The Community Chat Cafe invites you to share food, language and culture. Join us for our free, friendly, sociable lunches and practice your English – all welcome!
Wednesday 25 February
Wednesday 11 March
Wednesday 25 March
12.30 – 2pm at Pilton Community Health Project, Boswall Parkway
A creche is available but must be booked by calling Rachel: on 07891 525663 or Julie on 07958 540 438.
Community Chat Cafe is organised by the Living in Harmony Group and North Edinburgh Timebank
Edinburgh College has been shortlisted for three prestigious marketing awards, recognising achievements in marketing courses, catering for students’ needs and communicating with staff.
The College Development Network (CDN) Marketing Awards 2015 – which take place next Wednesday (25 February) – are designed to recognise and celebrate the excellent marketing and communication practice taking place in colleges across Scotland.
The college is shortlisted for the following awards:
Edinburgh College interim principal Elaine McMahon said: “Being shortlisted for these awards is a great achievement and our staff deserve huge congratulations. It’s fantastic to see the creative work put into supporting, encouraging and communicating with students and staff being recognised in this way.
“The Creative Industries Employability Day was a fine example of the focus college staff put upon preparing students for working life in a competitive market and was so successful that the event will run again in February.
“The nomination for the staff conference is a welcome credit for the work done to build a sense of community in the still newly merged Edinburgh College.
“It is also satisfying to see that the work of our marketing and communications staff to promote the range of courses on offer at the college has been recognised. Their hard work led to a highly successful open day and the college meeting student recruitment targets for the year.”
Last year, Edinburgh College achieved a silver award in the Internal Communications category and bronze in the Event category in the CDN Marketing Awards 2014.
Young people looking for their first job: Mark Lazarowicz MP calls on Government to offer support not stereotypes
Mark Lazarowicz MP is highlighting a new scheme run by the voluntary sector EY Foundation that will offer paid work experience, advice and support to young people in Edinburgh looking for their first job.
Youth unemployment (amongst 16-24 year-olds) is still running at 18.1% in Scotland and 16.9% in the UK as a whole. In Scotland it has increased by 4.5% since 2008.
The North and Leith MP is urging young people in Edinburgh to apply for the Foundation’s Smart Futures scheme, a ten-month paid work experience programme.
He said: “Schemes like Smart Futures and the City Council’s Edinburgh Guarantee are priceless opportunities for young people to get experience and the skills to succeed in finding their first job.
“Labour is committed to introducing a compulsory Jobs Guarantee that would ensure young people who are unemployed start gaining vital work experience and skills.
“Too often the Government resorts to negative stereotypes, talking of the well-worn path from school gate to Jobcentre and on to a life on benefits.
“The reality is that the vast majority of young people desperately want to work and are eager to apply for schemes like Smart Futures – the Government should learn from it and the Edinburgh Guarantee because too often it’s the Government that’s failing not young people.”
The scheme gives young people work experience and the chance to meet with people in business and get valuable tips on writing CVs, application and interview advice, as well as an EY Foundation mentor throughout Sixth Year.
The City Council’s Edinburgh Guarantee aims to ensure that every school leaver goes into employment, further education, or training by bringing them together with employers. There is more information on how it works at
https://www.edinburghguarantee.org/about-us/
Applications for the EY Foundation’s summer 2015 Smart Futures scheme are now open until 1 March 2015 and anyone keen to apply can find more information on it at http://ukcareerguide.ey.com/schools/ey-smart-futures
Teen Scream
Your local youth magazine
Graffiti & Art Workshops, Creative Writing, Digital Layout Workshop, Photography, Trips, Interviewing Skills
Every Thursday from 26 February, 3.15pm – 4.45pm at Muirhouse Library
10-18 years
FREE with snack
For more information call: 0131 529 5528
Muirhouse Library: 15a Pennywell Road, EH4 4TZ
Opportunities to get your questions answered at hustings events
Pilton Community Health Project has organised hustings in both local constituency seats in the run up to the Westminster election in May.
Candidates for Edinburgh North and Leith have been invited to answer questions from local community on Thursday 19 March from 6.30 – 8pm at Royston Wardieburn Community Centre (soup will be available from 6pm).
Candidates for Edinburgh West have been invited to answer questions from the local community on Thursday 26 March from 6.30 – 8pm at Muirhouse Millennium Community Centre (soup will be available from 6pm).
http://pchp.org.uk/news/2015/your-questions-matter
The February NEN is with our distributor now and will be delivered over the coming week.
If you just can’t wait to see a copy of your community newspaper, click on the link below for the electronic edition … hope you enjoy it!
‘It’s a broken council which is failing it’s people and this budget must be rejected’ – Linda Garcia, WIG group
Councillors have set Edinburgh’s budget after a marathon meeting at the City Chambers yesterday. A raft of deputations from across the city urged the council to reject a budget package of cuts and service reorganisation aimed at saving £22 million this year, but councillors voted to approved the budget.
Leading the deputations was Royston Wardieburn Community Centre’s Women’s International Group (WIG). Royston Wardieburn was the city’s very first purpose-built community centre – it first opened in 1965. Two years ago – after years of hard work by the management committee – a brand new centre was opened, but members fear that all that good work could be undone by proposals to change the way community centres are operated.
WIG’s Anna Hutchison told councillors: “We are very concerned about these proposals. We have achieved a great deal in our Centre in recent years, but there is still a great deal of work to be done and we cannot build on our achievements when everything keep changing.
“Cutting CLD (community learning and development) staff and removing them from centres seems very short-sighted given that the Scottish Government is now requiring all councils to produce a CLD plan stating how they intend to build stronger, more influential and inclusive communities and improve life chances through learning and active citizenship.”
She warned that voluntary management committee members would ‘walk away’ if proposals to change the role of CLD staff in the running of community centres is implemented.
WIG’s Linda Garcia added: “We do not accept the proposed budget. We do not accept the way Edinburgh’s finances are being run. We do not accept that inequality, poverty and powerlessness are inevitable in our communities.
“We have been ‘trained’ to believe that no alternative (to cuts) is possible and that achieving a decent and fair society is just too damn complicated, so best not to try! We do not accept that this is the case. We want a council which puts citizens at it’s heart”.
“We believe that this budget is unacceptable to the citizens of Edinburgh. Unfortunately, despite a string of scandals, the Council seems unable to change. It is a broken Council which is failing it’s people and this budget must be rejected”.
“We demand that you join the campaign to secure additional funding from the Scottish and Westminster governments to safeguard our public services.
“We demand that you support Unite’s campaign to restructure the £1.2 billion debt owed by the Public Works Loan Board – paying £56 million in interest charges each year is completely unacceptable.
“We demand that the Scottish Parliament orders a Public Inquiry to examine the mismanagement of this Council, the numerous scandals and cover-ups by successive administrations.
She concluded: “We demand that you return power to the people.”
The group, joined by supporters in the public gallery, then serenaded councillors with a song! Based on the original Italian partisan song Bella Ciao, WIG’s words are:
The public sector is for the people
Oh bella ciao; bella ciao; bella ciao, ciao, ciao
The public sector is for the people
Not for sale to profiteers.
Oh we are singing for education
Oh bella ciao; bella ciao; bella ciao, ciao, ciao
We are singing for education
And an equal right to learn.
The rich get richer, the poor get poorer
Oh bella ciao; bella ciao; bella ciao, ciao, ciao
The rich get richer, the poor get poorer,
Unnecessary and unfair.
They cut the funding, they cut the workers
Oh bella ciao; bella ciao; bella ciao, ciao, ciao
They cut the funding, they cut the workers
Ain’t no ‘Big Society’.
Following that musical interlude, WIG were followed by a succession of deputations from across the city, each one urging the city to think again. EVOC, Edinburgh East Save Our Services, Edinburgh Tenants Federation, Edinburgh Trade Union Council, UNITE Edinburgh Not for Profit Branch, Edinburgh Anti-Cuts Alliance, Friends of the Meadows and Bruntsfield Links, UNISON and the EIS: each one advanced powerful arguments – but ultimately each one was unsuccessful as councillors voted to press ahead with the cuts.
Protecting frontline services in Edinburgh for young, old and vulnerable residents was a priority at the budget meeting, according to senior councillors. Investment in roads and pavements, investing in school infrastructure and working towards the redevelopment of Meadowbank Sports Centre and Stadium were other key priority areas.
Councillors say public opinion expressed during the recent budget consultation helped to influence key decisions as they attempted to balance the city’s books.
Cllr Alasdair Rankin, Convener of the Finance and Resources Committee, said: “Given the financial challenges all local authorities are facing over the next few years, we want to invest in the areas that are essential to Edinburgh and so it is important that the public continue to tell us what is important to them.
“This year we published the draft budget in October and 3,525 people gave us their views – five times the number of responses compared to last year. We also used a new online planner to give respondents the opportunity to express what they feel the Council’s priorities should be. The planner allowed us to show where we will incur costs in 2017/18, to demonstrate the impacts of increasing or decreasing spending in all of our services. This was extremely popular and 1,719 of those people took Edinburgh’s Budget Challenge.
Cllr Bill Cook, Vice-Convener of the Finance and Resources Committee, said: “We used the feedback received during the consultation process to help us make many key decisions such as maintaining funding for homelessness services, not increasing allotment charges and putting an extra £5m towards improving roads and pavements.”
The eight successive year’s Council Tax freeze maintains Edinburgh’s band D rate as the lowest of Scotland’s four major cities.
The council tax band levels for Edinburgh in 2015/16 will be:
A: £779.33
B: £909.22
C: £1,039.11
D: £1,169.00
E: £1,428.78
F: £1,688.56
G: £1,948.33
H: £2,338.00
The total revenue budget is £949m for 2015/16. Council Tax funds 25% of this with 75% coming from Government grants and business rates. The total capital budget (including the HRA) is £245m.
Key budget provisions:
Ensuring every child in Edinburgh has the best start in life
– Allocated an additional £5m of capital to support rising school rolls
– More than £4m invested in Early Years Change Fund for services for the very youngest children
Ensuring Edinburgh, and its residents, are well cared-for
– Maintaining funding for commissioned homelessness services
Providing for Edinburgh’s economic growth and prosperity
– Maintaining £1m to continue supporting the Edinburgh Guarantee, helping improve job opportunities for young people
– Support the Strategic Investment Fund with an additional £4.5m
Strengthening and supporting our communities and keeping them safe
– Continuing to invest in community policing
– Allocating an additional £100,000 to each neighbourhood to allow local people to have an even greater say in how their area can be improved
Investing in roads, pavements and cycling infrastructure
– An additional £5m investment in roads and pavements taking the total to £20m
– Commit 8% of the transport revenue and capital budgets for creation and maintenance of cycle infrastructure
Becoming more efficient
– Delivery of procurement transformational efficiencies
– Implementing the Better Outcomes Leaner Delivery (BOLD) programme
– Reducing the head count of the organisation by developing existing staff, revising roles and responsibilities and implementing structural change in the organisation through the ’Organise to deliver’ programme
– Maximising income
– Maximising savings through the rationalisation of the Council’s property estate
– Reducing carbon footprint and generating income through strategic energy projects
While the council argues that front line services are being protected, campaigners believe city councillors have let the capital down.
One Unite member who attended the lobby said: “This is a sad day for Edinburgh. You might have thought that a Labour-led council, supported by the SNP, would stand up for workers and communities – well, today’s vote shows you can think again. You can’t cut 1200 jobs without it having a huge effect on services and the people who will suffer most are the people in the poorest communities, the people who depend most on council services. People are angry – and rightly so, because these cuts will do real damage. Edinburgh is a rich city, yet our politicians vote through cuts on this scale? It’s shocking – they should be ashamed.”
A member of the Anti-Cuts Coalition added: “Deputation after deputation urged the council to reject this budget but it’s clear the councillors had already made their minds up. They blame Westminster, they blame Holyrood but at the end of the day our councillors have got to take a long, hard look at themselves.
“They have got to make a stand – if local councillors won’t support and fight for their communities, who will?
“Communities are being treated with contempt and remember – these cuts are just the start. We are facing another two years of austerity budgets, with more services slashed and hundreds of jobs lost – and when members of the public wake up to that it will be too late.”
Visit our Facebook page to see a webcast of the Budget meeting
http://l.facebook.com/l/PAQGWhuX2/www.edinburgh.public-i.tv/core/share/open/webcast/0/0/0/0//webcast/0/0/0
You’ll find pictures of the lobby there too
No need to be bored during the school holidays. There are loads of activities at your local library – and they’re all FREE!
Muirhouse Library
Gamesmasters’ Minecraft Monday 16th February 11.30-12.30pm and 2.00-3.00 pm
Music Production for kids Tuesday 17th February 10.30-12.30 Booking advisable
Mural Art Workshop with Zoo Arts Thursday 19th February 10.30 -12.30 am
Animal Snacks Friday 20th February 2-4.00pm
Jewellery making with the Saturday Art Club 21st February 2.00-4.00 pm.
Granton Library
X-box tournament Monday 16th February and Wednesday 18th February 2.00-4.00pm under 16s
Pancake Party Baby Café Tuesday 17th February for 0-4 years 11am
Pancake Party Tuesday 17th February 5-11 years 2.30-3.30pm
Freemachines Wednesday 18th February 13 to 18 years 5.00-7.00pm Digital art sessions for teenagers in partnership with the Youth Hive
Word Game Fiesta Thursday 19th February 5 to 11 years 2.30-3.30pm
Harry Potter Day Saturday 21st February 5 to 11 years 2.30-4.00pm
Blackhall Library
Seinn – Gaelic songs and rhymes for babies and children Thursday 19th February 10.30 to 11.30 am
The Worst Witch storytime Friday 20th February 5 to 11 years 2.00-3.00pm.
Stockbridge Library
Chinese New Year Lantern Craft Wednesday 18th February 3.30-4.30pm 5 to 11 years
Lego Madness! Super modelling and boredom busting games Friday 20th February 2.30-3.30pm 5 to 11 years
POWER TO THE PEOPLE
Edinburgh Council is planning to cut millions from its budget over the next three years. These cuts will affect all our public services.
We say
NO CUTS
to our schools, nurseries, community centres, youth services, libraries, museums, social and day care services.
Join local groups and communities from across Edinburgh to save our services on budget day.
Thursday 12 February 2015
8.30 am – 9.45 am
City Chambers, High Street.
For transport to and from the Chambers call Royston/Wardieburn Community Centre on 552 5700.
Stop the cuts. Save our Services. Defend public sector jobs.
North Edinburgh is standing together and fighting back.
Womens International Group
Power to the People Group
Royston Wardieburn Community Centre
… but the Hibs go marching on!
Ally MacKinnon is – The Equaliser!
Two Edinburgh teams will go into Monday’s Scottish Cup quarter-final draw – just. A late, late show at Ainslie Park saw Spartans strike deep into injury time to force a replay at Berwick, while Hibs safely negotiated a potential banana-skin when they comfortably saw off Arbroath at Easter Road. Shock of the round was Rangers tame surrender to Raith Rovers at Ibrox.
Spartans fell behind to an early Berwick goal and were often second-best during a stirring encounter played in front of a full house at Ainslie Park. Just as in the last round, however, the Lowland League saved the best ’til last. Deep into stoppage time Ally MacKinnon fired home a equaliser that sent the crowd into raptures and ensured wee Spartans live to fight another day. The replay will take place on Tuesday 17 February, and it will take another never-say-die performance to see the local lads progress.
Easter Road couldn’t match Ainslie Park for drama on Saturday, although Hibs did have to come from a goal down to dispose of fourth-tier league leaders Arbroath. A well-worked move saw Kieran Stewart open the scoring for the visitors, but Hibs fans’ nerves were soothed when Djedje equalised with a sweetly struck volley just before half-time.
Hibs continued to dominate after the break, although there was a lot of huffing and puffing to little effect. The introduction of McGeogh brought a sense of purpose to Hibs’ already dominant midfield, however, and it was no surprise when the Easter Road men immediately capitalised on their superiority.
Hibs’ second had more than a touch of good fortune about it – a Cummings shot that wasn’t going to trouble the ‘keeper took a wicked deflection off defender Liam Gordon on the hour mark – and the Easter Road men quickly followed up to seal their place in the quarter finals with a Dylan McGeoch strike in 68 minutes. More workmanlike than spectacular, this was a case of ‘job done’; sterner tests await.
It will be Rangers, however, that will make all the Monday headlines – but once again it will be for all the wrong reasons.
Just when you think it really can’t get any worse for Rangers, it gets worse. This Rangers ‘team’ – I use the term loosely – simply couldn’t match an honest Raith Rovers side for determination, energy, effort or endeavour. Barely 11,000 diehard Rangers fans turned up to watch the debacle – these are dreadful times indeed for a once-great club. It’s not funny anymore – even when the coup de grace, the final indignity, is delivered by the oft-ridiculed figure of fun that is Christian Nade.
After today’s showing, the Ibrox Board might consider relocating their Extraordinary General Meeting from the London’s sumptuous Dorchester Hotel to somewhere more fitting with their current status.
Suggestions welcome …
Elsewhere, there were few surprises. Hot favourites Celtic scored early and were never in any danger against Dundee, Falkirk beat Brechin 2-1 and Inverness CT edged a narrow victory at Partick Thistle. Result of the day was Championship side Queen of the South’s 2-0 victory over Scottish Cup holders St Johnstone with second half goals by Lyle (48) and Reilly (90). On Sunday, Dundee United made short work of Stranraer. Three up at half-time, the Tangerines coasted to an easy victory.
Darts supremo Gary Anderson will help make the draw for the quarter-finals of the William Hill Scottish Cup on Monday afternoon. The current PDC World Champion will be joined by the Scottish FA First Vice-President, Alan McRae and Joe McCallum from competition sponsors William Hill. The draw takes place at 2pm and will be broadcast live on Sky Sports News. You can also follow the draw on the @ScottishFA Twitter feed.
Teams going into the hat are:
Berwick Rangers or Spartans
Celtic
Dundee United
Falkirk
Hibernian
Inverness CT
Queen of the South
Raith Rovers
