Tag: city council

Recycling rates continue to climb

Have residents  really learned to love recycling?

rubbish1 (2)

Edinburgh has seen recycling rates rise thanks to the success of a new service alongside a focused campaign to increase uptake by the City of Edinburgh Council.

A surge in recycling for households receiving the new kerbside recycling service – rolled out to more than 140,000 homes over the last eighteen months – has seen the amount of waste recycled increase by 29% in 2015/16 compared to 2014/15.

Houses involved in the new service also produced 51% more food waste recycling in 2015/16 than in 2014/15, with the tonnage of food waste collected increasing at each phase of its roll out.

The upturn has contributed to a city-wide drop of 10% in the amount of waste sent to landfill since 2014/15, while the average city-wide rate of recycling has grown by 2.9% over the last year.

Environment Convener, Councillor Lesley Hinds, said: “I am delighted with these figures, which demonstrate just how effective the new recycling service has been.

“Obviously, updates to the system have been something of a culture change for those involved, but I’m pleased to see that, now it has bedded in, residents are really taking to recycling responsibly and reducing the amount of waste we send to landfill.

“We now want to see a similar uptake across the city’s tenemental and flatted  properties, which are served by communal  bins, and we are working hard to increase recycling provision and to make facilities as easy to access as possible.”

Over the last six months more than 940 communal dry mixed recycling bins and 617 communal glass bins have been installed on Edinburgh’s streets, with the roll-out of more communal recycling facilities planned for other areas of the city, making it easier for tenemental residents to recycle their waste.

Additionally, an interactive map, due to be launched next month, will help citizens locate communal recycling and landfill bins near their homes.

As well as an increase in on-street recycling provision, other actions aimed at facilitating more recycling over the coming year will include the ongoing audit of recycling resources for communal properties, and the ‘grouping’ of recycling and landfill bins near tenements.

It is hoped that the drive to increase recycling will see the citywide rate rise to 44.4% by the end of this year.

Find out more about recycling on the Council website. Continue reading Recycling rates continue to climb

Meet the Funders event next Thursday

MEET the FUNDERS EVENT

Thursday 12 May – Public Drop in from 5 – 8pm

Waverley Court Courtyard Coffee Bar/Restaurant area

waverely court

‘Meet the Funders’ is a free marketplace event providing access to funding information for community projects. It is an opportunity for groups to discuss their ideas with potential funders and collect a range of information about possible sources of grant aid. The event also offers the groups an opportunity to meet and work together.

The following exhibitors have confirmed attendance with more expected:

Big Lottery
Edinburgh4Community
Community Grants Fund
PassIT On
Royal Bank of Scotland Foundation
Sportscotland
The Robertson Trust
Resourcing Scotland’s Heritage
Princes Trust Youth Business Scotland
Registered Tenants Grants
MyParkScotland – Greenspace Scotland
First Port
Edinburgh Business Gateway
Scotland’s Employment Recruitment Incentive Fund
Art and Business Scotland
MOD Covenant Fund
The Melting Pot
Edinburgh Community Food

Volunteering Matters

The Big Lunch Eden Project

Lloyds TSB Foundation for Scotland 

Home Energy Scotland

Scotrail Community Fund

In Kind Direct

Turn2Us & The Edinburgh Fund

Greenspace Scotland Tesco Bags of Help

Waste Aware

The Charity Bank

Unity Bank Trust

Macmillan Cancer Care

20mph Speed Limits

Pilotlight

For more information, or if you would like to attend as an exhibitor, please contact Maureen Thompson on 0131 469 3595.

 

PPPP High School closures: what’s happening next week

Current plans for next week are:

ROYAL HIGH SCHOOL

portakabins RHS

S1 and S2 students

S1 and S2 students should return to school at 9:40am on Tuesday 19 April. Students should report to the old front door beside the assembly hall. Please do not enter through any other school entrances.

S1 and S2 classes will be accommodated in temporary units that are being installed in the school grounds this weekend (16 and 17 April, above).

S3, S4, S5 and S6 students

The arrangements currently in place for S3 to S6 students will continue.

SQA update

Positive discussions have been taking place with the Scottish Qualifications Authority who have agreed that verification and examining visits for all subjects that were due to take place this week have been postponed and will be rescheduled with individual schools.

We will update students when we have more information.

School places for all: Mission Accomplished!

  • All city pupils will have a place to go next week
  •  Free swim session on Monday for affected pupils
  • Sixteen temporary classes to be located at Royal High

RHS

All 7,600 primary and secondary pupils affected by school closures now have alternative education plans put in place for next week. The final pieces of a very complicated jigsaw puzzle were slotted in this afternoon. Continue reading School places for all: Mission Accomplished!

Schools: the jigsaw’s almost complete

Places now found for all primary school pupils

DSCF3274

All primary pupils affected by school closures now have alternative education plans put in place, the city council has announced. It’s been a massive challenge, but council officers have now found temporary places for almost six thousand city schoolchildren displaced after structural faults were found in seventeen PPP1 schools.

The jigsaw was completed late yesterday afternoon when pupils from the final five primary schools affected – Forthview, Pirniehall, St David’s, Broomhouse and St Josephs – were found alternative education provision.

The children will be relocated to alternative venues across the city from Tuesday next week, and it’s almost a case of ‘any port in a storm’. Some local children have been found accommodation in nearby schools including Granton and Wardie, but for other classes it’s going to mean long daily bus trips at rush hour to places including Wester Hailes, Abbeyhill and Craigmillar

The arrangements are far from ideal: the travel and strange new surroundings can be disruptive and upsetting for children and their families, but for now they know where they are going – at least in the short term. There is no indication yet just how long their own school buildings will remain closed.

Work is ongoing to identify alternative arrangements for some remaining S1 to S3 pupils.

It’s been a dreadful week of uncertainty for families, but in the past four days the Council has now put in place alternative arrangements for 5,900 pupils, which is quite an achievement. Parents have been directly notified of the new arrangements and details are available on the Council website.

DSCF3276

Council Leader Andrew Burns said: “I’m delighted we have now been able to put in place arrangements for our primary, special school and majority of secondary pupils. Work is continuing to accommodate our S1, S2 and S3 pupils.

“The integration of pupils sharing schools has been going well and all our host staff and children have been welcoming the additional pupils and their teachers. I again want to pay credit to the Chief Executive and his team for their work on what has been a huge logistical challenge for the Council.

“On Wednesday evening the Council received early indications that suggest evidence of faults across all 17 affected schools to a varying extent.  At the moment it is too early to say what the impact will be as full survey results from Edinburgh Schools Partnership have not been yet been received.   Some faults may be easy to fix and may not present a major problem while others could be longer term.

“We will provide parents with further information on the impact of individual school surveys once the full reports are received and assessed.

“What is certain is that we won’t take risks with the safety of our schools children and schools won’t reopen until Edinburgh Schools Partnership can assure us of their safety.  As part of the contract, Edinburgh Schools Partnership own, maintain and assure the safety of the affected buildings.

“We will publish further information on individual school surveys when these are formally received and of course provide an update to parents on their individual schools and the remediation works required.”

The programme of structural surveys arranged by the Edinburgh Schools Partnership is ongoing.

The Council will update parents directly, via text message, the Council website (www.edinburgh.gov.uk/schoolclosures and via the Council Twitter @Edinburgh_CC as soon as information becomes available.

 

 

Forthview: going forth across the city

forthview

Forthview Primary pupils will return to school next week – but in classroooms scattered across Edinburgh. Dealing with the temporary closure of seventeen schools has been a logistical nightmare for council officials and it’s proved impossible to keep the Forthview kids together. Continue reading Forthview: going forth across the city