A giant poplar tree is to be illuminated at The Botanics for Christmas.
Light artist Malcolm Innes will be lighting up the tallest tree in the Garden, a poplar which stands at almost one hundred feet tall.
The tree will be transformed with a mix of uplighting and sparkling lights from Friday 16 November, and the tree will be lit from 1 – 4pm every day throughout the festive season until Sunday, 6 January, brightening up those gloomy winter afternoons.
The planning application for the redevelopment of the Edinburgh Academicals Rugby Ground in Raeburn Place has now been submitted to the City Council. You can view the plans and illustrations either online via the Edinburgh Council Planning Portal or in person at Stockbridge Library.
We want to know what you think about the plans – do you think they should be approved or not?
[polldaddy poll=6646321]
This poll will be closed at 7:00pm on Thursday the 1st of November, and the results will be used as part of our NENgage session at Stockbridge Library that evening on collecting and using data. More details and free tickets for the event can be found here.
Flora Stevenson Primary School’s approach to physical education has attracted the attention of university researchers. Pupils at the Comely Bank school have opted for daily physical activity – with ‘remarkable’ results – and the successful initiative will now be rolled out to more local schools.
Over the past two years extra training has been provided for teachers and pupils have been given opportunities to be active daily. This approach has made a significant impact on pupils who are showing an increase in confidence, motivation and self-esteem, as well as physical ability.
Since 2011 the school has been working with Winning Scotland Foundation and The City of Edinburgh Council who have provided a variety of support and funding for the initiative.
Pupils receive PE lessons three days a week and an active class challenge for their ‘non-PE’ day. The week culminates with the opportunity for them to participate in an optional hour of physical activity on a Friday – incredibly nearly 80% of all pupils now choose to participate in active options which include a wide variety of activities from fencing to football and hip-hop to tae kwon do.
Edinburgh University has been so impressed with this approach it is studying the impact it is having on training teachers within their own school.
Councillor Paul Godzik, Education Convener said, “This project has really had remarkable results so far. Alongside the great uptake of activities at school and the positive impact this is having on pupils, many are now choosing to partake in sports outwith school time. This means they are more likely to be physically active regularly and continue to be so in the long-run; this is an invaluable lifestyle change for them. This is a great example of how working with other organisations can lead to positive change.”
The project has allowed Flora’s to work closely with parents and other schools within the local community, one of which is Broughton High School (one of three school based Community Sports Hubs in Edinburgh). Sport can play an extremely important role in assisting children’s transition from Primary School to Secondary school.
Angela Hutt, PE Specialist at the school is delighted that her initial idea was developed and came to fruition thanks to the support and commitment of Shelagh Dow, Depute Head Teacher and her fellow teachers. Angela said; “The Curriculum for Excellence had given us the flexibility to provide pupils with opportunities to be active daily. As Friday’s activities are a reward for good behaviour we are seeing a positive impact on behaviour throughout the week. This is an ambitious project and wouldn’t be possible without support. A big thanks to everyone who has worked with us on this.”
Morag Arnot of Winning Scotland Foundation said, “This project has had a remarkable affect on the children involved and believe it could act as a blueprint for getting every child in Scotland active every day. We have been pleased to be able to support the project since its inception. We look forward to seeing how the project continues to develop across other schools and the impact it can have on more children.”
Cath Morrison, Senior Health Policy Officer, NHS Lothian said, “The advantages of children being physically active are well known but what Flora’s has done is package it up in such a way that it becomes part of their everyday life and influences behaviour outwith that time also. We are proud to be able to fund this programme and look forward to working with new schools on future projects also.”
Additional funding from Winning Scotland Foundation & the NHS has allowed the project to continue this year at Flora’s and to be introduced to Stockbridge Primary. It is hoped to further extend it to the remaining two cluster schools in August next year.
Two local tenants groups are to take their protest over bin collection changes right to the council’s door – literally. Tenants and Residents in Pilton and recently-formed Tenants and Residents in Muirhouse will be dumping black bags at the North Neighbourhood Office in West Pilton Gardens on Monday morning.
A spokesperson for the groups said: “We are taking action against the chaos caused by the Council’s mismanagement of the changes to refuse collection. Many residents don’t have recycling bins yet, and some areas don’t even have enough green wheelie bins. It has led to rubbish piling up in our streets, and we have told the Council that they need to sort this situation out. However, the Council is not listening to residents concerns so we are forced to take further action.”
The groups are inviting local residents to join the protest outside the Local Office at 9.30 on Monday morning – and encourage them to bring a few bags of rubbish of their own to dump outside the office.
There’s no doubt changes introduced to refuse collection – particularly the move to fortnightly bin pickups – has angered many residents, but after initial ‘teething problems’ the new system has settled down and that the sight (and smell) of piles of uncollected refuse is over. Improving? Not so, say the protest group.
TRIP secretary Jon Black, one of the protest organisers, said: “Every week bins are overflowing, and the situation is getting worse not better. We demand that the council re-introduce weekly collections until people have received their recycling bins, and recycling rates are improved. We want the council to clear up all the rubbish that has been missed in our area.”
Councillor Lesley Hinds is convener of the Transport, Infrastructure and Environment Committee. She said that fortnightly collections were introduced to encourage households to use recycling services available and reduce the amount of rubbish being sent to landfill.
She added: “In Muirhouse and Pilton, recycling advisers have been down twice in the last few months to speak to residents and will continue to do so in the coming months. After discussion with the local community we are looking to put in more recycling points in an effort to encourage more recycling, but people must take responsibility for the amount of waste they produce. I know there have been issues with the implementation of the new service and we need to get that right first, but I hope everyone agrees with what we are trying to achieve.”
What’s your view? Is the system improving or is the council talking rubbish?
Let us know!
Send us your pictures
This Thursday we will be holding our fifth NENgage workshop, all about online fundraising. We’ll be hearing from two experienced fundraisers, Mark Cooper and Peggy Hughes, and learning lots about the different tools which you can use, and the best strategies for hitting your targets.
There are lots of different tools available to raise funds for projects on the internet – Just Giving, BT My Donate or Virgin Money Giving for registered charities – Kickstarter, We Fund and Indiegogo for creative projects, and specialist sites like Start Some Good and People Fund it for social enterprises. How can even raise money for charity by shopping online, using sites like Give As You Live.
Online donations can be a exciting way to raise money. An online campaign can reach new supporters that traditional fundraising efforts won’t reach – particularly younger supporters. It also raises more than money – it can raise the profile of an organisation too.
It’s also efficient and transparent – the money goes straight into your charities bank account, so there’s no need to deal with and gather cash donations or cheques. People can donate online, or even by text message from their mobile phone, use tools such as JustTextGiving.
A small but growing percentage of charitable giving in the UK is made by online donations – the percentage nearly doubled between 2008 and 2010 from 4% to 7%, and that proportion is likely to rise, so it’s worth learning how these tools work.
But before we get carried away, it’s important to remember that it still takes hard work and effort to run a successful online fundraising campaign. You have to have a plan. You’ll need to write about your project, share pictures and you may need to make a short video explaining what you are hoping to achieve and why to encourage people to give.
You’ll need to drive traffic towards the donations page, using social media tools like Facebook and Twitter. You’ll need to thank and perhaps reward people for giving to your cause – a lot of crowd-funding campaigns offer a sliding scale of rewards for people who give the most.
So, it’s not necessarily an easy option, and you certainly shouldn’t ditch your traditional fundraising efforts – but it is another useful tool for community groups to raise money, and their profile, and one that is sure to get increasingly popular.
The city council will only use agency staff to empty bins in emergencies, North Edinburgh campaigners have been told. The assurance came from Councillor Lesley Hinds in response to questions posed by local campaign group North Edinburgh Fights Back.
The group had challenged council leaders over the use of private contractors in the refuse collection service. Councillor Hinds, who chairs the Transport, Infrastructure and Environment Committee, responded: ” I have had several meetings with the Director of Services for Communities and now have an assurance that within the next few weeks, agency staff will not be used in the cleansing area except in emergency use. I wish to see permanent staff employed in cleansing.”
She went on: “You will be aware that the Labour Group on the Council opposed ABM (Alternative Business Model) from the beginning and voted on many occasions to stop the privatisation of council services. During this ABM process an in-house bid was submitted, which included changes to how the service was to be delivered. I had a meeting, at my request, with he shop stewards from Unite and we agreed a number of actions we can take to ensure we have permanent staff employed with good terms and conditions.”
A spokesperson for North Edinburgh Fights Back said: “We welcome Councillor Hinds’ statement but we will continue to monitor the situation.”
News of another free course for adults starting at the Prentice Centre next month. ‘An Introduction to Scotland on Screen’ starts on Monday 15 October from 1.30 – 3.30pm and will run on Monday afternoons for eight to ten weeks. From ‘The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie’ and ‘Brigadoon’ to ‘Local Hero’ and ‘Braveheart’, the course will look at how Scotland has been portrayed over the years on the silver screen through screenings, discussions and visits.
The ‘Whisky Galore’ visit could be an interesting one …!
For further information or to book a place call The Prentice Centre on 552 0485.
What was your all-time favourite Scottish film? Let us know!
I am faced with a dilemma. This evening, Pilton Central Association will be holding their annual general meeting in West Pilton Neighbourhood Centre. The PCA has supported community initiatives across Greater Pilton for over fifty years, and just this month sponsored the latest edition of the NEN.
But over at Stockbridge Library, Tom Allan will be the hosting the first of our NENgage social media sessions – an opportunity to learn all you need to know about Facebook, Twitter, blogs – you name it, if it’s new media Tom will be covering it!
The old and the new – what to do?
Well, I’m a traditionalist. I was lucky enough to grow up and work during the golden age of newspapers. There are no words to describe the feeling in your gut when the presses started up under the old Scotman building on North Bridge. Deep in the bowels of the building, a klaxon would sound and you’d feel the building literally shake as the massive printing presses rumbled up to speed. Down in the machine room below Market Street the noise was deafening, and oh, the smell of newsprint and ink – and drink, but that’s another story!
So yes, I love newspapers – the feel of them, the smell of them and long may they be with us. I hope there will always be a place for newspapers.
But there’s no denying that technology has moved on, and that people’s demands and expectations have changed. Newspapers are extremely expensive to produce and the second a newspaper has gone to print, the news is out of date. And by the time it hits the streets – particularly for papers like the NEN – it can be very old news indeed. People today expect to be kept up to date instantly – and that’s now possible. We have instant, accessible 24 hour news whenever we want it, and that’s thanks to new technology and new media.
Now I won’t pretend that I’m an avid disciple of the new media. I don’t feel the need to know that Tom ‘likes McDonald’s’ on Facebook, that Dick ‘is waiting for a bus’ on Twitter or that Harry is ‘wondering what to make for tea’ on his blog. I don’t need to know these things, and I don’t know why some people feel the need to share the minutiae of their daily lives with the whole world. Some of the more enthusiastic devotees surely don’t have time to live a life, they’re so busy telling the Twittersphere what they’re doing/thinking/planning/have done/will do/might do tomorrow if they’ve got time OMG! However that’s just me; we’re all different.
New media does have a role; and as you’re reading this you’ll be aware that NEN has a blog, a Twitter account and a Facebook page. The blog was created in January 2011 and so far there have been 693 posts (this will be 694), around 45,000 views, we have 72 followers plus another 375 Twitter followers. Our busiest day was Jan 16 this year when we had 2200 ‘views’ for a story about a local woman who had been attacked. The internet allows us to reach readers far and wide – we’ve been accessed from Australia, Nigeria, the USA and Moldova. And you won’t find copies of the NEN in your local library or community centre in Chisinau!
So new (and newer and newer) media is here to stay, and I would like to have attended this evening’s first workshop session. However the workshop is the first in a series, and there will be other opportunities, so instead I will take my leaky pen and battered old notepad to join my old pals at West Pilton Neighbourhood Centre – the iPads, laptops, Blackberries and PDA mobile phones will just have to wait!
PS:
Just a thought. I could always attend the start of the Stockbridge session and then leave for West Pilton, using a modern transportation technology called the motorised omnibus!
