Health and safety manager Alan Crawford said: “We are delighted to have achieved the award for the second year running. We endeavour to ensure risks are avoided and this is a great recognition of our efforts in making sure thatTelford is a safe environment for staff and students.”
Spartans were crowned Central taxis Premier Division Champions earlier this month for the third consecutive year. The Ainslie Park men traveled to Rosewell, the home of Whitehill Welfare and clinched the title thanks to a Ross Archibald goal. Co-manager Sam Lynch said “We deserved the title over the course of the year and I am delighted with the win. The boys are ecstatic, the atmosphere in the changing room is superb. We won’t get carried away however, we are still in the later stages of a few cups and we will now concentrate on them.” Lynch added “I thanked the players for their superb efforts over the season and congratulated them. Tonight is my seventh league title at Spartans and I’ve enjoyed every one.”
Spartans faced the same opposition a week earlier and were defeated 2-1, their first league defeat of the season and this delayed them being crowned Champions. One week later and they were held by Whitehill until the dying stages of the game when they were awarded a penalty late in the game and team Captain Ross Archibald stepped up to fire the ball home.
Goal here Archibald said “That is the most important goal I have scored this year as it gave us the vital three points that means we have the title. It’s been a long time coming for us. I think over the season we have been the most consistent team in the league, although maybe not always the best team. We have played good football and when we didn’t play well we ground out results.”
Club chairman, Craig Graham has nothing but praise for the team and what they have achieved. He said: “From the start of the season the number one objective was to win the league. It became clear that we were going to win the league and the players have done exceptionally well especially considering there were a number of close games that could have gone either way but the players used resilience and skill to prevent any losses.”
“The thing with winning the league two years in a row is that you become the team to beat and as a result the opponents often bring their best game, which didn’t make it easy for us. We are quite fortunate that we have a number of players who have been with us for five or six seasons and their experience was a huge benefit to the team. If they lost an early goal they didn’t panic and were able to work to get it back.”
Craig admits that there may be a temptation to relax after the league triumph but the team is still in contention for four cups he said: “There’s always that danger the team loose their edge but it’s a big game at the weekend. The focus now is to win all four cups in addition to the league which has never been done at this level before.”
The other half of the management team, Mike Lawson was on holiday on the night the league was won and on his return he said “Our first aim this season was to retain our league title and that we have done with a good bit to spare. At Spartans we know that on their day any given side can beat any other in our league and apart from ourselves the table shows that. Our squad of players is very similar to any in the top half of the league but it’s our consistency of performance which puts us above the rest. Our boys manage to play near the top of their game week in, week out and that shows in the league table.”
Lawson continued “For what they have achieved so far this season I congratulate each and every one of them. The new boys have fitted in well, the experienced players have helped those developing and the younger influx have kept everyone on their toes. It’s hard to pick any individual player out but I would say it is fitting that our “on fire” captain stepped up to score the goal which secured the league title.”
Picture: Craig Graham
A protest regarding plans for Inverleith Park is planned for next week’s Council meeting.
Local Councillors Lesley Hinds and Iain Whyte have united to highlight ‘deep community concern’ over the park’s future
Edinburgh council says Inverleith Park’s depot is no longer needed and propose selling off the space for housing. Friends of the park have arranged a demonstration outside the council chambers at 9am on Thursday 28 April.
The area’s councillors Lesley Hinds and Iain Whyte have tabled a motion for the meeting. They will ask the council to agree to the following:
“Council notes the deep concern of the local community regarding the proposed disposal of the depot site within Inverleith Park. Council therefore instructs the Director of City Development to report to the Policy and Strategy Committee setting out the current position with regard to the proposal to dispose of the site; the Planning status of the land and the details of any community consultation undertaken or planned on this proposal.”
Ecofusion is a multi cultural environmental and family-friendly festival which aims to encourage more people to enjoy the outdoors.
The event is hosted within 5 colourful Indian marquees, and provides a space for a wide range of environmental and multi cultural community-based organisations to stimulate interest in Scotland’s Outdoors through hands on fun activities such as scaling a climbing tower, having a go at a cycling obstacle course, making seed bombs and meeting the world’s fastest bird of prey, the peregrine falcon. Multi-cultural organisations will be giving visitors the chance to take part in a wide range of nature-related craft activities from around the world, such as Nepalese plate making, Chinese knotting, Japanese origami and henna painting.
Ecofusion provides a multi-cultural “fusion” of entertainment with music by Sambasene and Diwan, dancing by the Nepalese Scotland Association, story telling and drumming workshops. And the acclaimed Mosque Kitchen will be tempting visitors with some delicious dishes from India and Pakistan.
Don’t miss it!
Climbing wall
The Bike station and Bike Club
Sambasene and Diwan – Senegalese band
Nepalese Dancing
African children dance group (new)
Chinese knotting
Japanese crafts
Henna painting
Face painting
Multi cultural football tournament
Powerpod
Felt making
Drumming workshop
Story telling
Eco talisman workshop
Police horses
Mugen Taiko Dojo drummers
Stalls from:
Friends of the Earth Scotland, Scottish Wildlife Trust, Community Organisation for Racial Equality, Falconry Scotland, Butterfly World, Real Nappy project, Changeworks, RSPB, SNH, Historic Scotland
Food from:
Whitmuir Organic Café, Mosque Kitchen, Risotto4U
We’re looking for volunteers from Friday 8th until Monday 11th April, helping to set up/take down the event structures, assisting stall holders/activity providers, promoting recycling facilities available, directing event participants and providing information and support. If you’d like to be involved, please contact Denise Millan on d.millan@btcv.org.uk
Can you feed a family of five a healthy nutritious meal on a budget of just a fiver? Sounds impossible, but mums from Muirhouse and West Pilton rose to challenge and have produced ‘It’s Yummy Mummy’, a cook book packed with recipes that not only won’t break the bank but taste great too!
The community cooks from Muirhouse Womens Group and West Pilton Neighbourhood Centre’s Buggy Brigade launched their recipe book at North Edinburgh Arts Centre yesterday (Wednesday 30 March).
The ‘It’s Yummy Mummy’ initiative is part of the Community Healthy Lifestyles Project launched last year. Project coordinator Lisa Arnott explained: “The project was launched last year, and the mothers organised a cooking competition with the winning recipes selected to go into a cookbook. We received a wealth of great recipes from all across North Edinburgh, and entrants were then invited to cook their recipes for a panel of judges. The cook book contains a wide range of the very best recipes – and every meal in the book can be created to feed a family of five for £5.” Continue reading Community Cook Book Launched
The Scottish Parliamentary Elections will be held on 5 May and the following candidates have been confirmed:
Edinburgh Eastern
Ewan Aitken, Scottish Labour Party and The Co-operative Party
Cameron Buchanan, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Kenny MacAskill, Scottish National Party (SNP)
Martin Veart, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Edinburgh Central
Marco Biagi, Scottish National Party (SNP)
Sarah Boyack, Scottish Labour Party
Alex Cole-Hamilton, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Iain McGill, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Edinburgh Northern and Leith
Malcolm Chisholm, Scottish Labour Party
Dan Farthing, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Sheila Catriona Dorothy Low, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Shirley-Anne Somerville, Scottish National Party (SNP)
Edinburgh Pentlands
Simon James Clark, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Ricky Henderson, Scottish Labour Party
Gordon MacDonald, Scottish National Party (SNP)
David William McLetchie, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Edinburgh Southern
Gavin Brown, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Jim Eadie, Scottish National Party (SNP)
Paul Godzik, Scottish Labour Party and The Co-operative Party
Mike Pringle, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Edinburgh Western
Lesley Hinds, Scottish Labour Party and The Co-operative Party
Colin Keir, Scottish National Party (SNP)
Gordon John Lindhurst, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Margaret Joy Smith, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Lothian
ALL SCOTLAND PENSIONERS PARTY – Scottish Senior Citizens Party
Alex Lawson; David Lawson; Morag Thompson; Anna Kerr; Tommi Kerr
BRITISH NATIONAL PARTY
David Orr; Leanne Tracy Marshall; Kevin William Doyle; James Alexander Main
SCOTTISH CHRISTIAN PARTY “PROCLAIMING CHRIST’S LORDSHIP” – Christians Together
Abimbola Olusola Kadara; Mbuli Malanga Aime Lombaya; Bridget Johnson Mosanya; David Peter Rodney Hews
SCOTTISH CHRISTIAN PEOPLES ALLIANCE
Michael Thomas McGlynn
SCOTTISH CONSERVATIVE AND UNIONIST PARTY
David McLetchie; Gavin Brown; Cameron Buchanan; Gordon Lindhurst; Iain Mcgill; Scott Douglas; Christopher Donnelly; Andrew Hardie; Sheila Low
SCOTTISH GREEN PARTY – Alison Johnstone for MSP
Alison Johnston; Steve Burgess; Maggie Chapman; Peter Andrew McColl; Shonagh McEwan; Adam Ramsay; Kate Joester
SCOTTISH LABOUR PARTY
Sarah Boyack; Kezia Dugdale; Neil Findlay; Ann Henderson; Jalal Chaudry; Simon MacFadyen; James Ashe
SCOTTISH LIBERAL DEMOCRATS
Margaret Joy Smith; Alexander Geoffrey Cole-Hamilton; Gordon Ferguson Mackenzie; John Loughton; Jacqueline Dianne Bell; Daniel Marisco Farthing; Ian James Younger
SCOTTISH NATIONAL PARTY (SNP) – Alex Salmond for First Minister
Kenny MacAskill; Fiona Hyslop; Shirley-Anne Somerville; Angela Constance; George Kerevan; Colin Beattie; Alex Orr; Bill Wilson; Gordon MacDonald; Calum Cashley; Jim Eadie; Alasdair Rankin
SCOTTISH SOCIALIST PARTY – Independent Socialist Scotland
Colin Fox; Catriona Grant; Laura Bennison; Andrew McPake; Alistair Hendry; Barbara Scott
SOCIALIST LABOUR PARTY
David Don Jacobsen; Michael Lynch; Linda Sheridan; Barbara Ann Bryan
SOLIDARITY – SCOTLAND’S SOCIALIST MOVEMENT – SOLIDARITY
Patricia Joan Smith; Ian Drummond; Vanesa Fuertes; Willie Black; Jack Fraser; Shirley Margaret Gibb; Anne Edmonds; Adrian Stuart Cannon
THE LIBERAL PARTY – Liberal Party – Against Coalition Cut Backs
John Hein
UK INDEPENDENCE PARTY (UKIP)
Otto Inglis; Gordon Norrie; Alistair Forrest; Gavin Clark; Alastair MacIntyre
INDEPENDENTS
Mev Brown
David John Hogg
Margo MacDonald
Ken O’Neill
Polls open from 7am – 10pm.
Dave Pickering
An affordable housing development which overlooks the Shore in Leith has ‘sold-out’ within a month of being released by Port of Leith Housing Association (PoLHA).
Sixteen properties in the 60-apartment are designated for ‘shared ownership’, where people buy and own a percentage of the property and rent the remainder from the Association, and each of these have now been reserved. PoLHA received around 60 applications for the properties, which were priced from £127,500 to £170,000 with most purchasing a 25% share. The remainder of the flats will be allocated for social rent.
Keith Anderson, Chief Executive of Port of Leith Housing Association, said: “We have had a phenomenal response to the shared ownership offering at Coburg Street. These are set to be great flats in a great location so that undoubtedly added to their appeal. However, it also highlights the desperate need there is for affordable homes and how difficult it is for people, particularly young people on starter salaries and others working in key roles such as nursing, to get on the housing ladder. The need for affordable housing has never been greater.”
The flats have open-plan living spaces with modern fitted bathrooms and kitchens including all integrated appliances. Most of the two bedroom properties feature en-suite shower rooms. There are balconies and terraces in 10 of the properties, with a communal landscaped courtyard, as well as a secure underground car park.
Building is due to be completed in the autumn.
Dave Pickering
ALMOST 6,000 Edinburgh and Lothians residents can now receive advance flood warnings straight to their phone. Launched last week, the free service will benefit 100,000 at-risk properties across Scotland.
The new service will provide the earliest possible warning for residents living in communities threatened by river or coastal flooding in Edinburgh and the Lothians. The new Scotland-wide Floodline direct warning service aims to give the 5,959 at-risk residents living in Edinburgh, and the Lothians valuable time to take action and protect their families, homes and businesses.
Speaking at the launch event, Environment and Climate Change Minister Roseanna Cunningham MSP described it as an “essential tool” and urged people to sign up for the free warnings, which will be sent to registered mobile phones and landlines.
Funding from the Scottish Government has enabled SEPA to develop and run the new direct warning service, which is a significant improvement to the existing Floodline recorded telephone and website facility.
Previously the Scottish public relied on hearing about flooding through the media, by word of mouth, through local services or by contacting SEPA’s 24-hour recorded telephone service. Now anyone living in Edinburgh and the Lothians – including those who live in, work or travel through areas at risk of flooding – can sign up to the new service and receive details on the likelihood and timing of any potential flooding threat. This ensures everyone can get the benefit of SEPA’s extensive flood forecasting expertise and monitoring networks.
Service improvements include:
Roseanna Cunningham MSP, Minister for the Environment and Climate Change, said: “The Floodline direct warning service is a quick and up to date way of making sure that communities know about the risk of flooding in their area as soon as possible, giving them more time to prepare and protect themselves. I want as many people as possible to sign up to this free service and improve their resilience to flooding. This is not just about homes as the benefits apply equally to businesses and we have recently seen that they can be disrupted by flooding too. Coupled with the new Scottish Flood Forecasting Service, which gives emergency responders better and earlier information, Floodline means that the people of Scotland will benefit directly from the £9 million we’ve invested in these innovative approaches.”
Professor James Curran, SEPA’s Director of Science and Strategy, said: “The improvements we have made to Floodline are a huge step forward in terms of flood warning for Scotland. Making it easier for people to help themselves is a key part to this, and signing-up to Floodline’s direct warning service can be done online, by phone or by filling-in a registration form. In fact we’re sending thousands of these directly to properties in flood warning areas, so look out for these valuable envelopes, use their contents and if you receive a flood warning message – take action!”
A highly visible radio, newspaper and roadshow campaign has also been launched, based on the theme ‘Life doesn’t always give you advance warnings, but Floodline can’, to encourage Scots to sign up to receive free advance warnings from Floodline.
The table below contains a breakdown of the number of properties in Edinburgh and the Lothians that are in Flood Warning Areas – people in these properties should definitely sign up for the alerts! Some local areas have a particularly high number of properties affected:
| Bonnington | 219 | Total: 5,959 |
| Cameron Toll | 53 | |
| Colinton Mains | 570 | |
| Cramond | 27 | |
| Dean Village | 143 | |
| Haddington (Green) | 212 | |
| Haddington (Orange) | 180 | |
| Haddington (Red) | 544 | |
| Longstone/Stenhouse | 392 | |
| Mid Liberton | 49 | |
| Musselburgh | 331 | |
| Portobello | 249 | |
| Roseburn | 1046 | |
| Stockbridge | 629 | |
| The Inch Park | 218 | |
| The Inch Park (Island) | 46 | |
| Warriston | 1051 |
People can sign up now by visiting www.floodlinescotland.org.uk/signup
He said: “To say the least, this has been a very difficult year! At its Budget meeting on Thursday 10 February this year, the Council took a final decision to “disinvest” in a number of community organisations, one of which was The NEN. This decision had been anticipated for some time, but was hard to bear all the same. It means that we shall get no further funding from that quarter and effectively has forced the closure of the paper in its current form.
The Board has been very diligent over the past year in trying to persuade the Council to continue investing in the NEN. Delegations of Board members have met with local Councillors to press our case. We have also been trying to find alternative ways of funding the project and have had some success with advertising and sponsorship. For the past year we have been able to continue with support from the Fairer Scotland Fund and through the good will of the staff, who agreed a cut in hours and pay. The community reps on the two local Neighbourhood Partnerships have also been very supportive, recommending continued funding for the paper. Unfortunately, elected members, apart from two, have shown either no, or very little, support.
However, all this effort has been in vain, as you know, and we were forced to issue staff with redundancy notices and, finally, to sell off the office in order to provide the redundancy money. This is now in-hand. The result is that after over 30 years your community newspaper, the voice of your community, will no longer be dropping through your letterbox each month for the foreseeable future.
During the past year we have also been looking at possible partnerships with other organisations, such as Telford College, in order to keep the NEN going. This looked at one time like a good fit, as we already work with the journalism students to give them work experience. The College would have provided us with valuable support in terms of work space, IT and administrative support, access to design etc. However, these discussions are at a very early stage and may come to nothing. So, we are now looking at alternative homes, and to see if we can start up again in the future on a different, perhaps more modest, basis.
We have applied to the two Neighbourhood Partnerships for community grants, one for assistance with fundraising and the other for capacity building within the local community. The aim will be to harness the immense amount of support within the community and to develop the capacity of anyone interested in becoming “stringers” – people who can provide their own reports and articles. If we are successful, the grants, together with the surplus from the sale of the office, should go a long way to help us become sustainable in time. In a sense this is a return to the NEN’s beginnings, by becoming once again a community project, run by volunteers.
To end on a more positive note – the Board are committed to ensuring that this isn’t the end of the NEN. We will work with the community to try to identify practical ways of raising income to put the paper on a sustainable footing. We will have some money from the sale of the office and we will be looking to find a new ‘home’ and will be exploring ways of reducing costs even more, while trying to maintain a quality product. This will take some time, but we are hopeful of getting there.
We are extremely grateful for the invaluable support we have received from the local community and we will continue to follow up opportunities to re-launch your newspaper.
We have developed an online presence for The NEN with a new blog, Facebook and twitter profiles, so we can at least keep the name of NEN going. The success of any new venture, however, will depend on the willingness of local people to get involved, so keep in touch.
Finally, I would like to thank all my fellow Board members, both those who have resigned during the year, and those who are willing to continue, for all their support. I would also like to thank the three members of staff, without whose hard work we would not have been able to produce a newspaper at all and I am sure we all wish them well in whatever they do from now on.”
NEN’s annual report will be presented at the project’s EGM/AGM this Wednesday (30 March) and board member Ann Confrey has appealed for public support. She said: “NEN needs Board members. Show your support at our AGM/EGM at 2.30pm on Wednesday 30th March at West Pilton Neighbourhood Centre”.
Dave Pickering
He said: “To say the least, this has been a very difficult year! At its Budget meeting on Thursday 10 February this year, the Council took a final decision to “disinvest” in a number of community organisations, one of which was The NEN. This decision had been anticipated for some time, but was hard to bear all the same. It means that we shall get no further funding from that quarter and effectively has forced the closure of the paper in its current form.
The Board has been very diligent over the past year in trying to persuade the Council to continue investing in the NEN. Delegations of Board members have met with local Councillors to press our case. We have also been trying to find alternative ways of funding the project and have had some success with advertising and sponsorship. For the past year we have been able to continue with support from the Fairer Scotland Fund and through the good will of the staff, who agreed a cut in hours and pay. The community reps on the two local Neighbourhood Partnerships have also been very supportive, recommending continued funding for the paper. Unfortunately, elected members, apart from two, have shown either no, or very little, support.
However, all this effort has been in vain, as you know, and we were forced to issue staff with redundancy notices and, finally, to sell off the office in order to provide the redundancy money. This is now in-hand. The result is that after over 30 years your community newspaper, the voice of your community, will no longer be dropping through your letterbox each month for the foreseeable future.
During the past year we have also been looking at possible partnerships with other organisations, such as Telford College, in order to keep the NEN going. This looked at one time like a good fit, as we already work with the journalism students to give them work experience. The College would have provided us with valuable support in terms of work space, IT and administrative support, access to design etc. However, these discussions are at a very early stage and may come to nothing. So, we are now looking at alternative homes, and to see if we can start up again in the future on a different, perhaps more modest, basis.
We have applied to the two Neighbourhood Partnerships for community grants, one for assistance with fundraising and the other for capacity building within the local community. The aim will be to harness the immense amount of support within the community and to develop the capacity of anyone interested in becoming “stringers” – people who can provide their own reports and articles. If we are successful, the grants, together with the surplus from the sale of the office, should go a long way to help us become sustainable in time. In a sense this is a return to the NEN’s beginnings, by becoming once again a community project, run by volunteers.
To end on a more positive note – the Board are committed to ensuring that this isn’t the end of the NEN. We will work with the community to try to identify practical ways of raising income to put the paper on a sustainable footing. We will have some money from the sale of the office and we will be looking to find a new ‘home’ and will be exploring ways of reducing costs even more, while trying to maintain a quality product. This will take some time, but we are hopeful of getting there.
We are extremely grateful for the invaluable support we have received from the local community and we will continue to follow up opportunities to re-launch your newspaper.
We have developed an online presence for The NEN with a new blog, Facebook and twitter profiles, so we can at least keep the name of NEN going. The success of any new venture, however, will depend on the willingness of local people to get involved, so keep in touch.
Finally, I would like to thank all my fellow Board members, both those who have resigned during the year, and those who are willing to continue, for all their support. I would also like to thank the three members of staff, without whose hard work we would not have been able to produce a newspaper at all and I am sure we all wish them well in whatever they do from now on.”
NEN’s annual report will be presented at the project’s EGM/AGM this Wednesday (30 March) and board member Ann Confrey has appealed for public support. She said: “NEN needs Board members. Show your support at our AGM/EGM at 2.30pm on Wednesday 30th March at West Pilton Neighbourhood Centre”.
Dave Pickering
