Forth’s youth told: think BIG!

Think BIG. Think bold. Be creative. And there’s no such thing as a daft idea! That was the message to participants at an event held at Pilton Youth & Childrens Project last week – and the results of the day’s work will help to guide youth service provision across Forth Neighbourhood.

Organised by Forth Neighbourhood Partnership and Total Craigroyston, YouthTalk brought together young people from across Forth with community representatives and decision makers to discuss three key issues.

‘Positively Engaging Young People’ is one of Forth Neighbourhood Partnership’s main priorities and Convener Cllr Cammy Day explained to delegates: “We want young people’s views and aspirations to influence decisions that are taken locally and to listen to their suggestions about how things can be improved for them. We want them to have a real say in the future of this community and how it develops over the next ten or more years”.

A background report to aid discussion was prepared prior to the Youth Talk event. During the review young people across Forth were approached in schools, libraries, at youth groups, basically anywhere they assembled – and asked their opinions on the area. North Edinburgh Young Peoples Forum organised and conducted a survey in four local High Schools and the local Street Work team also gathered views: all told around 1400 young people gave their opinions on their local community -what they like, what they hate and what Forth needs to make it better for young people.

Assisted by motivational speaker Mike Stevenson from Thinktastic, Wednesday’s YouthTalk event saw young people and ‘seniors’ working together in small groups to discuss three ‘ideas’:

How do we involve more young people in positive activity?

How do we better promote the positive contribution our young people make in their community?

What should an ideal youth-friendly community look like – and how do we get there?

Once participants got into the swing of things, the conversation – and the ideas – began to flow. Some of the ideas generated – for example a common social media address for local youth groups to share information, and an annual celebration of young people’s achievements – proved very popular and could be acted on almost immediately. Others, however, may take longer – you did ask the young people to think BIG, Mike!

All of the ideas generated – big and small – will be recorded and a report of the YouthTalk event will be circulated in due course. It will make interesting reading!

And finally, thanks so much for the warm words and that round of applause for the NEN – it was really touching and much appreciated!

It’s Power of Food Festival weekend!

It’s here! Edinburgh’s community gardeners take centre stage this weekend as The Power of Food Festival takes place at venues and locations across the city.

PoF Programme

For further info visit https://poweroffoodfestival.wordpress.com/

Community takeover? Community Empowerment Bill reaches final stage

‘This bill is a momentous step in our drive to give people a stronger voice in the decisions that matter to them’ – Community Empowerment Minister Marco Biagi

More support and advice will be available for communities to take over land and buildings in their areas, Community Empowerment Minister Marco Biagi has announced.

The Community Ownership Support Service, which helps groups and local authorities transfer buildings or land assets, will see its funding increased to £400,000 over the next year.

By offering advice COSS has already helped communities turn council offices, schools, libraries and empty shops into sports centres, community shops and arts venues.

The funding boost will be used to spread the word through roadshows and by providing advice directly to community groups on the benefits of asset transfer.

It will also help the organisation support the implementation of the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Bill which reaches its final stage in Parliament today.

The bill will give local authorities and public bodies a statutory duty to weigh up the benefits of transferring their land and buildings to communities.

Mr Biagi said: “Every community across the country has a building or area of land that could be transformed if local people were in control. This funding will help communities realise their ambitions, and find a way to improve their areas by injecting life into an old office block or waste ground.

“Taking over land or buildings can give communities the opportunity to protect services that might otherwise have been lost, it can provide jobs, training and opportunities to generate income or allow groups to refurbish and make alterations to buildings they already use.

“COSS has already supported nearly 50 asset transfers across Scotland and through this funding and the work of the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Bill I know even more communities will benefit.

“This bill is a momentous step in our drive to give people a stronger voice in the decisions that matter to them.

“The bill will give communities more rights to take over land in both urban and rural areas, provide protection for allotments, introduce new powers to transform abandoned or derelict land and opportunities to be involved in decisions around the delivery of services, community safety, healthcare or education from day one.”

Ahead of the Stage 3 proceedings, Mr Biagi will visit the Crags Centre in Edinburgh. The centre was closed by the local authority in 2010 and reopened by the community two years later.

It received advice from COSS to help it reopen and it now serves as a sports centre for a thriving local basketball club and a wide range of other activities.

Simon Turner, co-founder of the Crags Centre said: “We’re looking forward to the Community Empowerment Bill coming into force so that other communities can create a home for their sport and cultural groups just like ours.

“The Crags has been turned around from a failing facility into a community hub that is accessible for community groups and local people. It’s the volunteers who have made it work and further support from the Scottish Government will be welcomed by those in the social enterprise sector.”

Linda Gillespie from COSS said: “We are delighted with the increased level of funding which will enable COSS to engage with a wider range of public bodies on asset transfer as well as with Community Planning Partnerships around asset rationalisation processes.

“The increased funding will also enable us to increase the technical capacity of the COSS staff team which will further benefit the groups we work with.”

Exhibition showcases the talents of our local women

North Edinburgh’s Women’s International Group invite you to their new exhibition which celebrates the many achievements of local women in this community.

The exhibition opens on Thursday at 10am in Royston Wardieburn Community Centre; there’s a free creche and lunch is provided too (please book creche place in advance to avoid disappointment).

For further information contact Lynn on 552 5700 or Rachel on 07891 525 663.

WIG POSTER 18 JUNE final

Getting together. Making a difference.

Chain reaction: Community rallies to support Forthview following bike thefts

Mackenzies serves up support for school hit by robbery

The Forthview Primary School community was devastated when their storage shed was broken into over a holiday weekend in May. Thieves stole bikes which had been borrowed to help teach pupils cycling proficiency, leaving the school facing a potential bill of one thousand pounds it could ill-afford to pay.

Forthview’s Tracey Berry said at the time: “Bikes that we had borrowed, so that Bill Stobie could teach bike ability to P6, have been stolen, along with footballs and gardening equipment. We are responsible for the bikes: it will cost us about £1000 to replace the them!

“Our fundraising is meant to be for outings and activities for Forthview children, not replacing things that thoughtless people have stolen. If you find one please hand it to the school – the more we find, the less money we have to pay out from the school funds.”

An appeal went out to trace the stolen bikes (see NEN blog ‘Forthview break-in: can you help trace bikes?, 11 May) – and the community response has been nothing short of remarkable!

Forthview head teacher Eileen Littlewood said: “Not only have parents, grandparents and their friends rallied to make donations for us, but a fairly new restaurant in Davidson’s Mains contacted us when they heard about the theft. They are very eager to support the community in any way they can and they offered to hold a fundraising night where staff and other people could come and enjoy a taster menu with wine for £30 a head.

“Staff who went along had a wonderful evening and the food was delicious. We enjoyed 8 courses and half a bottle of wine each. The cuisine was superb and at the end of the evening, Grant and Jamie who are the partners in the business gave us every penny back – £550!

“They did not even want to cover the costs of the food. We have been overwhelmed by their generosity. As one staff member said: ‘what a fundraiser – we made a lot of money, had a brilliant meal and wine as well!’The business in question is Mackenzies Restaurant and Bar in Davidson’s Mains, which opened under new management at the end of April. Mine hosts Grant and Jamie are local lads- from Granton and Wardieburn – and together with Grant’s partner Trisha pledged to help a local school in need.

The Mackenzies team’s tremendous support is greatly appreciated by all at Forthview – and they may just find that their generosity is reciprocated by a grateful community. Well done, Mackenzies!

PS: And the icing on the cake – a number of the missing bikes have been recovered too!

Digital Information Day for MHA tenants

Muirhouse Housing Association tenants have an opportunity to brush up their technology skills at event at Muirhouse Millennium Community Centre tomorrow (writes James McGinty):

Come and find out more about using phones,tablets and computers with the M.H.A. Team at Muirhouse Millennium Community Centre (Lounge/Cafe area) on Tuesday (9 June) from 11am – 1pm.

This is an event for M.H.A.Tenants only.

An expert from the field of computers will be there joining the Team and if you attend your name will be entered to a lucky dip to win a tablet!

Learning Disability Festival event in The Meadows

Join in some fun activities at the Meadows!

Friday 19 June from 12 – 3pm – all welcome!

Decisions, decisions: Time for truly local councils?

A meeting taking place in Oban this weekend might just change the way communities engage with politics and politicians. Local democracy needs to change – is it time for a People’s Council?

A grassroots movement created to transform local democracy is to hold an event in Oban this weekend. The People’s Council believes that local democracy in Scotland is broken – and it’s up to people and communities themselves to fix it.

The movement has it’s roots in the west of Scotland, where community activists in Argyll & Bute started the ball rolling. Frustrated by the way their local authority operates, campaigners aim to revolutionise decision-making, taking it back to the local communities themselves. They’ve had enough of the council’s ‘we know what’s good for you’ attitude and believe that decisions made about a community are best made by the people who are affected by them – the people who live there. Sound familiar?

Community campaigners were particularly aggrieved over their local authority’s lack of support for a community buy-out of Castle Toward, their council’s failure to challenge budget cuts and the subsequent cuts to services in their communities that inevitably followed.

Activists began chatting online – and an online community, the People’s Council movement, was formed. It soon became clear that people and communities across the country are also concerned about the state of local democracy, and the decision was made to widen the campaign and make the movement Scotland wide.

The group feels that the structure and ethos of councils, and not just their actions and decisions, must be challenged.

It is calling for fundamental reform of local government in Scotland and have called a People’s Council meeting to look at how this can be achieved.

A People’s Council spokesperson said: “This grassroots event in Argyll is set to challenge the nature of local democracy in Scotland. Scotland may be topping the UK charts in terms of voter turnout at the recent election but there’s still a huge local democratic deficit we need to tackle.

“Join us in Oban on 6 June for this one day event full of speakers, workshops, discussion and action to explore local democracy reform from a grassroots level organised by a collective of community activists from across Argyll.

“Speakers include writer and broadcaster Lesley Riddoch, Common Weal’s Robin McAlpine, Paddy Bort of the University of Edinburgh, campaigner Cat Boyd, local MSP Mike Russell and Councillor Vivien Dance, among others.

“The aim of the event is to plan and organise how people can effect change in our local communities and across Scotland. Everyone knows that local democracy in Scotland is broken. The People’s Council wants to try and fix it.”

Broadcaster Lesley Riddoch has thrown her weight behind the campaign and is one of a number of high profile speakers who will address the People’s Council event on Saturday.

She said: “Scotland has Europe’s largest councils by population and physical size. That means distant decision-making, low levels of participation and constant battles between communities and councils.

“Argyll and Bute Council’s shameful failure to transfer Castle Toward to the local community as agreed was one of the lowest points in the history of Scottish local democracy. But now activists from across Argyll are demonstrating real leadership by deciding to get even – not angry.

“These campaigners have kick-started a process to devise a new workable template of truly local government in Scotland involving folk from all over Scotland – the People’s Councils.

“There’s been support for this novel, grassroots idea at every meeting I’ve spoken at during the election campaign from Assynt in the Highlands to Duns in the Borders. Truly local councils are an idea whose time has come – well done Argyll for getting the ball rolling.”

Independent MSP John Finnie, who will also speak at the Oban event, said: “In far too many local authorities decisions reached indicate just how far, both in terms of geography and mind-set, those charged with representing communities are from what really matters.

“That must and will change as the growing debate around the need to ensure meaningful local democracy, which reflects community aspirations, gathers momentum.”

The event takes place at Oban High School on Saturday 6 June from 9.30am to 4.30pm. Tickets are £10/£7 and can be purchased online from Ticket Tailor, or via www.thepeoplescouncil.org.

A number of free tickets are also available.

Support your Community Council!

Do you care about what’s going on in your community? Would you like to help make your neighbourhood a better place to live? Yes? Then join with others who feel the same way at West Pilton West Granton Community Council’s annual general meeting on Tuesday evening!

Community Council agm poster note 2 6 15

West Pilton West Granton Community Council AGM

Tuesday 2 June 7 – 9pm

West Pilton Neighbourhood Centre

Community Council secretary Willie Black is keen to see the while community getting involved. He said: “Our AGM is an opportunity to meet with other concerned residents and tenants who are working for the improvement of the area. Do you feel you can make a difference? Come along to the meeting and have your say. With your help we can all make the area a place where everyone can be proud to live and work.”

Councillor Maureen Child, who chairs the city council’s Communities and Neighbourhoods Committee, is guest speaker at the event and will talk on ‘The Changing Role of Community Councils’.

Community councils are only as strong and effective as their members make them, so why not play your part?

For further information call Community Council secretary Willie Black on 0751 568 6421 or email w.black@blueyonder.co.uk

wpwgcc agm agenda 2 6 15

Drylaw Telford CC AGM this Wednesday

Drylaw Telford Community Council’s annual general meeting will take place in Drylaw Neighbourhood Centre on Wednesday 27 May at 6.30pm. All welcome.

See below for meeting papers:

Agenda DTCC AGM + Monthly mtg 27th May 2015

DTCC Minutes AGM May 2014

DTCC Minutes April 2015

DTCC A5 FLYER for New members & AGM