Have your say on poverty and inequality in North Edinburgh

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povertyNorth Edinburgh residents have an opportunity to have their say on how best to tackle the growing gulf between rich and poor at a session in the City Chambers next week.

The city council is to host a ‘tackling poverty and inequality’ workshop session, specifically for North Edinburgh residents, on Wednesday 3 July from 10am – 12.30pm at the Business Centre, Centre Chambers.

The city council’s Tracy Boxall explained: “This workshop has been  organised by the Poverty and Inequality Theme Group, part of the  Edinburgh Partnership’s community planning arrangements in the city.  The  Theme Group currently has four main work streams, one of which is considering actions or interventions  to tackle poverty and inequality in the  city.

A sub-group of city  partners, headed up by Dr Margaret Douglas from NHS Lothian, is progressing the  development of a ‘framework’ of actions, with the aim of shaping future  work to tackle poverty and inequality.  The sub-group is now seeking  wider input to the framework’s development.  The workshop you have been  invited to is part of this process.  It will be facilitated by the  independent organisation, Poverty Alliance.

Workshop participants  (local people and other representatives from Neighbourhood Partnerships) will be  asked to work together, firstly by considering the causes of poverty and  inequality.  The workshop will then explore what actions are  needed to address the issues; the extent to which the actions are in place  already in the city; their impact; and what more might be  done.

The outputs from the  workshop will be written up and passed back to the Poverty and Inequality Theme  Group, to help inform their future work and that of city partners.  The  overall findings will also be shared with you as soon as possible.

Prior to the session, a  background paper on poverty in the city will be circulated for your  information. I hope that you are able  to attend to help with this important work.“

Interested? Please RSVP to tracy.boxall@edinburgh.gov.uk

Conference

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Green light for City Park development

cropped-top-logo1[1]A local campaign to stop the development of City Park has failed. At a meeting of the city council’s Development Management Sub-Committee of the Planning Committee this morning councillors accepted officer recommendations to approve a substantial housing development on the site off Ferry Road.

The decision will be a huge blow to local residents who have fought a long campaign against the redevelopment of the site which was formerly home to Spartans. campaigners argued for the need to retain open green space in a heavily developed area, but councillors gave the go-ahead for the new residential development which will consist of seven apartment buildings with associated car parking.CIDDYEarlier this month Save City Park campaigners thanked local people for their support. In a statement on their website, the group said: ‘Thank you all for your support of our campaign to Save City Park. We submitted a petition with almost 1000 signatures to the Council and approximately 300 comments were received by the planning office regarding the proposed residential development of City Park/West Winnelstrae. This was a superb effort by all and your ongoing support is very much appreciated. Our next step is to secure the long-term future of City Park as public green open space.’

It now appears that the long-term future of City Park will not be green, but housing.

CITY PARK

 

Letter: Warning – pensions under attack

Dear Editor

Pensioners of today and tomorrow, be aware: the government is laying the ground for further attacks on pensions and pensioners benefits.

First, they have to divide opposition, for example by saying they wish to be fair by stopping the wealthy getting the winter heating allowance. It sounds fine, but does that mean the introduction of a means test for everyone to qualify? And who sets the level?

Other benefits, such as travel passes, television licence and free medicine prescriptions – things to help pensioners maintain some quality of life – are threatened: the government is looking to see if the nation can ‘afford’ them.

The campaign of setting one section of people against another is well-prepared, with millions of words and pictures; every person working or retired is the target. Just a few figures:

  • 31% of the population are of retiring age; not all get a full pension as many qualifying conditions apply
  • The government is raising the age of retirement for women from 60 to 65 by 2018 and for both men ad women to 66 by 2020, with increases to 67 and 68 later on
  • The ‘full’ state pension is only approximately one sixth of the average age
  • The amount paid out in pensions from the total wealth produced in one year is approximately 5%, yet the percentage of the population’s pensioners is 31% (and most have contributed to a pension scheme throughout their working lives).

Just two further points: today’s working population, who now produce all the nation’s wealth, were raised, loved and cared for by our pensioners. Today’s working population and pensioners combined have massive voting power: use it!

Tony Delahoy

Silverknowes Gardens

 

 

 

Living in Harmony update

harmony1Pilton Community Health Project’s Anita Aggarwal gives an update on a key local initiative:

Since the closure of Community Organisation for Racial Equality (CORE), PCHP, Community Learning and Development (CLD) and Edinburgh Lothian Regional Equalities Council (ELREC) have been working together to try to minimise the impact of the loss of this important organisation.

The City of Edinburgh Council commissioned a report which examined the ongoing needs of BME communities in the area.  This highlighted the difficulties people have integrating with the local population, as well as a host of other issues.

You’ll find that report here:  Living in harmony 13

At this point it was felt important to involve other agencies and more local people in this process, and so we pulled together an action planning session on 31 May.

Over 30 people attended this event, representing a wide range of local people and organisations.  At this event we identified actions to be taken and many committed to take these forward.

These actions are recorded in this document:  action plan 31.5.13 final

If you weren’t able to be at the event and have ideas about how you or your organisations can contribute please add them in to the plan.  This document is an aid to action, not a fixed strategy document to sit on a shelf and get dusty!

We agreed to come back to discuss next steps at another meeting, when we will look at what progress is being made and how we resource some of the ideas on the action plan.

The next meeting will take place at the

Spartans Community Football Academy on Friday 19 July from 10 – 12.

This meeting is open to anyone – please contact me on 0131 551 1671 if you need crèche.

Anita Aggarwal

PCHP

Saturday fun in Greater Pilton (well, it nearly ryhmed!)

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Two free fun events are taking place in North Edinburgh today.

First up, Royston Wardieburn Community Centre in Pilton Drive North is holding a Fun Day from 11 – 2pm with lots of fun activities for all the family and an opportunity to see the fantastic facilities in the area’s newest community centre.

Then from 1 – 4pm MYadventure will launch Cyclone, Edinburgh’s newest mountain bike trail, at Gypsy Brae. Be among the first to come and try it out – there are prizes for age-specific races and lots of free fun side shows – a must attend event for mountain bikers and families alike!

So much fun, so little time … !

MY

Dream big, dream fierce

Spartans volunteers head out to Tanzania

A team of Spartans Community Football Academy volunteers head out to Africa on the journey of a lifetime next week. Three staff and a senior volunteer will join nine young people to spend two weeks working with a support project in Tanzania.

Spartans Charity Dinner“Our patron Gordon Strachan hosted a very successful charity dinner last year (pictured above), which raised an incredible amount of money. That has enabled us to do a lot of things here at the Academy, including our extension, but it has also given us the opportunity to send a small group from Spartans to help in a project in Tanzania”, explained Kenny Cameron, who is Community Programme Manager at Spartans Community Football Academy.

“We have links with a very successful Edinburgh-based charity called YES (Youth Empowerment through Sport) Tanzania. Their aims and objectives are very similar to our own, and in the past we have sent footballs, strips and boots over there. But now, thanks to the support of some very generous supporters – and the brilliant fundraising efforts of the Spartan Army volunteers themselves – we can take a small group over there to help out.

“The guys will have a very full programme over the two weeks – delivering Young Leader training and a coaching education programme, visiting schools and an orphanage. They will also spend some time in a shanty town and will see first hand the grinding poverty of daily life in what is one of the poorest nations on earth. As you can imagine the facilities are not great in Arusha, where the pilot project is based, so in time we also hope to build a football pitch and fund their development worker post for a year – we can make a real difference.”

Although the Spartans team have a very busy schedule they won’t be working non-stop and they have a real treat to look forward to.

“We have built in an overnight safari as part of the trip. It’s our way of saying thanks to these young people – who all live locally – who have given up a lot of hours of their own time over two and three years to volunteer here with us. It will be an amazing experience, the adventure of a lifetime”, Kenny went on.

“Our motto this year is ‘Dream Big, Dream Fierce’ and the Tanzanian experience kind  of sums that up – who would have thought that a wee group of young folk from North Edinburgh could travel halfway across the world and make a difference to peoples’ lives there? The message we are trying to convey to everyone who comes into contact with the Community Football Academy is: Believe – anything can be achieved.

“Tanzania will be an experience our volunteers will never forget, and the hope is that they will pass on what they learned there and share their experiences when they get back to North Edinburgh, inspiring the next generation of Spartan Army volunteers”.

If you’d like to support the Spartans Tanzania initiative visit

https://www.justgiving.com/SpartansTanzania-Appeal

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Save money – and the environment – at your local library

MuirhouseLibraryFirst books, now bin bags! Compostable food waste bin liners are now on sale at libraries across Edinburgh at a bargain price in a bid to boost recycling figures.

Rolls of the liners can be bought over the library counter for £1 in response to public feedback suggesting that they can be costly to buy in shops.

The majority of households in the Capital will have access to food waste recycling when the latest stage is rolled out by the end of this summer, which will help to reduce the amount of rubbish going to landfill.

Councillor Jim Orr, Transport and Environment Vice Convener, said: “Food waste recycling has been supported really well by residents, and if we want to encourage more to take it up, then it should be made as easy as possible to do. An average household bin contains around one third of food waste, which releases harmful greenhouse gases when it ends up on landfill sites. Recycling it, however, can generate electricity to power homes and businesses.
“Feedback from the public has suggested that some find the price of food bin liners prohibitive. Hopefully, by selling them in accessible libraries at a bargain price, I hope that this will be one less barrier to people who want to help the environment.”