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.”

Have your say on city centre

A public consultation on proposals to ‘transform’ Edinburgh’s city centre has been launched.

The Council has developed a proposal for improving the City Centre, particularly in the area around Princes Street and George Street, which aims to make the area a better place in which to live, work, visit, invest and study.

The proposed scheme has been shaped by a working group chaired by Planning Convener Councillor Ian Perry, who said: “I think many people recognise that for all its architectural beauty and wealth of enticing shops and amenities, the City Centre is still not yet achieving its full potential. With this public consultation, we’ve got the chance here to really do something for the city centre and we’re determined to find a solution which works best for everyone. I would urge everyone with a stake in Edinburgh’s future prosperity to have their say.”

The Council is keen to hear residents’ views on the proposal and how they would like to see the space used.

The consultation process will also shed light on how the proposals might impact on different users and stakeholders.

The findings of the consultation will be the subject of a future report and any changes will then be trialled to test how they work.

The online survey, which will run until Thursday 9 May, can be accessed at:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/6G7MWW9

Two public drop-in events will also be held:

* Friday 19 April, Assembly Rooms George Street, 12-6pm
* Saturday 20 April, Assembly Rooms, George Street , 10 -2pm

Comments can also be sent via e-mail to:
citycentre.vision@edinburgh.gov.uk

Further information about the consultation can be found at: http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/citycentrevision

What’s your views on Edinburgh’s city centre? What do you mean, Glasgow’s Miles Better!

Let us know!

Horsemeat traces found in local school kitchens

Traces of horsemeat have been found in food supplied to six city schools including Craigroyston, Pirniehall, St David’s and Forthview, the city council has confirmed.

Tests carried out on a batch of frozen mince in February found that the meat contained between 1% and 5% horsemeat. The sample was taken from the shared kitchen of Pirniehall and St David’s, and the same batch was also supplied to Forthview, Craigroyston, Oxgangs and Braidburn primary schools.

A letter from Mike Rosendale, Head of Schools and Community Services, has been sent to parents of pupils at each of the six schools, advising them of the test results and reassuring them that there is “no risk to health from consuming horsemeat”.

Councillor Cathy Fullerton (pictured below), the council’s vice convener of education, said: “It’s very important to emphasise that there is no risk whatsoever to people’s health from consuming horsemeat, but obviously we all want to be certain that we know exactly what we are eating. This is why the council chose to seek extra assurance that our external suppliers were not providing any products containing horsemeat by carrying out our own testing.

“Parents can be reassured that we have taken absolutely the correct course of action in immediately making sure there is none of this frozen mince remaining in school kitchens. We have written to all parents in the six schools to let them know about this and will be happy to discuss any further queries they may have.”

Food at all six of the schools is procured by the PPP contractor, who sourced the frozen mince from catering firm 3663. 3663 recalled all batches of this product on 8 March.

The council has been carrying out tests on meat products supplied to schools, residential homes and other local authority establishments since 14 February under the direction of the Food Standards Agency as part of their UK-wide authenticity survey. Eighty-five meat product samples have been taken from council catering establishments to date and to date all except one have tested negative for the presence of horsemeat. The results have been reported to the Food Standards Agency.

Alison Johnstone, Green MSP for Lothian and food spokesperson for the Scottish Greens, says the confirmation is further proof that we need to rethink our approach to food. She said: “This latest revelation will be a great worry for parents and it proves we need greater investment and increased traceability in our publicly-procured meals. The council’s website claims that it uses local suppliers for meat so it is extremely important we are told what has gone wrong.

“I have real concerns about the way our schools have moved away from real meals cooked in proper kitchens to ready meals heated up in microwaves. It’s also hard to have confidence when the many of our schools are supplied by massive companies who describe themselves as strategic outsourcing providers rather than caterers, and whose main motive is profit. This isn’t exactly suprising as public procurement favours cheaper bids.

”In recent months in parliament I have highlighted the Soil Association’s Food for Life programme which currently ensures one in ten schools in Scotland has confidence about where its food comes from. I again urge ministers to increase their support for the scheme and encourage local authorities to adopt it.”

CRAIGROYSTON is one of six affected schools

Search is on for city’s finest volunteers

Nominations now open for Inspiring Volunteering Awards

Edinburgh’s Lord Provost – and Volunteering Champion – Cllr Donald Wilson will honour some of the dedicated volunteers who give their time, energy and commitment to the people of Edinburgh at a special awards ceremony taking place at the City Chambers during Volunteers’ Week on 3 June.

Edinburgh’s Inspiring Volunteering Awards are in their seventh year and nominations are being sought for anyone who has volunteered in Edinburgh for at least six months (and hasn’t already received an award).

This year will include a number of new special recognition categories for volunteers involved in certain areas of activity including:

Arts, Culture & Heritage
Charity Shops
Environment & Conservation (volunteers engaged in environmental activities including education, conservation or gardening).
Fundraising
Health & Social Care (volunteers engaged in health and social care, including support work, befriending or projects which reduce social isolation and help assist independent living)
Sports (volunteers actively involved in supporting sports in their communities).
Organisational Governance (Trustees/Board Members)

There will also be special awards for outstanding contributions from a Young Volunteer (11 to 25 year old) and to recognise commitment by someone who has volunteered for 10 years the Long Standing Contribution to Volunteering Award.

All shortlisted nominations will be considered for the “Lord Provost of Edinburgh’s Inspiring Volunteer of the Year Award 2013.

Lord Provost Donald Wilson said: “There are thousands of dedicated and inspiring volunteers in Edinburgh selflessly giving up their own time to help and support others. These awards are simply one way of recognizing some of their tremendous work, and their contribution to the wellbeing of our city’s residents cannot be overstated. We got some outstanding nominations last year, and I expect we will get some great volunteers put forward again this year. I would encourage all organisations that involve volunteers in their work to consider highlighting some of the good work that goes on by submitting a nomination.”

Kris Von Wald, Convenor of Volunteer Centre Edinburgh, added: “The Lord Provost has agreed to present these awards because he recognises how important volunteers are to Edinburgh and its residents. The Awards seek to acknowledge the hard work, commitment, energy and positive difference that volunteers make”.

Nominations can be made online at:http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CLWG9QS

Award for Gala organisers

West Pilton and Muirhouse Community Gala’s committee have received an award for their achievements. The group, which managed to plan, organise and deliver a very succesful Gala in just a few short weeks (an even arranged some sunshine!), was highly commended at this week’s Children and Families Achievement Awards at the Assembly Rooms.

Committee chair Sean Gardiner said: “We were nominated for the award by Edinburgh Council’s local Community Learning and Development team and, out of 8000 entries, we were selected as finalists. The event was hosted by Grant Stott (pictured below at the Gala) from Forth One who was extremely happy to see an event he had been involved in had gone so far!”

No Barriers for Muirhouse – update

Muirhouse and Silverknowes will NOT be divided by barriers, the city council’s Transport, Infrastructure and Environment (TIE) committee has decided. The committee agreed to officials’ recommendations that ‘notes and agrees that closure of the access routes should not be supported as this would impact on safe routes to schools.’

In a report into antisocial behaviour in the Silverknowes area prepared for the committee, Services for Communities director Mark Turley concluded: ‘There are widely divergent but strongly held views within the community, split by Council ward, on the best course of action to take. Officer recommendations based on existing policy is that the blocking of access would be unacceptable given the adverse effect on safe routes to school used by a number of children in the area, in addition to the other policy and social concerns. The root cause of this problem is the anti-social behaviour of the individual’s concerned and it is this which requires to be addressed. Such behaviour is unacceptable, regardless of where it occurs.”

_DSC0069 — Muirhouse locals Darren Haining, John Davidson and Robert Pearson are delighted with todays decision. (Picture: Thomas Brown)

Longstanding community activist John Davidson is delighted with the news and he has today spoken to the NEN. Click on the link below to listen to what John said.

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The NEN broke the story last November when these issues were raised with the Council and police and at that time Inspector John Cooper from Lothian and Borders police told us “The main issues are youths passing through Silverknowes to congregate in the Davidson’s Mains area and this has led to a number of minor vandalism’s such as car windows being smashed and cars being scratched.”

Rod Alexander chairperson of the Davidson’s Mains Silverknowes Association is expected to make a statement later today.

City campaign groups denounce ‘back door privatisation’

LOCAL CAMPAIGN GROUPS DENOUNCE “BACK DOOR PRIVATISATION” IN CLEANSING

Local anti-cuts groups have declared that Edinburgh Council are responsible for the deteriorating service in refuse collection, and the blame should be put firmly on the councillors and top management, not the binmen and other workers. The groups denounce the “back door privatisation” of Edinburgh Council services and have demanded a response from Council leader Andrew Burns.

North Edinburgh Fights Back and Greater Leith Against the Cuts condemn the large-scale use of agency staff in Street Cleansing and Refuse Collection – and claim that the new switch to fortnightly collections appears to be motivated by cost-cutting not environmental concern.

“We are in favour of reducing waste and increasing recycling but we suspect the move to fortnightly collections is not motivated by ecology but is part of the cut-backs. We are closely monitoring its impact and are consulting with local people if action needs to be taken to restore the weekly collections.”

The groups also denounce the imposition of anti social shift patterns on the workforce, arguing that the continuation of work until 10.30pm will cause disruption and nuisance to residents, particularly children, the elderly and vulnerable. “Refuse collection workers have told management the new shift patterns would not work,” say the community groups, “but as usual the CEC management aren’t listening to the people who really know the job.”

In a statement, the groups declare: ‘We are totally opposed to the privatisation of public services and the cuts in services and worsening working conditions this invariably entails. The full Council voted against privatising these services – why are they now doing the complete opposite, and bringing in large numbers of Blue Arrow contractors to both Street
Cleansing and Refuse Collection? New workers – who are certainly needed – should be taken on as full Council employees, wherever possible with permanent contracts.’

They add: ‘Contrary to some claims, Blue Arrow were NOT introduced to deal with the current backlog, dozens of Blue Arrow staff have been operating from the Russell Road depot in refuse collection since March, and Blue Arrow have been deployed from Cowans Close depot in street cleansing since July. What’s more, the private firm Enterprise were used in street cleansing in the spring.’

A Shop Steward from within Environmental Services said: “I have repeatedly voiced my concerns at the use of agency staff to City of Edinburgh Council Senior Management at numerous meetings since the elected members rejected Privatisation and also to various elected members all to no avail; unfortunately it appears that this new administration is
also listening to the officials who are now intent on privatising our council/public services through the back door.”

The community groups are still awaiting a response from the Council. “We have written to Councillor Burns demanding an end to this back door privatisation – he has yet to reply. However Councillor Hinds has written to say she has commissioned a report on the matter from Director of Services for Communities Mark Turley. We eagerly await this and urge its early delivery.”

North Edinburgh Fights Back <info@northedinburghfightsback.org.uk>
Greater Leith Against the Cuts <greaterleithc59@gmail.com>
Website www.edinburghagainstcuts.org.uk

Following up employability in Forth

The lack of employment opportunities remains a problem in North Edinburgh, where unemployment figures remain stubbornly high. A conference held in North Edinburgh Arts Centre last week looked at what is being done to improve the life chances of people struggling to gain employment in Forth.

The city council recently introduced a new Integrated Employability Service (IES). The IES is set out in the Council’s new employability commissioning strategy and refocuses council investment on four priority areas: young people, early intervention to prevent future long-term unemployment, support for regeneration areas and action to reduce low pay.

There’s a lot of jargon and strange language used – hubs, strategic skills pipelines, sustained outcomes and gateways – but put simply IES will establish a clear local service framework to better align services and make it easier for those seeking information about work to get the appropriate support and advice. The IES will evolve over the next three years.

City council Employability Service official Brian Martin (pictured above)told around thirty delegates: “What we had before was a lot of money scattered around hither and thither, with no one department having overall responsibility for employability money. That’s changed, and we’re starting to work better together; aligning better with the national agencies and improving our communications. There’s a recognition that we need to be much more pro-active but we are also realistic – we can work with agencies to supply training opportunities but if there are no jobs it becomes meaningless for participants. What we need is early warnings from potential employers – what they are planning and what skills their workforce will need. The sooner we have this information, the more likely it is we ca have people ‘job ready’ when these opportunities arise”.

The forthcoming 21^st Century Homes redevelopment in Pennywell and a possible hotel and leisure complex at Crewe Toll have been identified as two potential employment opportunities for local people, and others have been earmarked.

Along with WEACT, Forth Sector and Volunteer Centre Edinburgh, local employment agency Community Renewal was part of the Stevenson Consortium which successfully bid for the citywide Employment Services Contract. The new service started on 1 May and is delivered from ‘hubs’ in Sighthill, the Community Renewal office in Muirhouse and Haywired in Craigmillar with an additional outreach service in Gilmerton.

Community Renewal’s Nigel Green (pictured above) explained how the new consortium works and went on to outline the various ways the partnership supports local people in their search for work – through referrals to the hubs and also through outreach work at a wide range of locations.

“It is early days for the consortium but we are pleased with how things have progressed so far”, he said. “Community Renewal is already quite well-known in North Edinburgh but we are now covering a much wider area with a much bigger client base. That presents new challenges, but the important thing for all of us is to make sure that the support for the client is there when they need it.”

Closing the meeting, Forth Neighbourhood Partnership convener Councillor Cammy Day said: “It’s clear that there is a lot of work going on to improve the employability chances of local people, and the challenge for us is just how to get that word out into the wider community. People need to know what support is available and we may try to do this through a wider, community conference type event.”

It’s official – Edinburgh’s blooming beautiful!

It’s official – Edinburgh is Scotland’s most beutiful city! The capital secured the top spot at the Beautiful Scotland awards yesterday (11 September) and will now go on to represent Scotland in the national Britain in Bloom competition.

Environment Convener Councillor Lesley Hinds (pictured below) said: “It’s fantastic news that Edinburgh has been recognised as the top city in Scotland for its green spaces. I was thrilled to meet the judges when they visited Edinburgh last month and I’m delighted we can now add another Beautiful Scotland City Award to the capital’s impressive record of accolades for parks and green spaces.

“The award positively reflects on all the excellent work staff do to keep the city looking attractive all year round. My deepest thanks must also go to all the volunteers and local community groups who have worked hard to successfully transform their local environments. However this is not a time to be complacent as we’ll now be looking ahead to next summer’s Britain in Bloom competition where Edinburgh will be representing Scotland in the national awards. Here’s hoping we can add a gold medal next year to our collection!”

Tag: city council