THE WEE BOOK BOX on BOSWALL PARKWAY
Have you seen our new FREE COMMUNITY LIBRARY at @GrantonParish Church?
It is located by the gate, just behind the bus stop on Boswall Parkway.
Decorated and looked after by our amazing volunteers, it has lots of great books to read on a rainy day!
Granton Goes Greener are very excited about restarting our FREE SEWING CLASS on 11th October.
The classes will be taking place every Monday between 10 am and 12 noon in the East Hall of Granton Parish Church (55 Boswall Parkway).
Here is our link to register for the first class on 11/10: ;https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/…/sewing-classes-tickets…
You can also find more detail on our website: www.grantongoesgreener.org.uk
Any questions? Email: anna@grantongoesgreener.org.uk
The TSB bank branch on Boswall Parkway is among 164 to be closed, TSB has announced. Edinbugh’s Corstorphine and Gorgie branches also face the axe.
TSB blames “a significant shift in customer behaviour” as more customers bank online. (Perhaps more customers ‘choose’ to bank online as more and more of their local branches are shut down? – Ed.)
Debbie Crosbie, Chief Executive of TSB, said: “Closing any of our branches is never an easy decision, but our customers are banking differently – with a marked shift to digital banking.
“We are reshaping our business to transform the customer experience and set us up for the future. This means having the right balance between branches on the high street and our digital platforms, enabling us to offer the very best experience for our personal and business customers across the UK.
“We remain committed to our branch network and will retain one of the largest in the UK.”
THIS ‘RESHAPING’ WILL SEE THE TSB CLOSE ONE THIRD OF IT’S BRANCHES
Robin Bulloch, Customer Banking Director at TSB, said: “Alongside these changes, we will continue to invest in our remaining branch network to offer high quality banking services, fully integrated with improved digital capability.
“We are working to ensure the transition towards digital – which is being seen right across the economy – is handled sensitively and pragmatically for our colleagues and customers. We’re taking steps to support vulnerable customers and those in rural locations.”
The latest figure is in addition to the 82 branches it said it would close in November, when TSB set out plans to save £100m by 2022.
Unite trade union described the TSB’s announcement as “a dark day for the finance sector”.
Lothian MSP, Miles Briggs, said: “These bank closures are extremely concerning and a sign of the impact that Covid-19 is having on the economy in Edinburgh and the Lothians.
“In recent years there have been a number of bank closures which affect people’s access to banking facilities and makes it harder for people to manage their finances.
“It is crucial that bank employees who are being made redundant are fully supported in finding new roles and any training for those roles.”
Police are continuing to investigate a robbery in North Edinburgh and have released a CCTV image of a man that they believe may be able to help with their enquiries. Continue reading Boswall Parkway robbery: police release CCTV
BIODIVERSITY WORKSHOPS
Thursday 1st February
3pm – 5.30pm or 6pm – 8:30pm
Granton United Church, Boswall Parkway
The Workshop will ask:
Funded by Adaptation Scotland, the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh is running this pilot project to consult with communities about solutions to climate change and adaptation.
Following an open application process, the Re-Imagining Your Gardens & Streets project was chosen to be our latest Community Engagement Pioneer Project. Jointly ran by the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and Heriot-Watt University, the project will investigate a range of community engagement techniques by running outreach events focused on generating ideas to transform streets in the Granton area into well adapted community spaces.
The design of streets and gardens can significantly influence an areas resilience to climate impacts, with large amounts of paved areas contributing to surface water flooding, reduced biodiversity and urban heat island effect. These spaces are also literally on our doorsteps, and represent a tangible and immediate route in to talking to communities about wider adaptation themes.
However, community improvements are best driven by community aspiration, so this project will focus on first introducing the broad concept of creating well adapted streets and gardens, and then facilitate a community conversation to find the ideal interpretation for this unique area.
We will be working with the creative practitioners from the Museum of Future Now to help community members imagine this aspiration future and the ideas they come up with will be turned into illustrations for display in the community hub.
Alongside this, a neighbourhood adaptation planning tool will be created to help other areas explore the possible routes to creating well adapted gardens and streets. This work will compliment other initiatives ongoing in the city, including Edinburgh Living Landscape and Edinburgh Adapts.
There’s still time to book your workshop place: contact Leone on 0791 873 6481 or email lalexander@rgbe.org.uk
Police are investigating a robbery of Gregg’s bakery on Boswall Parkway in the early hours of this morning (Tuesday 7 January.)
Just before 6am the female shop assistant arrived at the premises to open up the store by raising the shutters and unlocking the front door. The two armed males then forced there way in behind her and made demands.
They then proceeded to take an amount of cash from the premises before running off in the direction of Crewe Place. One suspect was then seen getting into a vehicle, which was lost to sight at the junction of Crewe Place and Pilton Avenue.
The first suspect is described as white, 5ft 10in, early 20s, slight build, wearing dark clothing with the hood up and a black balaclava or a scarf covering the face and wearing gloves and with a local accent.
The second suspect is described as white, early 20s, 5ft 8in, slight build, wearing a red hooded top with the hood up and dark body warmer on top, a scarf over his face up to his nose, and with a local accent.
The vehicle is described as a dark hatchback.
Detective Constable Alison Wyllie from Police Scotland said: “This was a terrifying experience for the female assistant who was opening up the shop alone and in the early hours of the morning. We ask that anyone who recognises the description of the suspect or witnessed events unfold, to contact police immediately.”
Anyone with any information should contact Police Scotland on 101 or the charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
Police are looking for help to trace a masked thief who made a knifepoint robbery at a shop in Pilton last night (Sunday). The incident happened at about 20:40 at the Day Today shop in Boswall Parkway.
A 23-year-old man was working behind the counter when the thief demanded money, jumped over the counter and stole a plastic box containing a three-figure sum of cash and international telephone cards worth £200.
The thief is white 20 to 30-years-old, between 5ft 2ins and 5ft 5ins tall and of stocky build. He was wearing a black hooded top with the hood up, light-coloured trousers, black Converse-style trainers with a black balaclava covering his face.
Constable Alistair McLeod, of Lothian and Borders Police, said: “This was a frightening experience for everyone within the store and we are conducting local enquiries to identify the suspect. A male matching his description was then seen within a garden in Pilton Avenue at about 21:00 before making off.
“We are now asking anyone who remembers seeing anything suspicious in either Boswall Parkway or Pilton Avenue on Sunday evening to contact police immediately. Similarly, anyone with any other information that can assist with our investigation is also urged to come forward.”
Last night’s incident follows another knifepoint robbery at St Mark’s Park last Friday.
The Lost History of St Margaret Mary’s RC Church on Boswall Parkway
On Remembrance Sunday 2012 the long-awaited History of St Margaret Mary’s Granton, Edinburgh was published. It covers the period 1937, when the parish was commissioned, through 1939 when it was opened to the present day (writes Harold Hindle).
Much material had been completely lost in a house fire many years ago. To acquire a photo of the original altar looked a far-fetched proposition. However, Fr Daniel Doherty, Parish Priest of the now-twinned St Margaret Mary and Holy Cross Parishes, commissioned a study commencing with an interview of Canon Michael J. Cassidy, Parish Priest of St Margaret Mary from 1976 to 2004. From him a picture began to emerge, particularly aided by the recollections of Robert Nicholson, a parishioner from the start.
As interest mounted it was decided to hold a special social, a Reminiscing Evening in the parish hall so older parishioners could add their memories. Nora Burns our musical director kept an archive of assembled photos and from here the story was spread though families by word of mouth. It was known that ‘ex-patriots’, even those living in Edinburgh (!) have a love for the church and may well have had some important information to be accessed. This was collated and verified as much as possible.
The final booklet was published with an integral DVD of collected photos and the set sells for £5 or the cost of a couple of birthday cards. Being fairly neat in size in can be quite easily posted abroad to far-flung friends.
It tells the story of the parish in a readable way and contains a splash of photos which will be of nostalgic value to those who knew the parish. Beyond that, it is a gift from this generation to our children’s children because if the history of this parish were not written down now, it would be so much more difficult in the future. In 2039, it can provide the basis for a continual history spanning the centenary of the Parish of St Margaret Mary.
The combined booklet and DVD at £5 can be purchased from The Thrift Shop in the Hall open on Sundays 10 to 1pm and Wednesdays 10 to 1 pm; also from our Piety Shop at the rear of the church on Sundays 12 -12.30pm. Mail order would require £1 post and packing for a single set. For further details phone 0131-226-6402 or email harold.hindle@btinternet.com
Harold Hindle
A celebration has been held to mark the opening on 15 new affordable homes and a church centre in Boswall Parkway by Port of Leith Housing Association (PoLHA).
The Association bought the Granton United Church site in 2010 and was committed to providing a centre for a local congregation as part of its building plans. The development, built with £1m funding from the City of Edinburgh Council, has been shortlisted for a Scottish Home Award for Community Partnership of the Year.
There are two one-bedroom, 10 two-bedroom and three three-bedroom flats in the Boswall Parkway development . More than two-thirds of the properties feature solar thermal heating provided by panels located on the roof.
An opening ceremony was held at the Granton United Church last week and was attended by around 30 people including PoLHA representatives, contractors and tenants, as well as local MSP Malcolm Chisholm.
Cathy King, Head of Housing and Regeneration at the City of Edinburgh Council, said: “This development is a great example of the council and Port of Leith Housing Association working in partnership with the local community to deliver much-needed affordable homes. The existing building has now been transformed into 15 energy-efficient flats and a purpose-built church hall which everyone will be able to benefit from.”
Keith Anderson, Chief Executive of PoLHA, said: “This site, incorporating a church, is one that’s completely unique for us and we’re delighted to have been able to develop a centre as part of our plans. Creating communities in which people want to live is more than simply providing a roof over people’s heads: it’s providing good-quality, energy-efficient housing people are proud of, and it’s supporting individuals, families and local groups to help bring people together and be a community.”
Granton United Church has around 35 members. Treasurer Ted Wallace said: “The members all seem happy with the new centre and we’ve settled in.”
Resident Paula McVay added: “Our new home is great and we’re really happy with the energy-efficient measures.”
