wales based on government data and we are contacting these customers to arrange priority home delivery.
We will be in touch with more customers based on the database we receive from Northern Ireland as soon as we can. For vulnerable customers who have been offered a slot and are unable to place their order online, we offer a telephone ordering service and we now have five times the number of colleagues on hand to help with this.
As we do our best to keep our colleagues and our customers safe, we have had to temporarily change some of our processes.
To help our colleagues socially distance, we are no longer asking them to accept unwanted substitutions or to process refunds on your doorstep. If you do not want the substitutions, then you need to call us to let us know and we will process the refund for you.
This is only temporary and we are working on a digital process to make this quicker and smoother. I apologise for the inconvenience in the meantime and I’ll write again to let you know when the new process is up and running.
As I’m sure you can appreciate, our online home delivery and click & collect services are in more demand than ever before.
We are increasing our capacity as much and as quickly as we can and by the end of the month we aim to offer 600,000 online slots per week. We are doing our best to add more slots and will keep going with this but it’s important that I highlight that there is far more demand for these slots at the moment than we can ever satisfy. I have therefore included below a full list of other ways to access food and other essential items.
We are doing our best to reduce queuing times both inside and outside our stores.
To help with this, we have been extending our opening hours. By Monday the vast majority of our supermarkets will be open from 08.00-22.00. We are installing perspex safety screens in our petrol filling station stores and these will start to re-open from next week.
We are also extending opening hours in many Convenience stores to 10pm or 11pm. You can check the latest opening hours in your area before shopping here.
To help with queuing inside stores, we are installing additional protective screens between manned checkouts.
These screens will help keep our colleagues and customers safe and will mean we can open far more manned checkouts in the stores that have them. We are installing them in over 150 stores over the next week or two and I will keep you updated on this and other steps we are taking to help make your shopping trip quicker and easier.
For elderly and vulnerable customers, we offer dedicated shopping hours between 08.00 and 09.00 every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. And NHS and social care workers can shop in our supermarkets from 07.30 to 08.00 Monday to Saturday before they open.
We have also extended our partnership with WHSmith to provide easy access to food for NHS workers in 80 hospitals across the UK at a discounted rate.
We know that many of you are already shopping for friends, family and neighbours and we are very grateful to you for providing this community service. I mentioned in my last letter that we were launching a Volunteer Shopping Card to make it easier for people to shop for others and I am pleased to let you know that these are now available online.
For customers who are struggling to leave the house to get to the shops, we have also expanded our on-demand delivery service ChopChop to London zones 1 and 2. The service allows you to choose up to 20 of 400 grocery and essential items for home delivery within an hour. We’re looking at how we can bring this service to more people in more places across the country and I will keep you updated on progress.
Many of you have also written to ask me what additional steps we are taking to support the most vulnerable in our communities.
In addition to donating £3 million in cash to Fareshare to help to distribute food to food banks and other vulnerable communities across the UK, we are also supporting the government’s free school meal vouchers scheme, ensuring that children who qualify for free school meals can continue to access free meals while schools are closed.
Many of you are also helping us to make a real difference to communities across the UK by buying a copy of The Big Issue in stores and online. We are also supporting Comic Relief and the BBC on The Big Night In, which is raising money for people impacted by COVID-19. I hope lots of you will be able to join me in tuning in this Thursday at 7pm and donating in a range of ways if you can.
I know that most of you really appreciate the essential role that our colleagues are playing at the moment to keep the nation fed.
Our colleagues are working in really challenging circumstances, constantly trying to balance the need to serve our customers well, to keep shelves stocked and to help people get in and out of shops as quickly as possible.
We are also asking them to help us keep you safe. Unfortunately this means they will ask you to queue outside shops when they are busy. Please help us to make our colleagues’ jobs easier by showing them kindness and respect at all times.
Best wishes
Mike
Revised opening hours at Sainsburys from Monday
TODAY: PUBLIC INFORMATION DAY at CRAIGLEITH RETAIL PARK
Building work underway at the Western General Hospital will enhance the care and treatment of patients by providing high quality services in improved physical environments.
These are exciting times for the Western General’s patients and staff, but they also pose challenges, such as reduced on-site parking. We will continue to do all we can to keep disruption on the WGH site to a minimum. Continue reading Western General parking warning
SGN Network Upgrade – Possible Disruption Queensferry Road
SGN: Our work will start on Monday 16 September and last for approximately 13 weeks. 8am-4pm for traffic contra-flows.
Close the following roads to ensure everyone’s safety:
Orchard Road and Orchard Road South junction with Queensferry Road
Belford Avenue junction with Queensferry Terrace
Queensferry Terrace junction with Queensferry Road
Parking suspensions:
Full width of Queensferry Road between Queensferry Terrace and Orchard Road
Signed local diversion routes will be in place for motorists, commuters and access for local residents and businesses will be maintained where possible. We’ll also need to use temporary traffic lights during various stages of the project. These will be manually controlled during peak times to minimise disruption as much as possible.
Phases of this project have been planned to coincide with the autumn school holidays, and when traffic is likely to be quieter, ensuring disruption is kept to a minimum.
We’ll be working Monday to Friday between 8am – 4pm, and at weekends where required. We know that this is a busy area and wish to assure you that work will progress as quickly as possible and we’ll be doing everything we can to limit delays and disruption.
We will post regular updates on our website https://www.sgn.co.uk/our-gas-works/roadworks-your-area and using social media and traffic bulletins to keep everyone informed.
Please feel free to share this information with your stakeholders, colleagues and anyone else who may be impacted by our work. All local residents have been notified.
If you have any specific enquiries about this project, please call us on 0131 469 1728 during office hours (8am to 4.00pm) or 0800 912 1700 and our customer service team will be happy to help.
SGN used to be known as Scotland Gas Networks and Southern Gas Networks, but following a rebrand in 2014 is now just SGN.
Whether you love the Botanic Gardens or have never visited before, Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh would love to hear from you!
They’re looking to speak to local residents to hear what you think about the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh and chat about ideas for new opportunities which could take place as a result of the Edinburgh Biomes project. Continue reading Have your say on the future of the Botanic Gardens
As Channel 4’s Great British Bake Off gears up for another tense ten weeks in the tent, Home Store + More’s Craigleith store is hosting a series of FREE family friendly Bake Off-style workshops on Saturday 31st August. Continue reading Kick off the new Bake Off season with free workshops from Home Store + More
Retailer thanks local community for going the extra mile
To celebrate this year’s national Afternoon Tea Week, Home Store + More, Your Quality Homeware Specialist, is inviting members of the public to nominate people in their local community they think deserve a treat.
Nominations can be submitted for friends, family, work colleagues or local people who have gone the extra mile for their community. Winners will receive a £50 voucher to spend in Home Store + More’s Craigleith branch, along with a luxurious afternoon tea for two at The Waldorf Astoria (Caledonian) Hotel.
Rachael Neill, store manager at Home Store + More’s Craigleith branch, said: “There is a wonderful community spirit in our area with so many members of the community helping each other every day to make this a fantastic place to live and work.
“At Home Store + More, we want to give back to our local community and thank those who have gone above and beyond with a special celebration during Afternoon Tea Week.
“We will be encouraging our followers to nominate anyone they think deserves a treat. Winners will enjoy a relaxing and tasty afternoon of treats as well as a complimentary gift voucher to redeem in store.”
It’s quick and easy to nominate someone in your community who you think should enjoy a little indulgence. Simply find us on Facebook where nominations will open at 8am on Friday 9th August 2019 and close at 3pm on 12th August 2019 – that’s this afternoon!
With an array of baking, cake decorating and cookware supplies in store, Home Store + More has everything you need to host the perfect Afternoon Tea party.
Full competition details can be found on our Facebook site.
