North Edinburgh News – Page 3357 – The NEN

A rubbish protest or a protest about rubbish?

A war of words has broken out between a senior local councillor and community groups following a ‘dirty protest’ outside the council’s North Local Office in West Pilton this morning. TIE committee convener Lesley Hinds dismissed the protest as a poorly supported publicity stunt, but campaigners say they will escalate their activities if demands are not met.

Two local tenants groups – Tenants and Residents in Pilton (TRIP) and Tenants and Residents in Muirhouse (TRIM), supported by campaign group North Edinburgh Fights Back – urged local residents to support a campaign to get weekly bin collections restored by staging a publicity stunt at the local council office. Local people were encouraged to bring along their black bags and bins and ‘dump’ them on the council’s doorstep.

Speaking before the protest TRIP secretary Jon Black (pictured above) said: “The Council has mismanaged the changes to refuse collection, and its unacceptable. We shouldn’t have to be cleaning up our own streets, but this is what it has come to. Its a public health hazard, and the Council needs to sort it out. We are demanding that the Council re-introduce weekly collections, and we want adequate recycling facilities provided in the area. We also want the Council to clear up all the rubbish that has been missed.”

Around a dozen people supported the event, which attracted media attention – but Councillor Lesley Hinds, convener of the Transport, Infrastructure and Environment Committee, said the protest was a damp squib.

“This has been a poorly-attended publicity stunt that neither improves the situation nor accurately reflects the needs of the community. Of course I’d be happy to meet any of the protesters to have constructive discussions on how we can improve their waste collection service, but they have made no approaches to us so far. In fact I’m told there have been very few issues in the Muirhouse and West Pilton area – which may be why only a handful of people turned out on Monday morning.”

The protesters plan to have a public meeting next month as part of a continuing campaign to get the council to meet their demands. If those demands are not met, the campaigners plan to take further action and say that they will fly-tip rubbish at the City Chambers.

Final NENgage session this Thursday

The Joy of Stats!

In the final of our series of NENgage sessions we’ll be delving into the world of online data -looking at free tools and resources that community groups and local citizens can use to gather and present data in interesting ways. We’ll be showing you;

How to create a simple online poll in WordPress or using Easy Poll.
How to do a more detailed survey of opinions and feedback using Survey Monkey
How to make an FOI request using the What Do They Know website
How to present data online using free tools like Infogram or Many Eyes.

We’ll also have some great speakers, including journalistMichael MacLeod (former Guardian journalist, STV online reporter) and James Baster, a digital programmer with an interest in innovative community projects. James will be telling us about an exciting new open data project involving the city’s greenspaces.

We’ll also have a brainstorming sessionwhere you’ll have the chance to tell us about the kind of work you do, and we’ll come up with ideas for ways that you could use these tools to good effect for your projects.

As always, tickets are free, but you’ll need to reserve a place on our Eventbrite page. The session will start at 5:45 and runs until 7:30, with drinks in the Antiquary Bar afterwards.

Hope to see you there!

Last chance to see City Park plans

Local residents have another opportunity to see Link’s plans for City Park at a presentation to Granton and District Community Council tonight at Royston Wardieburn Community Centre on Pilton Drive North.

Link wants to build over 200 homes on the City Park site and held two pre-planning application exhibitions last week. Both were well attended, but if you missed the opportunity to see what’s being proposed tonight is your last chance – for the moment at least!

The community council meeting starts at 7pm – all welcome.

Drylaw Telford Community Council meets this Wednesday

Drylaw Telford Community Council will meet on Wednesday 31 October at 7pm in Drylaw Neighbourhood Centre off Groathill Road North.

Among the items of business under discussion is Drylaw Skate Park, which was given the green light by city planners last week.

For more information on this – or to raise an issue you think the local community council should address – come along to the meeting. All welcome!

Western gardener is NHS Lothian Staff Member of the Year

The outstanding achievements of individual staff members and teams from a diverse range of NHS Lothian services received recognition in the organisation’s annual ‘Celebrating Success Awards’ last week – and top of the list was the Western General’s gardening supervisor Ronald Fraser.

The winners were announced at an awards ceremony at the Edinburgh Corn Exchange on Thursday 25 October which was attended by over 200 staff. The evening, hosted by radio personality Arlene Stuart, recognised the inspiring and truly amazing work that takes place across NHS Lothian every day.

This year’s ceremony featured ten categories, including volunteer of the year, staff member of the year and team of the year.

Tim Davison, Chief Executive, NHS Lothian said: “The Celebrating Success Awards are about recognising the very best of NHS Lothian. This is not about being the best for its own sake – it is about delivering the best for the patients in our care and the communities we serve. By involving the public in this event we hope to recognise the staff that our patients tell us are the best.”

Ronald Fraser, Gardening Supervisor at the Western General Hospital, was named Staff Member of the Year at the awards ceremony. Click on the link below to see why …

Watch the Staff Member of the Year video.

Tough times at PEP

Chairperson Irene Garden said she wanted to be positive when she welcomed guests to Pilton Equalities Project’s (PEP’s) annual general meeting on Friday, and she started out that way. However her report quickly turned to PEP’s trials and tribulations – it’s been a particularly tough year, and the signs are that it’s not going to get any easier any time soon.

“Once again our staff and volunteers have worked above and beyond the call of duty to ensure we continue to deliver our services”, she told the meeting at PEP’s West Pilton Park office. “To quote George Johanson, one of our directors: ‘another difficult year in tempestuous seas!'”

PEP is fundamentally different organisation from the Pilton Elderly Project from whence it emerged. Community transport for older people was the primary focus of the old PEP, but as funding priorities changed over the years so has PEP – the community organisation has diversified and added learning and training elements to the daycare and community transport services it was best known for.

Manager Helen Tait highlighted successes over the last year, and PEP’s statistics certainly remain impressive: PEP has provided 2585 learning opportunities over the last year, has 59 volunteers who have given 7518 hours to the service and the PEP minibus fleet has provided 33.931 passenger journeys this year.

But despite those figures, PEP faces a constant fight to keep all those services going, chairperson Irene Garden told the meeting.

“It’s been a very difficult year with funding cuts and uncertainties. Staff have been really flexible but so much of their time is now spent chasing funds that it’s getting really difficult for them to do their ‘real’ jobs. With respect to our transport services, we receive funding for our drivers but no money to maintain our vehicles – that’s proving to be a real problem and we don’t want to let any of our service users down,so we really need our funders to support us now. We are under real pressure – no service has had to be disbanded as yet,but this is all dependent on sufficient funds coming in. If the last twelve months have been a challenge the next twelve could be even tougher.”

Despite that fairly gloomy outlook PEP still has a full Board of Directors for the year ahead, with only one vacant position.

With the annual general meeting finishing earlier than expected, some procedural business was discussed. The meeting heard that a compliance sub-group is currently reviewing PEP’s constitution and Articles of Association to clear up some inconsistencies over membership issues. That sub-committee will report recommendations to PEP’s new board in the near future.

Dads Rock at The Prentice Centre

Children and Families Minister Aileen Campbell MSP officially opened the new Dads Rock group at The Prentice Centre yesterday (Saturday 27 October). Around twenty men and their kids attended the first local session of the playgroup that was set up specifically for dads and male carers.

The Clydesdale MSP was joined by her partner Graham and their wee boy Angus at The Prentice Centre and the family had a great time! Ms Campbell said:”We received a really warm welcome and enjoyed our visit. Dads Rock is a great idea and I really do hope it goes from strength to strength, not only in Edinburgh but across the country”.

Dads Rock founders Thomas and David said: “We were really delighted to see so many new faces at our first session at The Prentice Centre and we’re very grateful to Aileen for showing her support by performing the launch. We’re hoping that the word will spread now that we’re open in Granton and we’re looking forward to meeting more and more local dads as the weeks go on”.

Prentice Centre management committee members and staff were on hand to welcome the new visitors to their building on the corner of Granton Mains Avenue and West Granton Road. Janet Campbell, manager at The Prentice Centre, said: “We are delighted to welcome Dads Rock to the Centre and it was good to see so many people here for the first session. The kids seemed to have a great time and we are sure it will be a success”.

The Dads Rock playgroup meets at The Prentice Centre on Saturday mornings from 10 – 11.30am with play, music time, art stuff, snack and story time – and it’s all free. For more information check out the Dads Rock Facebook page or see their blog at http://dadsrock.blogspot.co.uk/

We will remember them

In Flanders’ Fields

In Flanders’ fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place: and in the sky the larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders’ fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe;
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high,
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders’ Fields.

‘We saw some infantry transport come up, and there was a lieutenant quartermaster there. I went over and he said: ‘How are you off for grub?’ so I said ‘We’ve only got biscuits and bully’. He gave us some bread and butter, tea and jam. He was chap who was getting on for fifty, I should think; a lieutenant quartermaster, not a fighting man at all, and yet he’s brought up all these rations.

He was practically in tears – he said his lads wouldn’t need it. You see, when you lost men it was a day or two before you could stop their rations coming up. The Army Service Corps would still be sending up the rations of so many men while you might have lost half of them. And what happened to all that grub? You’d live like fighting cocks on what was left for a day or two!

In the evening Noble, Robbins and myself went up to Trones Wood. There were no trees left intact at all, just stumps and treetops and barbed wire all mixed up together. And bodies all over the place, Jerries and ours.

Robbins pulled up some undergrowth and as we fished our way through there was this dead Jerry, his whole hip shot away and all his guts out and flies over it. Robbins just had to step back, and then this leg that was up in a tree became dislodged and fell on his head. He vomited on the spot. Good Lord, it was terrible.’

Gunner Leonard Ounsworth , Royal Garrison Artillery: The Somme 1916

The only way up from Ypres was by a plank road fifteen to twenty feet wide. All munitions had to travel a considerable distance up this plank road, and the mud was so deep that on one occasion, with drag-ropes, it was still impossible to pull the guns out of the mud.

The mud and the conditions were absolutely indescribable, You saw fellows coming down from the trenches badly wounded, covered from head to foot in mud and blood, and perhaps an arm missing. You saw some fellows drop off the duckboards and literally die from exhaustion and loss of blood. Horrible, it was.

Gunner Sidney White, Royal Artillery: Passchendaele 1917

I remember trying to help a lad in this copse about a hundred yards from our jumping-off trench. There was no hope of getting to him, he was struggling in the middle of this huge sea of mud. Then I saw a small sapling and we tried to bend it over to him. We were seasoned soldiers then, but the look on the lad’s face was really pathetic – he was only a mere boy. It pricked my conscience, I felt I should try to do something more for him, but I couldn’t do a thing – had I bent it a little more I should have gone in with him, and had anyone else gone near this sea of mud they should have gone in with him too, as so many had.

Sergeant Cyril Lee: Passchendaele 1917

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning,

We will remember them.

Swim and you’re winning at Craigroyston!

Young people from Muirhouse Youth Development Group and Craigroyston Community High School will be making a mighty splash when they take part in a 24 hour sponsored swim next week.

The 24 hour Swimathon – which starts at 9am next Thursday (1 November) – has been organised to raise funds to support CCHS’s extra-curricular and outdoor activities programme, including Duke of Edinburgh expeditions and residential fields trips. These excursions will be staffed by a qualified team of youth workers from MYDG and MYadventure (MYDG’s social enterprise arm), who are experienced in supporting the needs of young people and regularly deliver high quality and professional level training and activities.

The money raised during the swimathon will be spilt – 50% will go to school funds to support and subsidise trips, excursions and outdoor activities while the remainder will go to MYDG to support the core programme, which includes lunchtime activities and youth hubs.

The November event has largely been organised by a group of Craigroyston sixth year pupils who are also active participants at MYDG.

During the duration of the Swimathon Craigroyston’s swimming pool will not be unoccupied for a full 24 hours – staff, pupils and volunteers have all be drafted in and recruited to either swim or be a lifeguard!

The Swimathon begins at 9am on Thursday and will run (swim?) until 9am on Friday!

MYadventure and CCHS invite you to pledge a donation towards their worthwhile cause: you can sponsor by visiting http://www.justgiving.com/24hourswimathon

or by texting CCHS 67 to 70070 with the amount you wish to donate, e.g to donate £10 text CCHS 67 £10 to 70070

Celebrate Robert Louis Stevenson Day next month

Edinburgh is to celebrate an annual Robert Louis Stevenson Day in November. Organisers hope the accolade to our world-famous author will match the popularity of Dublin’s Bloomsday tribute to James Joyce.

The City of Literature Trust has designated 13 November – the writer’s birthday – as Robert Louis Stevenson Day but this year’s inaugural event will be held on 17 November as it’s the closest Saturday, allowing more fans to take part in the event.

Stevenson, author of classics including Treasure Island, The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde and Kidnapped, was born was born at 8 Howard Place at Canonmills on 13 November 1850. His family moved to nearby Inverleith Terrace in Jan the following year and then on to 17 Heriot Row in 1857. A student at Edinburgh University, Stevenson lived in Edinburgh for 29 years, and continued to visit until 1887. He died on the island of Samoa in 1894, aged just 44.

Events planned to celebrate his work will include a continuous public reading of the Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, a flashmob, high-profile speakers and the chalking of quotations from his words on pavements.

Richard Lewis, the city council’s culture leader, said: “Robert Louis Stevenson is one of Edinburgh’s most treasured sons and the creation of RLS Day is a fitting tribute to his life , work and legacy. We assisted with a number of special events held across the city last November, all of which generated significant interest, so clearly the public shares our enthusiasm.”

The plan comes after a one-off event last year and a proposal by another Edinburgh writer – Rebus author Ian Rankin – that it should be held every year. The day will bring theatre performances of Stevenson’s work in the city centre, and Ian Rankin has also suggested projecting quotation’s from Stevenson’s work onto public buildings at night as well as tours of the city.

Professor Linda Dryden, director of the Centre for Literature and Writing at the city’s Napier University, said: “A perennially popular author and an international brand, there are scholars around the world who study his works but Stevenson himself has never really been celebrated in any significant way as the son of Edinburgh. We want to bring together people who are interested in Stevenson and we anticipate there will be international interest.”

It is hoped the day will bring tourists to the city just as Dublin’s annual Bloomsday, named after the protagonist Leopold Bloom in Joyce’s Ulysses, has also spread around the world. First introduced in the 1950s, it is also marked in the United States and Italy, where it was partially written.

Events are being held on Stevenson’s birthday too:

RLS Day 13 November

Robert Louis Stevenson Day (RLS Day) rolls out on his birthday, 13th November. There will be a series of events and Stevenson inspired shenanigans popping up across the city and online. It is the perfect way to celebrate the life and writings of the man who brought us Treasure Island: so wear velvet and don a ‘tache in his honour, and be part of a Stevenson flashmob. Enjoy pop up theatre on your doorstep. Stroll across his words chalked on your streets. Eat cream tarts and learn about his alter ego, the duplicitous John Libbel. Discover what he was really like as a student of the University of Edinburgh. Walk the closes and cobbles that he walked and see Edinburgh through his eyes. And why not catch John Sessions and Nigel Planer talking about their lifelong fascination of the man. Share your favourite Stevenson facts with us on Facebook and Twitter #RLSDay, and open a book, read a story and raise a glass to RLS, wherever you find yourself.

A Robert Louis Stevenson Evening with John Sessions and Nigel Planer

Tuesday 13th November, 7-8pm

Reid Hall, Bristo Square, Edinburgh EH8 9AG

It is the perfect finale to RLS Day, and Stevenson’s birthday: actors and writers, Nigel Planer and John Sessions, both famous in their own right, discuss their lifelong fascination with another famous man, Robert Louis Stevenson. Talking about his life and works – from moustaches to memoirs, tall tales to world travel – they’ll be reading from his novels and poems, and working out what it is that makes Stevenson the literary phenomenon he is today.

Part of the RLS Day celebrations and brought to you by Edinburgh Napier University’s Centre for Literature and Writing (CLAW), in partnership with the Edinburgh UNESCO City of Literature Trust. Tickets cost £5. To book yours: purchase from the Edinburgh Napier Online Store.