Category: North Edinburgh News

PEP Summer Fayre cancelled

Pilton Equalities Project’s summer fayre has been cancelled. Organisers took an early decision to cancel Thursday’s event after the weekend weather – and the threat of more rain to come.
PEP summer fayre organiser Theodora Hildago explained: “Due to the adverse weather conditions PEP’s fayre venue at West Pilton Park has become waterlogged, With the Fayre being so large and with the promise if yet more rain to come, PEP has taken the difficult decision to cancel the Thursday 12 July summer fayre. We hope to instead hold an event later on in the year and will be in contact with more details as soon as we have them. All table holders will be contacted and we thank everyone for their interest in supporting PEP and the local community of North Edinburgh. May the rain stop soon!”
Sunnier days – pictures from PEP Summer Fayre 2010:

Scottish Gas staff dig deep to support local charity

Scottish Gas staff came to the aid of a local food bank recently when they collected tins and packets of food for the Basics Bank based at The Christian Centre in West Pilton. In these tough economic times more and more people need a helping hand and the Scottish Gas team’s efforts have ensured that the local food bank – which relies on charitable donations – remains well stocked.

Angie Lumsden of Scottish Gas explained: “Over recent years we have had a big campaign to support Edinburgh Womens Aid with our Easter Egg appeal – this year we collected over 300 eggs, many of which were distributed through local projects here in North Edinburgh. We decided we would build on that and, after speaking to Forth councillor Cammy Day, we decided to collect foodstuffs for the local food bank run by Edinburgh City Mission in West Pilton.”

The response from Waterfront Avenue staff was overwhelming, donations rolled in and when Tom and Mark from the Basics Bank called in to uplift the collection they were overwhelmed!

“A donation like this will feed 25 families for a month. It’s incredible and very much appreciated”, said Tom. Mark added: “Scottish Gas staff have been so generous and this will make a big difference to people’s lives. It’s a great help.”

Angie added: “We couldn’t have done this without the help and support of our Wellbeing Team, who have been great. I’d like to think we could do something like this maybe twice a year”. 

Tom and Mark are flanked in the photograph by Scottish Gas staff Steve and Ross.

Fighting Back: local campaigners take case to City Council

Council will work with campaigners to tackle poverty

The city council have pledged to work with community groups to address poverty and inequalities. Councillors made their commitment after hearing a deputation of campaigners from North Edinburgh at last month’s full council meeting.The North Edinburgh activists presented councillors with individual copies of the community’s Anti-Poverty Charter at the council meeting on 28 June. The idea for Charter was born at a community conference held in Craigroyston High School late last year, and campaigners urged councillors to adopt the Charter’s principles in a united fight against poverty and deprivation. In a joint deputation members of North Edinburgh Fights Back and North Edinburgh Women’s Group told councillors that more needs to be done at all levels of government to address social injustice and tackle the scourge of poverty.

John Mulvey told the meeting: “North Edinburgh Fights Back is definitely not ‘The Big Society’. It’s not very often that I align myself with bishops, but I can only agree with the Bishop of Canterbury when he describes David Cameron’s ‘Big Society’ as ‘aspirational waffle’.

He went on: “The demands are not unique to North Edinburgh and indeed apply to communities across Scotland. However the Charter calls upon you as the local authority to do specific things and to team up with groups like North Edinburgh Fights Back to engage with institutions like, for example, the energy companies to put pressure on them to respond positively to the aims of the Charter.” John Mulvey concluded: “Can we afford it? The real question is can we afford not to? If we can afford to spend billions and billions on a replacement for Trident, and more billions and billions on tax breaks for the rich, clearly for a decent society for all of our citizens the demands laid out in the Charter must be addressed.”

Danielle Ward of North Edinburgh Young People’s Forum demanded an end to Workfare and called for more opportunities for young people in training, education and employment while veteran campaigner Tony Delahoy made ‘five moderate requests’ on behalf of older people.

Cathy Ahmed of Muirhouse Women’s Group demanded an end to cuts that hit the poorest families hardest and there were further calls for action to tackle fuel poverty and social housing shortages.The wide-ranging charter has sections on Young People, Senior Citizens, Women, Living Wage and Employment Rights, Privatisation and Education, Fuel Poverty and Housing and Racism.

That’s quite a comprehensive shopping list, but the council agreed a motion from Forth councillor Cammy Day to ‘commend the highly successful community conference organised by the groups, specifically in regards to highlighting poverty, inequality of fuel poverty. Council welcomes the Ant-Poverty Charter and agrees to work with these groups in addressing poverty and inequalities’. Leith Walk Labour councillor Nick Gardner invited the deputation to come back in five years to see how the council has performed on it’s pledges, but it’s likely that the North Edinburgh Fights Back campaigners will be back long before then! Cathy Ahmed said after the meeting: “Five years? We could a’ be deid by then! We hope that this council will take our community’s demands seriously and act now – we’re sick of politicians’ broken promises and actions speak louder than words”.

Murray mania! (NEN jumps on bandwagon)

I’ve tried to find a link – however tenuous – between North Edinburgh and Andy Murray, but without success. I’ve been unable to track down a distant cousin in West Granton or long-lost former playing partner in Pilton.

However Murray’s mum Judy definitely played tennis in Edinburgh (at Blackhall, Barnton or St Serf’s maybe?) and Andy must occasionally drive through the area on his way to Easter Road, so the NEN is proud to adopt Andy Murray as one of our own – unless he gets beat, of course, in which case you will never again read his name again on these pages – or until next year, anyway!

Dunblane’s finest will become either the greatest Briton since Winston Churchill – or revert to being a sulking, miserable, surly Scottish loser – depending on this afternoon’s result.

The crushing weight of the nation’s expectations sit on Murray’s shoulders, but Britons always win at Wimbledon in Jubilee Years – it’s the law!

Come on, Andy – it’s your destiny!

Waters subside but flood warnings remain in place

Stockbridge, Cramond and Warriston were among the areas hardest hit by flooding today, and at 9pm SEPA flood warnings remain in place for those areas and Roseburn.

Around forty homes in the Stockbridge colonies were affected by flooding from the Water of Leith. The city council’s Flood Prevention team worked with emergency services to provide sandbags to affected households and Stockbridge Primary School was set up as a standby rest and information centre.

River levels are now dropping and rain has eased, but light rain is forecast to continue overnight.

Anyone with concerns about flooding should contact the Council’s Emergency Contact Centre on 0131 200 2000 and you can get information on flood alerts by calling the SEPA Floodline on 0845 988 1188.

No swings but roundabouts at Drylaw Telford Community Council

June’s meeting centred on one roundabout in particular – the one in Groathill Road North. Drylaw Telford community councillors are unhappy about the money that was spent on ‘environmental improvements’ to this roundabout and the meeting on 27 June was an attempt to resolve the dissatisfaction.

The saga began last year when Inverleith Neighbourhood Partnership’s NEP (Neighbourhood Environment Programme) allocated almost £13,000 to make environmental improvements to the roundabout, which was then surrounded by fencing. It was decided that the fencing was no longer required and that the money should be used to remove the fencing and to landscape the roundabout.

Drylaw Telford Community Association (Drylaw Neighbourhood Centre’s management committee) successfully bid to manage the piece of work, but four contractors later the roundabout is looking sadder than ever.

Drylaw Neighbourhood Centre worker Thomas Brown joined local Roads Manager Neil MacFarlane at last month’s meeting to establish what had gone wrong and to forge a new road ahead (!)

The main problem identified by the Community Council was that the design for the roundabout planting was not of acceptable quality. Neil McFarlane said that the design had been produced by Drylaw Neighbourhood Centre’s Gardening Group and that the Council will not accept responsibility for the roundabout’s maintenance as the original project is considered to be unfinished.

Thomas Brown said that there had been problems with contractors almost since the very beginning of the project, and the current contractor was the fourth to take on the work.

After a discussion it was agreed that a report will go Inverleith Neighbourhood Partnership when contractors finish remedial work next month. In the meantime a small working group of community councillors, Drylaw Neighbourhood Centre staff and council officers will look at reworking the landscaping design to come up with practical, low maintenance – and affordable – alternative before the council takes ownership of the site in August.

Neil MacFarlane said: “This was the first scheme in Inverleith where local people actually did the work and delivered the scheme. We have got to learn lessons from this project as we do not want to make the same mistakes again”.

Drylaw Telford Community Council chair Alex Dale said: “It’s clear that mistakes have been made, but what’s in the past is past – it’s time to move forward and to try to resolve this”.

In other business, Councillor Nigel Bagshaw reported that he had been able to establish a list of all the owners of premises in Drylaw Shopping Centre. The dilapidated state of the shopping centre has been a concern for the community council for many months now – leaking canopies, run-down shop fronts and cracked and broken footways have been raised consistently at meetings over the last year. Now, with a list of current owners, the community council hopes to work with Inverleith councillors and local shopkeepers to improve the local shopping area.

There was also a flying visit from Mike Clark, who stepped down as chair last month. Mike was presented with a token of appreciation by Alex Dale (above, pic John Stuart).

Drylaw Telford Community Council has a month off now and doesn’t meet again until Wednesday 29 August at 7pm in Drylaw Neighbourhood Centre. As always, all welcome.