Tag: city council

LEAP rehab service fully restored

People living in Lothian with serious alcohol and drug problems can now access help from an expanded rehabilitation service.

The Lothians and Edinburgh Abstinence Programme (LEAP) is providing more placements than ever before thanks to its renewed partnership with the City of Edinburgh Council and support from the Edinburgh Integration Joint Board and The Cyrenians.

Up to 22 people can now benefit from one of the intensive three-month residential placements to overcome their addiction in a safe and supportive environment. The service provides clinical, medical and therapeutic support backed up by two years of aftercare and peer support and a family programme.

The boost will help to significantly reduce waiting times for patients looking to access the service following lockdown. It is in line with Scottish Government priorities for increasing residential rehabilitation provision.

Dr David McCartney, Clinical Lead for LEAP, NHS Lothian explains: “As a direct result of the pandemic we had to reduce service capacity to just 40 per cent. While we continued to provide some patient support remotely, our residential services were reduced to just 8 places.

“With the help of our partners we are back operating the full range of services again, helping even more people to get help and support as quickly as possible.

“The majority of LEAP patients starting the programme complete it. Nearly two thirds of them reach their goal of a long-term successful alcohol and drug-free recovery with significant improvements in their mental and physical health.”

LEAP is currently operating as a partnership between NHS Lothian, the Edinburgh Health and Social Care Partnership, The Cyrenians, Access to Industry and Rehabilitation and Recovery Team Social Workers.

It offers detoxication and therapeutic treatment for people who want to become alcohol and drug free alongside structured, practical support to get into work or education as part of people’s recovery if needed.

Patients can also access psychiatry, psychology and occupational therapy services whilst in treatment.

Lesley Taylor, Registered Manager, City of Edinburgh Council, said: “We’re delighted to be working with LEAP again to help roll-out this essential service. 

“Our team have a valuable role in providing accommodation and support, not only for the initial three-month placement but also in assisting individuals address their longer-term housing needs.” 

Linda Nichol, a volunteer with NHS Lothian’s subsistence misuse team and former LEAP patient and PEER supporter encourages anyone struggling with addiction to access the service. She said: “LEAP changed my life. It helped me recognise that I had a disease and gave me the confidence and support I needed to turn my life around.

“If you or someone you know is struggling with addiction then ask for help and get referred into LEAP. It is possible to change your whole life beyond your wildest dreams.”

LEAP is open to people who have a serious problem with alcohol or other drugs.  Anyone interested in being assessed for residential treatment should speak to their GP, health, support or social care worker. 

More information can be found at: 

https://services.nhslothian.scot/leap/Pages/default.aspx

Online craft group to meet on Monday evening

WELCOME TO OUR ONLINE CRAFT GROUP!

Join our fun and friendly monthly craft meet up this Monday 26 July 6-7pm via Microsoft Teams.

Artist Molly Kent will be leading a weaving workshop using a simple card loom.

Email CentralLibrary.Lending@edinburgh.gov.uk for more information.

Edinburgh charities boosted by Amazon team donations

Edinburgh charities Streetwork and Edinburgh Food Project have welcomed donations totalling £10,000 from Amazon Development Centre Scotland.

Streetwork, a service provided by Simon Community Scotland, has been offering care and guidance to those who are experiencing homeless or at risk of homelessness in Edinburgh for 25 years.

The charity provides expert advice and compassionate support, working to connect people to the services they need. The mission of the charity is to enable a life off the streets, showing dignity and respect to everyone.

The charity works with City of Edinburgh Council, so staff have direct links to accommodation that is available immediately. The charity also offers a 24-hour freephone line that provides information for anyone who needs it. 

Edinburgh Food Project operates eight foodbanks across the northwest, central and east of Edinburgh. The charity also offers a range of support to people including housing and benefits advice, a money advice service and a mental health and wellbeing project. 

Edinburgh Food Project’s mission is to provide emergency support to people in crisis whilst also addressing the underlying causes of food poverty. 

Commenting on the donation, Graeme Smith, Managing Director at Amazon Development Centre Scotland, said: “We are pleased to support Streetwork and Edinburgh Food Project with these donations.

“We understand how difficult the last year has been for people at risk of hunger and homelessness and these charities have gone above and beyond to support the Edinburgh community.”

Lorraine McGrath, Chief Executive, with Simon Community Scotland added: “We want to say a big thank you to the Amazon team for this donation. It means a lot to us to have this support at this time.

“COVID-19 has had a huge impact on the community and the demand for our services have rocketed. This donation will give our staff and volunteers a boost so we can continue to help those experiencing the most extreme impacts of homelessness including rough sleeping in Edinburgh.”

Angus Robertson, MSP for Edinburgh Central, said: “I welcome Amazon’s donation to Streetwork and Edinburgh Food Project, two important charities making a positive impact in the city.”

Amazon Development Centre Scotland has been based in Edinburgh since 2004 and is responsible for devising and growing innovations that bring new levels of choice and convenience to hundreds of millions of customers around the world. 

It houses teams of leading engineers, scientists, designers and product managers who work on everything from interactive user interface design to large-scale distributed systems and machine learning. 

Community donations are one of a number of ways in which Amazon is supporting communities across the UK during COVID-19. 

Throughout the pandemic Amazon has provided disadvantaged students with free online STEM resources and supported virtual classrooms with no-cost resources from AWS and Amazon Future Engineer.

The company has also teamed up with charity partner Magic Breakfast to deliver more than four million healthy breakfasts to children at risk of hunger in disadvantaged areas around the UK.

For more information on how Amazon is supporting the UK during COVID-19, click here.

Cllr Kate Campbell: “We’re making Edinburgh a Living Wage city”

Councillor KATE CAMPBELL, Convener for Housing, Homelessness and Fair Work, writes about Edinburgh’s ambitions to be a Living Wage city.

Fair work. You’d think in Scotland in 2021 we wouldn’t need the ‘fair’. Just the concept of work in one of the most prosperous, democratically developed and progressive nations in the world – it should just include a presumption that work will be fair.

But sadly, that isn’t the case.

We’ve too many workers in our city paid the minimum, not the living wage – that’s around 38,000 people who earn less than £9.50 per hour.  Many don’t have job security or guaranteed hours. Many have little or no access to training or development and lack any form of representation through trade unions.

I’m not going to pretend that the City of Edinburgh Council alone can fix this. We can’t. But there are some things we can do.

Firstly – we’re going to make Edinburgh a Living Wage city.

Step one is to acknowledge all the fantastic employers in our city. We need to champion the people and organisations who recognise the value of their staff. And the benefit of investing in them. And we need to come together to promote those benefits.

We’re setting up a group of existing living wage employers across different sectors. We’ll work together to understand the barriers that prevent organisations becoming living wage employers, and how we can break down those barriers. And then we’ll put together an action plan.

It’s clear that in Edinburgh tourism is a major employer, and we know that hospitality is one of the areas that has historically struggled to pay the living wage.

But hospitality businesses have also been hit hard during the pandemic – reduced capacity due to social distancing, closure due to lockdowns, outbreaks and the need to self-isolate.

As labour shortages arise from Brexit there will be a need for businesses to offer more to retain skilled staff. Fair work and the living wage will be absolutely key.

Over recent years we’ve seen customers ask more of businesses – sustainability is a good example. People want to spend money with organisations that they believe are contributing to saving the planet, or at least working hard to mitigate any negative impacts from their activity. It costs more – but customers value sustainability so it pays for itself.

So, it’s important that as customers we are asking for the same ethical values of fair employment – because as citizens we will all benefit.

The pandemic has hit many hard but people on the lowest wages, and small businesses, have undoubtedly borne the brunt. Let’s all be part of the recovery to a better city. It’ll be hard for some businesses to make the leap to becoming living wage employers – so let’s make sure we support and encourage them.

This article first appeared in the Evening News

Government announces increased funding for affordable homes

Scotland’s councils are to share more than £3.2 billion in grant funding over five years to deliver more affordable homes. 

Local authorities will benefit from an increase of more than £541 million on the previous five year allocation – an uplift of more than 20%.

Housing Secretary Shona Robison said: “We have already delivered more than 102,000 affordable homes since 2007. Building on this, our aim is to deliver 100,000 affordable homes by 2032, with at least 70% of these for social rent.

“Meeting this ambition will require continued collaboration across the private and public sectors. I’m pleased to be increasing significantly the available affordable housing grant funding for council areas to help with this important work.

“The five-year allocations will provide the certainty and assurance the housing sector needs to deliver the ambitious affordable homes target set out in our Housing to 2040 strategy.”

COSLA Resources spokesperson Councillor Gail Macgregor said: “We welcome the Scottish Government’s commitment to contributing to the cost of affordable housing in Scotland. The priority for councils, and housing associations, is ensuring rent affordability and warm, safe, comfortable homes for current and future tenants.

“As we look to recover from the impacts of the pandemic, councils are working side by side with their communities.  We maintain a focus on our shared ambitions around tackling child poverty and climate change, alongside building more houses.”

The City of Edinburgh Council also welcomes the announcement from Scottish Government on a five-year funding package for local authorities and housing associations in Scotland to deliver new affordable homes.

Over the next five years Edinburgh will receive £233.8m grant funding from a pot of more than £3.2 billion announced today which will be shared across all Scottish council areas.

Edinburgh is one of the most pressured housing markets in the country and needs more affordable homes to meet the needs of its growing population.  

City of Edinburgh Council’s Convener for Housing, Homelessness and Fair Work, Councillor Kate Campbell said: “This announcement of £233.8m funding for housing in Edinburgh from the Scottish Government over the next five years is hugely welcome. Having certainty over future funding puts us in a strong position to continue building that pipeline of social and affordable homes that we so desperately need.

“This will allow us to plan ahead and acquire sites, design and develop new homes and appoint contractors. And not only do we have certainty, we also have an increase of almost £44m from our baseline allocation over the last five years.

“Having recently met with the Cabinet Secretary to set out the challenges in Edinburgh, and the further investment we need, this is a positive response.

“We’ve also consistently received in-year allocations of extra funding when other local authorities have had underspends in their grant. Over the last five years this has amounted to about £40m. Our aim is to continue making the case for any future underspends to come to Edinburgh by making sure that we continue our strong track record on delivery of homes.

“And, because the need for permanent, secure and affordable housing in our city is so great, we’ll also continue to make the case for additional funding for Edinburgh from the national housing budget. But having certainty for the next five years, and an increase in funding, puts us in a fantastic position just now, and gives us a really strong platform to build from.”

Vice Convener for Housing, Homelessness and Fair Work, Councillor Mandy Watt, said: “We have ambitious plans to grow the number of homes we own, which we’ll do by purchasing homes and by building homes through our own housing development programme.

“Alongside this, we’ve got to find ways to deliver more affordable housing through our planning policies. Currently, the minimum amount of land for affordable homes is 25% of any major development. We are proposing that the minimum allocation is increased to 35%.

“As a Council, we’re committed to ending poverty and becoming more sustainable. Our house building programme will make a major contribution towards achieving that.”

Royston Wardieburn Community Centre to reopen next week

Phased reopening for capital’s community centres

A number of community centres will be providing a variety of children, youth and adult work next week as part of a phased approach by the City of Edinburgh Council to opening up more public services.

The centres at Jack Kane, South Bridge, Royston Wardieburn, Ratho, Clovenstone, Pentland and Goodtrees will be open in a limited way from Monday 12 July.

More community centres will have limited opening over the coming weeks as management committees liaise with the Council over what services can be provided in line with the latest health advice.

Up to now community centres had only been accessed to support essential services such as food poverty programmes, support for vulnerable groups and regulated childcare. From Monday there will be access for key youth groups and other children and adult activities.

The activities being provided are in addition to the Get into Summer programme of events which aims to children and their families to play, socialise and re-connect over the summer holidays.

Councillor Donald Wilson, Culture and Communities Convener for the City of Edinburgh Council, said: “It’s absolutely vital for our citizens that our community centres are able to welcome them back as soon as possible so it’s welcome that we’ve been able to accelerate their opening.

“They’re a focal hub for our communities and you can’t underestimate the positive effect they have on people of all ages who benefit enormously from using them.”

Councillor Amy McNeese-Mechan, Culture and Communities Vice Convener for the City of Edinburgh Council, said: “I’m sure people will be pleased to hear that essential services such as youth work along with other activities will soon be resuming in our community centres.

“These buildings are much-loved local spaces, like our libraries and sports venues, and the important role they will play in the city’s recovery from the pandemic is immeasurable.”

Help with school clothing costs

Eligible families can apply for a grant of at least £120 to help with the cost of school uniforms.

The Scottish Government and local authority leaders have reached an agreement to increase the national school clothing grant to a minimum of £120 per eligible primary school pupil and £150 per eligible secondary school pupil.  This will be supported by £11.8 million of additional funding to local authorities.

The announcement marks another commitment for the first 100 days of this Government.

Education Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said: “School uniforms can place a significant financial burden on families, some of whom are already facing additional hardship as a result of the pandemic.

“This school clothing grant will help to relieve some of that pressure for around 145,000 families and it will help to ensure that all children can go to school feeling comfortable, confident and ready to learn.”

COSLA Children and Young People’s spokesperson Councillor Stephen McCabe said: “Councils and schools are working to tackle the costs of the school day, ensuring that all children are able to fully participate in their education.

“Working with the Scottish Government, we are pleased that the national minimum school clothing grant has been increased and that families can get extra support as we continue on the road to recovery from the pandemic.”

Eligible families can apply for the school clothing grant through their local council.

Help with school clothing costs – mygov.scot

Scotland’s largest ‘net zero’ housing development set for Waterfront

Proposals to create Scotland’s largest ‘net zero’ housing development in Edinburgh have been granted approval by city planners this June.

The 444-home Western Villages is being led by the City of Edinburgh Council in partnership with Glasgow-based contractor CCG (Scotland) and architect Cooper Cromar.

The development will form part of the Granton Waterfront Regeneration, where over 3,500 homes are set to be created over the next ten years, delivering one, two and three-bedroom apartments, including wheelchair-accessible ground-floor dwellings, available in a mix of social (195), mid-market rent (62), market rent (63) and private sale tenures (124).

Designed within a masterplan that will take advantage of stunning parkland and sea views, there will also be greater emphasis placed on pedestrian and cycle movement with electrical car charging, car club accessibility and public transport in favour of traditional car parking which is reduced across the development.

The homes designed to the principles of CCG’s newly launched ‘Net Zero Home’ housebuilding standard. Developed in collaboration with energy and sustainability consultancy, Carbon Futures, the Net Zero Home focuses on enhanced fabric performance, low carbon heating and renewable technology as part of a gas-free energy strategy to reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions (arising from regulated operational energy use) to a rate less than or equal to zero per year.

With an ambitious target to become a ‘net zero’ city by 2030, this first phase of Granton Waterfront will act as a blueprint for future sustainable development and help Scotland to transition towards a greener economy.

City of Edinburgh Council’s Vice Convener for the Housing, Homelessness and Fair Work committee, Councillor Mandy Watt, said: “All of the steps we’re taking to make homes more sustainable will reduce the energy they use once occupied, thereby helping us to tackle climate change and become net zero carbon by 2030. That’s why we’re pleased to have CCG working with us as they adopt a new ground-breaking housebuilding standard. 

“It’s great to see this development with a large proportion of social rent homes get planning approval. We have incredibly ambitious plans which form the bedrock of our housing strategy over the next ten years. There is a critical need for more affordable homes in Edinburgh and we are responding to that through the commitment to build 20,000 social and affordable homes by 2027.

“Western Villages forms part of the wider Granton Waterfront regeneration project which will create one of Europe’ s largest coastal city parks, providing opportunities for residents and visitors to reconnect with the city’s waterfront by offering more areas for leisure and outdoor experiences, civic spaces and sustainable housing.”

CCG Managing Director, David Wylie, said: “Housebuilding is going to play a major part in achieving our ambitious target of becoming a ‘net zero’ economy by 2045.

“With gas being removed from new build homes as early as 2024, it places greater emphasis on collaborative working as the partners on this project have demonstrated; utilising the CCG Net Zero Home building standard to create an affordable, scalable and practical solution that can ultimately be delivered now for any residential development.

“We commend the City of Edinburgh Council for their bold commitment and share their aspirations for a more sustainable future for Scotland.”

Cooper Cromar Project Director, Graham Connor, said: “Cooper Cromar are delighted to have been appointed as the Architect to design and deliver this important residential project delivering one of the initial phases of the Granton Waterfront Development Framework which sets out the Urban Design Framework and Design Guidelines for future developments within the wider Granton area.

“We have sought to create a masterplan that not only stands alone for its significance as Scotland’s largest net zero development but also respectful to the wider regeneration of Granton. It will complement and integrate with future phases of housing delivery and we look forward to working with the project partners over the coming years.”

Carbon Futures Director, Andrew Money, said: “We are delighted to have supported City of Edinburgh Council and CCG with their bold and ambitious plans for Western Villages.

“From the outset, the key areas of focus for the design team were to maximise fabric performance and avoid the use of fossil fuels. This approach, together with the use of on-site renewable energy, will greatly reduce energy demand and deliver a significant reduction in utility costs for homeowners.

“The energy strategy for Western Villages delivers a low-carbon development, future-proofed against upcoming government legislation and presents a fantastic example of how the construction industry can support the nationwide effort to reduce carbon emissions and create a more sustainable future.”

Construction of Western Villages is expected to begin in mid-2022.

The Great Deluge: cleaning up the Capital

Edinburgh’s flooding response as half of July’s rain falls in one hour

The City of Edinburgh Council’s roads and flood prevention teams worked throughout last night to respond to surface water and flooding as a result of Sunday’s extreme weather.

Officers, supported by additional resources, are working closely with Scottish Water, who are responsible for sewers, to check for blockages and clear surface water, with up to 37mm of rain – around half of the total average rainfall for the month of July – falling in less than an hour on Sunday.

As the clean-up continues, and with a yellow warning of rain in place for Monday, drivers are being encouraged to take extra care and avoid flooded areas, particularly to reduce further damage to homes and businesses from backwash from cars.

The flood prevention team has been monitoring river flows throughout the night, closing lower flood gates at Baird Drive and Stockbridge Colonies as a precautionary measure, as well as clearing some localised culvert trash screens.

With a flood alert issued by SEPA still in place, officers will continue to check river flows and weather forecasts and respond accordingly.

The city’s gullies are cleaned following a rolling programme and over the last fortnight the most sensitive gullies have been cleared, as part of more than 10,500 gullies cleaned since March. Intense rainfall of the kind experienced on Sunday is extremely rare and exceeds the capacity of roads drainage and sewerage systems, though it is becoming more frequent as weather patterns change.

The Council’s Transport leaders have praised teams for their efforts to tackle the impact of the dramatic downpours.

Councillor Lesley Macinnes, Transport and Environment Convener, said: Our roads and flood prevention teams have worked extremely hard, throughout Sunday and overnight, to minimise the impact of this intense, sudden downpour.

“This was in close partnership with Scottish Water, who are responsible for the city’s sewer system, and I’d like to thank all those involved for their swift response. No city’s drainage systems are designed to cope with the sort of short, sharp volume of water experienced yesterday.

“As it’s not possible to predict this kind of extreme weather, which is regrettably is becoming more frequent as climate change effects intensify, localised flooding was unfortunately inevitable.

“However, our sympathies are with anyone who has experienced damage to their property as a result of flooding, and officers, along with partners, are working flat out to make sure the aftermath is cleared as quickly as possible.”

Councillor Karen Doran, Transport and Environment Vice Convener, said: “Flash flooding like we experienced yesterday is extremely challenging, but we’ve been doing everything we can to minimise its negative effects across the city, along with Scottish Water.

“We’re now beginning the clean-up, but there’s still significant surface water in some parts of the city, so I would encourage everyone to take extra care if travelling today.”

Information from the Scottish Flood Forum on coping with the aftermath of a flood is available on their website.

Find advice on severe weather on the Council’s website.