Category: North Edinburgh News

Gavin Hastings to open closing hospital’s open day!

Last chance to visit the old Royal Victoria Hospital 

Scots rugby legend Gavin Hastings will kick off an open day at the Royal Victoria Hospital (RVH) on Craigleith Road tomorrow. Saturday’s event has been organised to celebrate the history of the landmark hospital which has provided healthcare services to the local community for over 128 years.

Saturday’s event takes place before services at the hospital are relocated to the new Royal Victoria Building at the Western General and will be a chance for the local community to bid a fond farewell.

The RVH, established in 1894 by Sir Robert William Philip, was originally created as a tuberculosis sanatorium before it evolved into a care of the elderly hospital. A special display of memorabilia and photographs taken throughout the ages will take centre stage during the day, along with attractions including a magician, bouncy castle, tombola with prizes and even a falconry display.

The event takes place on Saturday from 10 – 4pm, with the official opening by Gavin Hastings at midday.

Gavin, who won 61 Scottish caps during an outstanding rugby career, said: “The Royal Victoria Hospital has held a special place in the hearts of the local community for a long time. Being part of this community myself, it is a great opportunity for me to get involved and I would encourage everyone to come and celebrate the history of this landmark hospital.”

The new Royal Victoria Building, built nearby on the Western General Hospital site, has been designed to provide the highest quality healthcare services in a modern setting. It will become a new landmark in healthcare history when it opens, as the first of its kind in Scotland to have all the patient accommodation being single en-suite rooms.

Construction company Laing O’Rourke, who are responsible for the construction of the new Royal Victoria Building, will also provide a display for the open day to show the future of healthcare services for the elderly.

The new building was officially handed over to NHS Lothian last month and the first patients are expected to arrive in June. A second open day will be held to give local residents and interested groups an opportunity to see the facilities in the new Royal Victoria Building.

The Royal Victoria Hospital site will be put on the market this summer.

Gavin Hastings to open closing hospital's open day!

Last chance to visit the old Royal Victoria Hospital 

Scots rugby legend Gavin Hastings will kick off an open day at the Royal Victoria Hospital (RVH) on Craigleith Road tomorrow. Saturday’s event has been organised to celebrate the history of the landmark hospital which has provided healthcare services to the local community for over 128 years.

Saturday’s event takes place before services at the hospital are relocated to the new Royal Victoria Building at the Western General and will be a chance for the local community to bid a fond farewell.

The RVH, established in 1894 by Sir Robert William Philip, was originally created as a tuberculosis sanatorium before it evolved into a care of the elderly hospital. A special display of memorabilia and photographs taken throughout the ages will take centre stage during the day, along with attractions including a magician, bouncy castle, tombola with prizes and even a falconry display.

The event takes place on Saturday from 10 – 4pm, with the official opening by Gavin Hastings at midday.

Gavin, who won 61 Scottish caps during an outstanding rugby career, said: “The Royal Victoria Hospital has held a special place in the hearts of the local community for a long time. Being part of this community myself, it is a great opportunity for me to get involved and I would encourage everyone to come and celebrate the history of this landmark hospital.”

The new Royal Victoria Building, built nearby on the Western General Hospital site, has been designed to provide the highest quality healthcare services in a modern setting. It will become a new landmark in healthcare history when it opens, as the first of its kind in Scotland to have all the patient accommodation being single en-suite rooms.

Construction company Laing O’Rourke, who are responsible for the construction of the new Royal Victoria Building, will also provide a display for the open day to show the future of healthcare services for the elderly.

The new building was officially handed over to NHS Lothian last month and the first patients are expected to arrive in June. A second open day will be held to give local residents and interested groups an opportunity to see the facilities in the new Royal Victoria Building.

The Royal Victoria Hospital site will be put on the market this summer.

Source – a healthy appetite for info at PCHP!

It’s been a hectic time at Pilton Community Heath Project (PCHP). Over the last few months the project has recruited a new coordinator, organised a successful Food Festival and then launched Source, an exciting new information room at their Boswall Parkway office, during an Open Day!

New coordinator Jen Richards (pictured below)  took up her new post in March – one of her first tasks was handing out Yummy Food Festival flyers in the pouring rain in Pennywell Road, and it’s been full on ever since!

“There’s nothing like throwing yourself in at the deep end!” she said. “The weather was awful that day but we were really delighted to see so many people attending the Food Festival – it really was a great success.”

Jen had previous experience at PCHP when she worked with the Barri Grubb project, so she knew what to expect when she returned to Pilton.

“It’s a small but very motivated team, and it’s sometimes a case of all hands to the pumps! Like everyone else we’d like to have more resources but we make sure that we make the most of what we have. PCHP has a proud history, a very good reputation and is well known in the local area and beyond. It’s great to be back in North Edinburgh, meeting up with former colleagues again and I’ll be making contact with a wide range of community groups and organisations in the weeks ahead. Yes, we’ll continue to face challenges but we have a dedicated and very committed team and I’m very excited about our future”.

Since the Yummy Food Festival, PCHP has gone on to open Source, a new community health information resource, during their Open Day on 29 March (the highlight of which was a cookery demonstration and tasting sessions with North Edinburgh’s own Yummy Mummies!)

 PCHP senior project worker Anita Aggarwal said that the Source idea had come from local people themselves. She explained: “People who live locally told us that they want access to clear, accurate, information about health issues, and Source is our answer to this request. Source is our new health information resource, where our friendly volunteers can help you find information about health and community issues. We have a wide range of leaflets and books, as well as internet access to make sure you can get the information you need, and if we don’t have it ourselves, we know someone who does! We want local people to come in and check us out. It’s a great opportunity to get clued up and become confident about dealing with health issues.”

The new Source room is a really welcoming and comfortable space, much appreciated by staff, volunteers and visitors. The room was created with the help and hard work of Edinburgh’s Telford College students (pictured). Emma Castle, Learner Development Tutor of Woodwork and Masonry Trades, said: “Our students thoroughly enjoyed their work at Pilton Community Health Project and got a lot out of it. We’d like to thank Mark Smith Glazing, who kindly donated the glass for the project, and we are all delighted that the resource is being enjoyed by the local community”. 

Source is open Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 10am to midday.

Total Craigroyston – improving outcomes for children and families

Total Craigroyston is the latest ‘early intervention’ strategy to support families with children in North Edinburgh. Total Craigroyston Manager CHRISTINE MACKAY explains what it’s all about …

Total Craigroyston has been set up  to encourage  all the various organisation which work with Children and Families to work together to  improve outcomes for children and families in the neighbourhood around Craigroyston Community High School.

Our initial focus will be on children who are looked after by the Council to ensure that they have all the support they need to give them the best opportunity to succeed in their lives. We will also be working to reduce the need for children to go into care, and that means finding ways to  support families at an earlier stage and in a variety of ways.

The idea is to take a holistic approach – ensuring that all of the local resources in both the statutory and the voluntary sectors are on the same page, facing the same direction and contributing to the agreed outcomes. It may be that we need to change how some of our services are delivered so that we can offer support at an earlier stage and we want to involve local people as well as local staff  in helping us think what changes might be necessary.

We held a meeting in mid-March, bringing together the local Neighbourhood Partnership, the Edinburgh Partnership and the Total Craigroyston steering group (pictured below) to start the discussion and what everyone agreed on was the need to ensure that local residents, service users and local staff are completely involved in shaping the direction of Total Craigroyston.

To help us do this we have been working with an organisation called  SNOOK, and over the month of June we will be running a series of events and workshops aimed at local residents, service users and local staff so that we can  come up with a set of ideas and proposals, based on local knowledge and expertise,  that we can take forward.

A Design Workshop will be held on Monday 28 May from 9.30 – 12.30 in Craigroyston Community High  School. Come along and give your ideas for changing the way we do things. A crèche is available but places must be booked. Please contact Stephen Straiton on 469 3375 or email Stephen.straiton@edinburgh.gov.uk

On Saturday 2 June, the SNOOK team will be out and about at Muirhouse Shopping Centre, North Edinburgh Arts and Muirhouse Library  speaking  to local people and hearing views.

A Young People Speak Out  session will  be held in Pilton Youth and Children’s Project  on  Wed 6 June  from 7 – 9pm to help us gather young people’s views.

A Prototyping Lab (don’t be put off by the title!!) will be held on Monday 18 June from 10 – 4pm in West Pilton Neighbourhood Centre. This will give the SNOOK team an opportunity to present the ideas that have been gathered and to have a think about the ones we want to take forward. A crèche is available but places must be booked. Please contact Stephen Straiton on 469 3375 or email Stephen.straiton@edinburgh.gov.uk

If you are interested in being involved in any way or you have ideas or a story to tell about your involvement with local services please get in touch. We are based at the Local Neighbourhood Office in West Pilton Gardens. Tel no 529 5050. email Christine.mackay@edinburgh.gov.uk. Please contact us if you’d like more information.

 

Christine Mackay

Manager, Total Craigroyston

 

Letter: Famine – time to change the system

Dear Editor

Famine does not happen in the UK, although there is still widespread poverty and all he misery that flows from that. Famines are happening around the world: we have all seen the dreadful pictures, particularly harrowing are the pictures of children dying. One’s heart breaks that this is happening every minute of every day.

The financial crisis caused by the banks, which is now being passed onto the people, has shown that private ownership and control of major producing companies are not capable of maintaining them in the interest of everyone: they are too busy looking after profits, buying, selling and closing down places of work.

This is Capitalism.

Private ownership driving force is for profit.

Private ownership thrives on increasing exploitation of people for profit.

Private ownership leads to exploitation of animal and other forms of life for profit.

Private ownership leads to gross exploitation of natural resources for profit.

Despite industrial and technological development giving an opportunity to solve the world’s problems of hunger and disease, it has been used to make massive fortunes for a very small number of people worldwide.

The system has been challenged by many generations of people who have gained improvements in many areas of life, but the present crisis confirms the system is incapable of managing the economy.

A change has to come, but those who control and gain from the existing system are resisting as hard as they can.

A new way to tackle the terrible problems of mass famine, unemployment and poverty must be allowed to operate. Appealing to the better nature of existing owners of industry, etc, obviously has no effect!

A Delahoy

Silverknowes Gardens

 

Security RULES for cyclists

Lothian and Borders Police are offering cyclists the opportunity to make their bikes secure at two forthcoming sessions.

At Craigleith Retail Park on Thursday 24 May (12 – 2pm) and at Ocean Terminal on Tuesday 5 June (5 – 7pm) you can have your bike registered and UV marked for £5, or registered, UV marked and electronically tagged for £10. Some lucky cyclists could get this done for free so get there early!

Remember those rules:

Register It

UV mark it

Lock it

Electronically tag it

Secure it

 

Lothian and Borders Police

The Muirhouse Centipede’s on the march!

The Centipede Project, the community regeneration initiative launched in Muirhouse in March, has received a welcome boost with news that the project has been awarded funding to help take plans forward.

Linda Dunbar, Locum Minister at Muirhouse St Andrew’s Parish Church, organised the initial consultation event held in the church. That event generated a number of great ideas – the favourite being a community gardens project – and now it seems that those ideas have taken a step closer to becoming a reality.

Linda said: ‘We have had great news at the Centipede Project – we have been awarded £5000 Pilot Project funding from the Church of Scotland’s Parish Development Fund, so we are now gearing up to develop some of the ideas for the Community Gardens project. We hope to send out more information by the end of the month, but in the meantime a new Facebook page – Marvellous Muirhouse – has been set up for people, groups and projects to promote their activities and to celebrate all the good things going on in Muirhouse and surrounding areas. You can find the page at https://www.facebook.com/MarvelousMuirhouse so please:

  • log on and ‘Like’ the page
  • post on the page to tell everyone about your activities.
  • pass the information on to all your contacts.

This has the potential to be a great networking resource; if you want to see a similar page and how the networking has taken off, have a quick look at Glorious Govan on Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/#!/GloriousGovan.”

The Muirhouse Centipede is on the march!

The Muirhouse Centipede's on the march!

The Centipede Project, the community regeneration initiative launched in Muirhouse in March, has received a welcome boost with news that the project has been awarded funding to help take plans forward.

Linda Dunbar, Locum Minister at Muirhouse St Andrew’s Parish Church, organised the initial consultation event held in the church. That event generated a number of great ideas – the favourite being a community gardens project – and now it seems that those ideas have taken a step closer to becoming a reality.

Linda said: ‘We have had great news at the Centipede Project – we have been awarded £5000 Pilot Project funding from the Church of Scotland’s Parish Development Fund, so we are now gearing up to develop some of the ideas for the Community Gardens project. We hope to send out more information by the end of the month, but in the meantime a new Facebook page – Marvellous Muirhouse – has been set up for people, groups and projects to promote their activities and to celebrate all the good things going on in Muirhouse and surrounding areas. You can find the page at https://www.facebook.com/MarvelousMuirhouse so please:

  • log on and ‘Like’ the page
  • post on the page to tell everyone about your activities.
  • pass the information on to all your contacts.

This has the potential to be a great networking resource; if you want to see a similar page and how the networking has taken off, have a quick look at Glorious Govan on Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/#!/GloriousGovan.”

The Muirhouse Centipede is on the march!

Hello, goodbye!

Crewe Toll’s cycling fire-fighters called in on a flying visit to Oaklands School this afternoon. The guys from White Watch are on the homeward leg of their Land’s End to John o’ Groats charity cycle challenge, and they stopped off at the Ferry Road school to present a cheque for £8000.

The cyclists were welcomed by Oaklands staff and pupils and colleagues from Crewe Toll also dropped in to Oaklands to cheer their mates on.

Oaklands Head Teacher Maureen Mathieson said: “This makes a huge difference and we are so grateful to the Crewe Toll team for making this tremendous effort for us. We’d also like to thank everyone who sponsored the fire-fighters. The money raised enables us to buy specially built cycles for the Oaklands children to enjoy. It’s terrific!”

The team are well on schedule to complete North Quest, their thousand mile challenge – averaging a hundred miles a day – and there was just time to present the cheque, enjoy a cuppa and get back in the saddle for the next stage.

Despite the aches, pains, chafing and sprains the Crewe Toll lads expect to complete their epic ride in three days time, and have set their sights on making another target – enjoying a pint in Inverness before closing time on Saturday!  Well done, lads – you deserve it!