The NEN – North Edinburgh News – Page 3870 – The community media resource for north Edinburgh

Painting Protest

To celebrate the launch of the BBC’s ‘Your Paintings’ website, which aims to give the general public access to all of the Nation’s oil paintings in thousands of museums and other public institutions, Screen Education Edinburgh (formerly Pilton Video) was commissioned to make a trilogy of ten-minute films for the BBC Learning website. SEE worked with local community activists, sheep farmers and artists who use paintings from the website to tell their stories.

“Painting Protest” is an exploration by North Edinburgh community activists of the sometimes hidden history of social activism in Scotland, looking at paintings from the 17th century to the present day and includes archive footage of the group’s campaigns. You can watch the film by clicking on the link below:

http://vimeo.com/63170317

Sainsbury’s Blackhall raises over £7000 for Comic Relief

The money has been collected and counted – and Sainsbury’s Blackhall have today announced that their fundraising for Red Nose Day 2013 raised a magnificent £ 7,116.00!

Local residents across North Edinburgh got in the spirit by raising funds, including Sainsbury’s customers, who made a huge contribution by donating money to fundraising events at the Blackhall store as well purchasing this year’s range of merchandise including the Nose with Toes, sold in-store.

Among the fundraising highlights at the Blackhall store this year were our colleague and local resident, Susie Booth’s Sponsored Silence, at her checkout – £ 464, a Ladies Night at Silverknowes Golf Club – £ 1,042 and the Cheeky Chopstick Challenge at Blackhall and Davidson’s Mains Primary Schools – £ 606. . Other activities which saw colleagues ‘Do Something Funny for Money’ included an in-store Zumba class.

Sainsbury’s Blackhall Store Manager David Bainbridge said: “Many of our colleagues were ‘reddy’ to go one step further this year to mark the 25^th anniversary of Red Nose Day. It’s been a great experience over the last few weeks and we wouldn’t have raised this much if it wasn’t for the generous donations from our North Edinburgh customers”.

Sainsbury’s supermarkets, including North Edinburgh customers were able to do their bit for the environment too by recycling their Red Noses in-store until the end of March. Sainsbury’s and Comic Relief have partnered for a second year with leading UK carpet underlay manufacturer, Ball & Young, to recycle the PU Foam Red Noses. The collected Noses will start a new life as part of Ball & Young’s award-winning Cloud 9 range of underlays, used mainly in British homes.

Katherine How, Sainsbury’s Comic Relief Partnership Manager, added: “It’s good news for the environment and it’s helping Comic Relief supporters make an even bigger lasting impact, so thank-you to everyone who wore their Red Noses with pride and have now given them a new home”.

And good news comes in three’s – the Name the 3^rd Guide Dog Puppy also raised £ 100 for Red Nose Day and £ 100 for Guide Dogs – the winner will be announced shortly!

Congratulations Craigie – now Blackhall flies the flag for Edinburgh

Congratulations to these Craigroyston P6 pupils who took part in the Scottish European Education Trust’s Edinburgh Schools Euro Quiz in the City Chambers last month. It was the first time Craigroyston has taken part in the competition and the boys did the school proud.

Twenty city schools took part in the 6 March competition, with questions on the European Union, countries and capitals, languages, landmarks, culture, sports and the arts.

In an exciting finish Blackhall finally went on to take the trophy and will now represent Edinburgh at the forthcoming national final at the Scottish Parliament. Well done, Blackhall – we’re all behind you!

Cumberland Street victim identified

A man who died after being found unconscious in a lane off Cumberland Street has been identified. Lee Hayburn, who was 28 and of no fixed abode, was discovered at around 5am last Friday. He was taken to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary but died a short time later.

Police Scotland are treating Mr Hayburn’s death as unexplained and are investigations are ongoing. Members of the public with any information should contact Police Scotland on 101 or call Crimestoppers in confidence on 0800 555 111.

Mr Hayburn was discovered close to The Cumberland Bar

Help make Forth a better place to live

Help us make Forth Neighbourhood Partnership area a better place to live

Forth Neighbourhood Partnership would like to hear your views on what you think could improve the Forth area.

Neighbourhood Partnerships (NPs) are the City of Edinburgh Council ’s approach to delivering local community planning and they work to improve the quality of life in the area. The four councillors for the Forth Ward are all members of Forth NP along with City of Edinburgh Council , Lothian & Borders Police, Lothian NHS and local Community Councils.

The Partnership has recently been reviewing its work and we hope you can help shape our priorities by telling us what improvements you would like to see in the Forth area. This can include planning issues, community safety, parks & green spaces, traffic issues or anything else you are concerned about.

We also want your suggestions for small to medium scale environmental improvement projects for funding through our Neighbourhood Environment Programme (NEP). For more information see – www.edinburghnp.org.uk/neighbourhood-partnerships/forth/about/neighbourhood-environment-fund

Tell us what you think would improve the Forth area by:

1. Completing a form online at: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/GPT7383

2. Send an email with your priorities to jim.pattison@edinburgh.gov.uk

How do Neighbourhood Partnerships Work?

They can:

• Bring decision making closer to the community

• Provide opportunities for communities to express their views

• Set out the priorities to improve quality of life in the communities

• Make recommendations to the Council and other partner organisations about the way services may be delivered in the local area

• Comment on strategic decisions that affect the local area

• Award small grants to community groups for projects that can make a difference in the local area.

Jim Pattison

Forth Neighbourhood Partnership Development Officer

North Edinburgh Local Office,

8 West Pilton Gardens, EH4 4DP.

direct dial- 0131 529 5082

jim.pattison@edinburgh.gov.uk

News from West Pilton Neighbourhood Centre

More free mone advice at West Pilton Neighbourhood Centre this Friday (12 April) from 10am – 2pm, courtesy of Money Advice Scotland and CAB. Sessions are free, but by appointment only – to make yours call 551 3194.

LOOKING FOR LOCAL OFFICE/MEETING SPACE?

Are you a small business or community organisation looking to rent affordable office/meeting space?

Pilton Central Association has space available in the West Pilton area and would be open to discuss possible full or shared use of the space on a temporary basis.

Conditions of Let and rent are negotiable.

If you are interested or would like further information plese contact Willie Black on 0751 568 6421.

Lend a hand to clean up your local cycle path

Sustrans is organising a clean up of Edinburgh’s cycle paths on Sunday (14 April) and they could use as many volunteers as possible – there’s an awful lot of cycle paths in Edinburgh, and a lot of litter too!

If you’d like to help in any way, email sustranscleanup@live.co.uk or check out the Facebook page at Clean Up Edinburgh Cycle Paths.

Horsemeat: Amey apology ‘not enough’

AMEY, the private contractor responsible for providing school meals to a number of primary schools where mince containing horsemeat may have been served to children, has apologised to the City of Edinburgh Council and parents for ‘an unfortunate and unacceptable lack of communication’. The company has also made a donation to a children’s charity, but parents say the apology just doesn’t go far enough and questions must be answered.

The city council wrote to parents after results of its own tests on a batch of frozen mince taken in late February from the shared kitchen of Pirniehall and St David’s Primary Schools were confirmed, assuring them that there was no risk to their children’s health. Local primaries Craigroyston and Forthview were also among the schools affexted.

Amey Built Environment (Amey) has since responded to a request by the City of Edinburgh Council to explain why they failed to notify the Council of the presence of horsemeat in beef mince which they had used in school meals in six school kitchens on 8 March, and when they themselves were first alerted to the fact by their supplier, 3663.

The company has also provided a list of meals containing beef mince which were on the menu at each school in the five-week period between w/c 3 February 2013 and w/c 4 March 2013 and which may have contained mince from the affected batch which was later recalled by 3663.

During this period, one week was a holiday. This information, together with a statement of explanation and apology from Amey, has been included in a letter which was sent to parents in the six affected schools on 4 April.

Councillor Paul Godzik, Education Convener, said: “As soon as we became aware through our own tests that mince containing a small percentage of horsemeat had been supplied to a number of our schools, we immediately took action by contacting parents to let them know. We also checked each of the school kitchens to make sure there was no mince from this batch remaining.

“It was only after we raised the issue with Amey that they advised us that this same batch had in fact been recalled by 3663 on 8 March. “It is unacceptable that the Council was not given this information immediately – had we known on 8 March, we could and would have alerted parents to this at that time. We are pleased that Amey have now apologised for this lack of communication and are grateful to them for their cooperation in this matter.

“Parents are quite right to expect the highest possible standards from the food their children are served at school and the Council prides itself on providing meals which are nutritious, satisfying and value-for-money. It is absolutely crucial therefore that any problems with the produce supplied to our school kitchens are flagged up to us immediately so that we can take appropriate action.”

Gillian Duggan, Managing Director of Amey Built Environment, said: “Recently we have commenced an investigation into how contaminated meat made its way into our supply chain at a date between February 2013 and 8 March 2013. Tests have revealed that a small amount of contaminated meat containing up to 5% horse DNA was served to six schools in Edinburgh before a product recall notice was issued by the meat supplier on 8 March 2013.

“Although checks confirmed no current stock of the contaminated meat in any of the premises, there has been an unfortunate and unacceptable lack of communication from Amey to the City of Edinburgh Council regarding this issue. This resulted in a delay in the Council being able to notify parents. We at Amey are very sorry this issue has occurred, and for any distress caused to parents, who quite rightly expect high standards.”

Ms Duggan added that Amey would be making a donation to the Scottish NSPCC on behalf of the schools affected and added that the company would be undertaking a review of its supply chain and an enhancement of their communication and escalation procedures.

However the apology and charity donation are not enough according to some parents. One West Pilton mother, with two children at a local primary school – who preferred not to be named – said: “Everyone’s been talking about it and I think most parents are disgusted with what has happened. You expect your bairns to get good quality dinners at school so this is really shocking – it’s like a breach of trust. Everybody wants to know how long this has been going on – I think parents have got a right to know, we deserve answers. It’s very easy to say ‘sorry’ and making a donation to charity is easy for a big organisation like AMEY – they must make a fortune out of the PPP school contracts so that charity donation is sweeties for them.”

Street League at Spartans

StreetFootballFlyer

Please see our Street Football flyer which is now held at the Spartans Academy just off Ferry road. Our Street Football event is every Thursday from 1:30 – 3:30pm outside on the 5G Astroturf.

During these sessions we will try to look at different factors from different types of training such as circuit and weight training to the bleep test and fartlek training, we will also do many different fun activities from fun games to game like situation and most of all a good game of football.

There will be employability support available at the Street Football but this is only there if the individual wants it.

Sam Faichney

Youth & Community Coach

For further information email: sam.faichney@streetleague.co.ukl

Local Voluntary Sector Forum to meet on Tuesday

Forth and Inverleith Voluntary Sector Forum will meet on Tuesday (9 April) at 10am in North Edinburgh Arts.

Edinburgh Community Health Partnership’s Steven Whitton will deliver a presentation on the proposed North West Edinburgh Partnership Hub and Jen Richards from Pilton Community Health Project will give information about hosting Trussel Trust’s North Edinburgh Food Bank.

A reminder also that places are still available for the EVOC Thinkspace event ‘A Right State?’ on Thursday 18 April. ‘A Right State?’ is an opportunity for the voluntary sector to discuss welfare reform.

The event, which is being held at the Calton Centre on Montgomery Street from 9:30am to 1.00pm, will be built around small group discussions, with contributions from a range of ‘informed voices’ including Adrian Sinfield (Professor Emeritus of Social Policy, University of Edinburgh), SCVO’s Lynn Williams, Alan Sinclair of the City of Edinburgh Council, Linda Savage (Job Centre Plus) and Inclusion Scotland’s Bill Scott.

To register for this important event email dianne.morrison@evoc.org.uk by Friday 12 April.