#StrongerNorth: Action Update

Steady progress on tackling community concerns

StrongerNorthHow has the #StrongerNorth initiative been performing?The latest figures, compiled at the end of January, are very encouraging: 

Housing

           17 housing enforcement actions taken against residents in response to behaviour

Including  13 warnings, 1 Final Warning, 1 Notice to Quit, 1 Notice of Proceedings for Recovery of Possession, 1 ASBO under consideration.

Offending  

·          7 Young people identified and targeted due to offending (Police, Council, Social work etc)

·         3 charged as adults, 2 in Children’s Hearing system and 2 in court system (last four all reducing offending)

·         4 young people subject to Movement Restriction Condition

·         4 young people placed in secure accommodation in last 12 months (2 twice)

·         Calls to Police have really reduced between October and December 2014 (209 to 119 calls)

·         Reduction in offences committed by the most problematic young people – including a significant drop by one prolific housebreaker.

Youth Work

           Positive engagement over a number of weeks with group working on bothy at Towford

           Conversation cafe with Positive Prison organised for 30 January.

Employment and Training

           Employment experience and training programme developed by Council, Urban Union and Edinburgh College. First group ready to benefit.

Pre-School and School

           Respect programme expanded to Craigroyston and Forthview Primary Schools

           Youth Engagement Programme at Crewe Road Fire station – participants selected from Craigroyston Community High School.

 Physical Improvements

           Community clean ups in backgreen at West Pilton Gardens/Crossway and roadside verge along Granton Mill well-attended.

West Pilton/West Granton Community Council

           Community payback team cut back bushes in West Pilton Park where motorbikes were being hidden.

 Communications

           Regular daily tweets and 1,343 followers

           Over 230 Facebook likes.

Community activity

           Community survey planned to track community views about local action

           Tenants and Residents in Muirhouse #StrongerNorth campaign – Community Shop window display

           Weekly lunch time drop in sessions at Muirhouse Community Shop and Pilton Community Association flat – six week programme started 19 January

           Community feedback event 4 February.

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Drylaw’s looking for a local hero

It’s Tierney Award nomination time in Drylaw Telford

DrylawParishChurch

Do you know someone who gave up their time to help the Drylaw Telford community last year? A local volunteer who went that extra mile to support a neighbour, or a person who’s worked to improve the local environment or enhance the quality of life in the neighbourhood? If so, Drylaw  Telford Community Council wants to hear from you!

The community council is now seeking nominations for the Thomas Tierney Award for Good Citizenship 2014.

Tam Tierney was a committed community activist from Wester Drylaw who was involved in many of the positive things that happening in the old Greater Pilton area during the eighties and nineties. He was a stalwart of Pilton Sporting Club, chaired Craigroyston Community Centre for many years and was also an active and enthusiastic member of Drylaw Telford Community Council. Tam was also part of the steering group and a member of the first management committee of Drylaw Neighbourhood Centre, which first opened it’s doors twenty years ago in 1995.

When Tam passed away in 1999, Drylaw Telford Community Council decided to mark his contribution to community life – not only to celebrate his achievements but also to try to encourage others to become more active within their community.

Every year since 2000, the community council has chosen a new recipient of the Award. They are all very different, and every one has been nominated for a different reason, but they share one thing in common: they freely contribute their time to do something that makes the Drylaw Telford neighbourhood a better place to live.

Former recipients have done that in many ways – helping out as a volunteer with local projects, doing their neighbours’ shopping, supporting local groups by serving on management committees … and some have done all of these things and more!

Drylaw Telford Community Council chairman Alex Dale – who himself received the award in 2012 – said: “The Thomas Tierney Award is an important date on our community council calendar and is usually the best attended meeting of the year. We are looking forward to receiving nominations and the opportunity to celebrate the achievements of our local unsung heroes.”

Nomination forms are now available at Drylaw Parish Church and Drylaw Neighbourhood Centre and forms can also be downloaded at Drylaw Telford Community Council’s website.

All completed forms must be returned by 25 February.

If you think you know someone from the area who deserves recognition for their community spirit, visit the community council’s website at www.drylawtelfordcc.co.uk or email Secretary@drylawtelfordcc.co.uk for further information.

Thomas Tierney Award Poster

 

Citizens have their say on council budget

Five-fold increase in public response to budget proposals – but only 3500 take the opportunity to have their say

CityChambers

es more responses than last year have been received through the City of Edinburgouncil’s budget engagement and consultation exercise.

The results are detailed in a report which will be considered by the Finance and Resources Committee on Tuesday, 3 February. The Council received comments on topics such as allotments, early years and adult education, Edinburgh Leisure, library opening hours, public toilets, homelessness and third party grants.

For the first time the Council used a new online tool enabling residents to have their say on how the Capital invests and saves over the next three years.e report includes feedback from around 3,525 Edinburgh residents, key stakeholders and local businesses including 1,719 people who used the online planner.

The city’s population is around 490,000.

The Council also received 782 telephone calls, emails and letters,145 budget leaflets were returned and 524 comments were made through social media.

A budget question time event was also attended by over 40 people, viewed by 200 people on the live webcast and watched another 862 times using the archive.

In order to meaningfully engage with a larger and more diverse group, the online planner allowed the Council to show where it expects to incur costs in 2017/18, to demonstrate the impacts of increasing or decreasing spending in all of its services, and to give respondents the opportunity to express what they feel the Council’s priorities should be. Impacts shown in the planner were indicative of what might happen as a result of budget changes. The Council also asked for public views on this year’s 2015/16 budget proposals.

Cllr Alasdair Rankin, Convener of the Finance and Resource Committee, said: “I would like to thank the thousands of residents and businesses who took part in this open and democratic 11-week engagement and consultation process. A broad range of channels were used to ensure that everyone had the opportunity to have their say as an individual and or as a group to influence how the Council should invest and save money.

“The Council received five times more feedback through this year’s budget engagement and consultation than last year. The online planner was extremely successful and we ensured it was promoted to all age groups and people from all walks of life to help us understand more fully where Edinburgh residents think Council money should be invested and saved. We will be taking this success and working with people right through the year to develop a more participatory process throughout the city.

“The comments and the results of the budget planner are now being carefully considered along with all the other feedback we received. This will help us to make the right decisions for our residents now and in the future when setting our budget. I would encourage people to watch councillors making these important decisions for the city live, via our website, or catch up afterwards on the webcast archive.”

The budget for 2015/16 will be set at a meeting, which will be webcast, on Thursday 12 February.

Drylaw Telford CC meeting date

DrylawNC1

Drylaw Telford Community Council will hold their first meeting of 2015 on Wednesday 28 January at 7pm in Drylaw Neighbourhood Centre. All welcome.

AGENDA

1 Welcome

2 Attendees

3 Apologies for Absence

4 Approve Minutes of the last meeting (26th November 2104) & any matters arising

5 Reports :-

• Police Report
• Councillors Report
• Treasurer’s Report
• EDRA (Easter Drylaw Residents Association)
• Telford Reps Report

6 Parking Issues Drylaw Shops (Update)

7 Thomas Tierney 2015

8 Correspondence

9 Date of Next Meeting (25th Febuary 2015).

Friends to meet next Thursday

friends of granton castle walled gardenThe Friends of Granton Castle Walled Garden will hold their first meeting of the New Year next Thursday (8 January) at 6pm in Royston Wardieburn Community Centre.

Agenda items include:

  • Sharing latest news, plans and ideas!
  • Slideshow of garden images
  • Membership forms
  • Nomination and selection of committee members

All welcome

 

They came, they saw, they cleaned up!

Residents give Granton Mill a right good going over!

9Granton Mill residents rolled up their sleeves and joined city council staff to clean up their community recently. A small but enthusiastic band picked litter, cut back vegetation and cleared dumped rubbish and soon had the area looking spick and span (whatever spick and span looks like!)

Community council secretary Willie Black lives in Granton Mill and he initiated the area clean up. He said: “We wanted to encourage residents to join together to clean up their community and take pride in where they live – we want Granton Mill to be a place people want to stay.

“We were looking for a commitment of even just an hour or two and it was good to see local people answering the call. You can see the difference it’s made and the challenge now is to keep this momentum going and build on what we’ve achieved.”

The Granton Mill cleanup follows a similar day of action in West Pilton as part of the #StrongerNorth initiative. It’s ikely that more will follow in the New Year.

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Willie has sent in some pictures of the Sunday morning cleanup (below) and there are more to follow:

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Budget: Council ‘needs to think again’

‘Thinking needs to be done, not only in this city but across Scotland. This is the important missing element in this consultation.’

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Granton and District Community Council has urged the city council to think again over proposed budget cuts. The community council’s response to the budget proposals follows a local consultation conducted by community councillors last week.

Community council secretary Dave Macnab said: “We have submitted this response to the city council on behalf of those who attended our local consultation exercise. When the people within our area found out scale of the cuts – for they are cuts, calling them savings is double speak – they were appalled.

We are calling on all councillors and in particular those who represent us in Forth to oppose the cuts. The council needs to think again.”

GDCC_December_Budget_response

Granton & District CC’s budget response reads:

Dear Sir/Madam,

City of Edinburgh Council – Budget Consultation 

  1. Background 

1.1       As part of the Council ‘Budget Challenge’ consultation 2015/16 the Council outlines that it faces a budget challenge which ultimately means that “we need to save £67 million over the next three years”.  The main thrust of the consultation as far as we can see has been the encouragement of the citizens of Edinburgh to go ‘on line’ and ‘take the budget challenge’ which is an on line platform that encourages people to decide what services they want to cut.

1.2       Granton and District Community Council were not convinced that having an on line consultation exercise was sufficient to get the views of all of the people of Edinburgh given the scale of the cuts that are being proposed.  Whilst we acknowledge that there were a series of ‘drop in’ events for people across the city, the focus of these was on showing people how to view and work the budget ‘game’.

This means that people who do not have regular access to IT – often older residents and those who do not have access to IT –  will miss out on the opportunity to have their say.  It is our view that the scale of the proposed budget cuts will have a disproportionate and negative impact on these very people – often the poorest in our communities.  As a consequence we decided to undertake our own consultation exercise.

  1. Granton and District Community Council – Consultation 

2.1       We organised a drop in day for Tuesday 9 December at Royston & Wardieburn Community Centre – we were in the centre from 9.30 – 6.30 pm.

2.2       To promote the event we distributed 2000 leaflets across our community council area that highlighted the purpose of the event etc.

2.3       We also placed posters across our community to advertise the event.  We also made full use of social media – including our web site and twitter account.

2.4       We drew up a list of some of the key proposals (that the council had identified in the consultation document) that we considered would have severe and negative impact within our area and asked people to comment on these – via post-its, voting stickers, and by talking to us.  We noted down what they said as well as have them write down their concerns. Not everyone used the ‘voting stickers’.

  1. Outcome of the Consultation 

3.1       Despite the terrible weather conditions we had 52 people who spoke to us.  Every person we spoke to were “astonished”, “amazed”, “had no idea” of the scale of the cuts.

Clearly the on line budget consultation has not resulted in the people within our community having any idea of the scale or specifics of the cuts proposed and the impact on what this means in real terms. This was our fear and so it has been realised.  The real impact needs to be clearly articulated by the Council before any decisions are made.

3.2       The qualitative data is outlined in Appendix 1 

  1. Consultation Conclusions and Recommendations 

4.1       It is clear that the council does not have enough income to deliver the services for the people it serves. Yet nowhere do we see that there has been any thinking done to increase income.  The focus is on cutting services.  We believe this is a one dimensional approach.

4.2       We do not believe that sufficient impact assessment evidence has been produced to provide a clear socio-economic evaluation on most proposals.

4.3       We therefore call on the council to approach the Scottish Government with a view to obtaining additional grant funding to cover the services for the people of Edinburgh.  If the Scottish Government cannot provide this – then they in turn should be advised to approach the UK Government for emergency funding.

4.4       We believe this city is facing a funding crisis and moving money from one area to another is divisive and will not solve the fundamental issue which is insufficient income. Given the changing demographics and growth in overall population as the race to ever further house building continues, the pressure on the city infrastructure and public services is at breaking point. The squeeze on council finances will continue and people will continue to suffer. Therefore a more fundamental approach to local authority funding is needed and this thinking needs to be done, not only in this city but across Scotland.  This is the important missing element in this consultation.

4.5          We think it worth reminding the council and our elected representatives of a report of the Communities and Neighbourhood Committee of 24th November that highlighted the levels of poverty and inequality across this city:

  • Some 22% of all households in the city live on incomes below the poverty threshold, slightly above the Scottish average
  • 24% of all Edinburgh households lived in fuel poverty in 2012. This equates to some 53,600 households in the city. 

4.6       There is an irony in that one of council actions to help deal with poverty and inequality as outlined in this report stated:

Ways to improve neighbourhoods are crucial and include place making and building community capacity. Examples are given of community learning and development to help with basic skills and to support community organisations, advice work to help poor households retain stable accommodation, improving the insulation of homes to reduce fuel poverty, and community safety actions to make residents feel safer by reducing anti-social behaviour.

Whilst one of the council budget cut proposals is:

“Carry out a full service review of CLD reducing the level of staffing at all grades, realigning staff against emerging neighbourhood models of work, prioritising service…..there may be some reduction in community based programme…..”

Clearly these two things are contradictory.

4.7       We consider that the only way that our city will meet people’s aspirations in terms of reducing poverty and inequality is by way of a fairer, more progressive tax system. When you take account of direct and indirect taxes, those on low incomes in the UK are being hit hard, while billions of pounds each year is lost through tax avoidance and evasion (by the richest). Progressive tax reforms would help to address inequality at root as well as redistributing economic power.

4.8       There has been under-investment in public sector, in technology, in infrastructure, in education for years. It is enlightening to quote the words from Nobel Prize-winning economist Professor Joseph Stiglitz who served as Chairman of the Economic Advisors under President Bill Clinton and Chief Economist at the World Bank:

One should remember austerity has almost never worked. This is an idea that’s been tried over and over again; back in 1929 Herbert Hoover tried it, succeeded in converting the stock market crash into the Great Depression – there were some other factors too. The IMF has tried this experiment; in East Asia I saw it in the years that I was at the World Bank; they tried it in Latin America; each time it succeeded in converting downturns into recessions, recessions into depressions”.

Whilst we recognise that these wider economic issues are not within the remit of the city council we make this statement as part of a wider debate that we consider needs to take place in Scotland and is the economic and social context in which the current cuts are being proposed.

4.9       We call on the council not to implement the current proposals. Everyone that we spoke to said no.  There was a strong view that the council have not thought hard or innovatively enough and do need to take a stronger step in supporting the people in rejecting the current economic paradigm and seek a new approach that supports the aspirations of the people of this city. We reject the budget proposals as currently outlined and call on our elected representatives within Forth and beyond to reject them.

Granton and District Community Council
http://grantonanddistrictcommunitycouncil.com/
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/GrantonDistCC

We’re no’ playin’ your game!

Community groups unite to oppose council cuts

nov 2014 057

Community groups, local organisations and concerned individuals have united to protest against imminent council cuts. The say the council’s budget proposals will hit the poorest people hardest and have written to local councillors urging them to support the fight against slashing local services.

Last week’s hastily convened meeting at Royston Wardieburn Community Centre was organised by Women’s International Group and was attended by more than  twenty local people – community councillors, management committee members, health service workers and local staff were all there. No councillors were present at the meeting.

WIG’s Anna Hutchison explained that the Women’s International Group had attended a Budget Challenge meeting and were unhappy about the way the consultation exercise was conducted – no-one attended to explain what was being proposed or to answer questions, and the Challenge was being presented as a fait accompli – ‘these are your only options’.

The group also felt it was wrong that local people were being asked to take part in a process to cut services that would pit one area or service off against another, so decided to call a public meeting to gauge the views of the wider community.

“It’s not for us to do the councillors’ work for them”, she said. “We elect councillors to set budgets and run the city. We expect them to listen to us and to protect our precious local services.”

The Council faces a considerable budget challenge.  Between 2015 and 2018, the Council’s annual budget will remain around £950 million but the council expects the cost of providing services to be £1.01 billion.

The council says it must make savings of £67 million over the next three years ‘to make sure we can provide the services that are important to the people of Edinburgh’.

Granton and District community councillor Dave Macnab told the meeting: “I’ve been struck by the fact that this budget consultation is almost like a game of Monopoly – except this time you are dealing with real people and real services. This is no game and I think people are sleepwalking into this process. What these abstract proposals mean in reality is cuts on an unimaginable scale”.

He went on: “I am quite disturbed – officials seem to be accepting that this is the way it must be. I would ask: what happens if we say ‘NO’?”

West Granton West Pilton community councillor Willie Black said that recent problems of antisocial behaviour in the area could be traced directly to poverty and unemployment – and that austerity measures, slashed budgets and cuts in local services would make an already bad situation much worse.

He also questioned the council’s figures, suggesting that the scale of cuts is much deeper – not £67 million but £142 million over the next three years.

Willie Black said it was vital that communities combined to fight the cuts being imposed upon them – ‘cuts that are being inflicted on us through no fault of our own, and yet the poor are the people who get the blame’. He said: “Alliances are being formed – we’ve got to put all our energies into a collective effort to challenge these cuts.

“And we’ve got to ask the councillors: in the war against the poor, where do you stand?”

nov 2014 104The meeting was then thrown open for debate and discussion. Among the points raised during a passionate and enthusiastic session:

  • It is unclear what the £67 m in the Council’s budget leaflet represents. It looks like the savings to be made over 3 years is significantly higher than £67m – this needs to be clarified.
  • There are a number of headings in the Council’s budget paper termed ‘Other’. These sections involve huge sums of money but  there is no explanation as to what this relates to.  This needs to be broken down so that we can see what it includes.
  • The savings identified  are very confusing – it isn’t  clear what they relate to – this should  be explained better in a way that lay people can understand
  • It is impossible to make an informed decision based on this information
  • The language used excludes people – it is gobbledygook!
  • The language used attempts to disguise the fact that ‘savings’ are actually cuts – people need to be aware of this.
  • The Council are asking the citizens of Edinburgh to approve their cuts – this is not
  • It is disgusting that elected members are not here – they always have  excuses for not turning up to important local meetings.  Councillors are elected to represent their constituents – we vote for them to do a job  on our behalf and  they get paid to do it.
  • Communities are being expected to identify which services they want to cut – this is unacceptable
  • The consultation is a sham – the decisions have already been made. The same thing happened with the consultation on the  closure of Royston Primary School – they didn’t listen to the community then.  The facts  they presented to local people were proved to be complete nonsense.  Can we trust them on the figures we have been presented with this time round?
  • Councillors and senior officials never put their hands up and admit their mistakes (ie the trams, Royston Primary School, Craigroyston High School)
  • Community councillors are sent huge amounts of information from the Council – it is impossible to read through it all and often to understand because of the language used.  This  makes it very difficult for community councillors to present this  information in a meaningful way to the wider community
  • The Council has already sub-contracted services out to private firms (someone  received a letter re their single person discount – it was sent from a firm in Derbyshire).  This is privatisation by the back door
  • It is accepted that the Council needs more cash to fund local services and that  the council tax freeze isn’t helping the situation.   The Council tax needs to be changed to make it more progressive so that  the  better off  pay more.
  • We are constantly told that events like the Festival and the Hogmanay celebrations are a good investment as they bring extra cash into the city but we never actually see the figures  and we don’t see the benefits in our communities.  This income should be audited and it should be set aside for local services.  There needs to be better transparency in the Council’s financial systems.
  • Education should be a priority – libraries and community centres are often a starting point for learning – they provide safe spaces in the community for children, young people and adults
  • Libraries and community centres are fantastic local facilities and provide a great service to all the community.
  • CLD workers are an important resource in local communities.
  • If jobs go it won’t be the folk who are high up the tree who go
  • There have been many examples of serious mismanagement at the Council – the trams project is only   The Council are now considering extending the tram line to Leith and paying for another feasibility study.  This is a  complete waste of public money.  Edinburgh has become a laughing-stock around the world because of this fiasco.
  • Many local organisations refused to display the leaflet publicising this meeting because they said it was political. Some workers are worried that the  Council will cut their grants if they are seen to be publicising this kind of event.   This position needs to be clarified by the Council.

Impact of cuts

  • Cuts in local services will result in more crime and anti-social behaviour – this is a false economy as it costs more money to deal with the consequences of crime.
  • Services for children and young people helps to keep them away from crime – it is more effective to prevent problems from happening in the first place. Cuts in funding to projects who work with hard to reach young people will be a disaster for  young people and the wider community.   Youth projects are trying to build trust and relationships with  young people which can help to steer them away from crime.
  • Many  kids haven’t had a chance in life.  Services such as Panmuir House are the last chance saloon for kids who do get into trouble.  Close it down and then what happens?
  • Cuts in services and closures will affect the health and well-being of local people – research shows that going to libraries and museums, taking part in groups and activities improves health – cuts in services will result in more illness and will put more pressure on the system
  • Cuts in jobs means public sector workers are being asked to take on more responsibilities – this puts people under stress and  can lead to them going off sick.  They then get  pulled up  by management and put under more pressure to return to work  – this adds to the stress factor.
  • Workers in the public sector are scared to go off sick these days despite the fact that they have valid sick lines– there has been a change in management culture in public services in recent years  (examples given about situation in the NHS)
  • The next generation in this community will end up even more disadvantaged because of the impact of the cuts
  • People are already struggling without more cuts to basic services. Many people  do not have enough to survive on once the bills are paid.  Benefit sanctions are being used  to penalize people for minor things (being late for an interview).  People are having to go without money and  food and having to rely on food banks and support from local services.
  • High levels of unemployment and poverty in the past resulted in an increase in crime and anti-social behaviour.  Many people moved out of the area and this had a negative affect on  the people who were left.  This is likely to happen again if we don’t have services in place to support people.

 The meeting came up with a number of ideas about what the council could do to address budget difficulties:

  • Introduce a ‘tourist tax’ to bring cash into the city –  this could be used to subsidise local services
  • Introduce a hotel levy during the Festival and the Christmas and New Year Celebrations
  • Raise the council tax – the Council has the power to do this.  They will need to ensure that this does not  penalize poorer people.
  • Reduce expenditure on things like taxi-fares, council lunches, official visits abroad and the like – this is unnecessary expenditure.
  • Find other ways of making savings that don’t involve cutting services or sacking workers who provide front line services
  • Dig out the last feasibility study on extending the tram line to Leith – this will save £1/2m.

 The meeting agreed to write to local politicians and to forge links with other groups across the city. The North Edinburgh anti-cuts campaigners also plan to meet early in the New Year to discuss sending a deputation to the city council’s budget meeting in February.

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If you want to have your say:

Take the budget challenge

But hurry – last day for submissions is tomorrow

Friday 19 December

Background reports:

Budget_proposals_2015_2016_updated_28.10.14

Item_7.3___2015_18_Revenue_and_Capital_Budget_Framework

#StrongerNorth Community Cleanup Day

Granton Mill Community Cleanup

Sunday 14 December 10am – 12 noon

CEC  community clean up on West Pilton Gardens

The #StrongerNorth initiative is supporting a second community cleanup …

The condition of the communal areas around our homes is in urgent need of improvement. You will know that there has been a lot of dumping of rubbish and other items which needs to be addressed. As most of us are owners or privately renting tenants it is our responsibility to ensure that our shared apaces are looked after and fit for living in.

On Sunday 14 December form 10am you are invited to take part in a community cleanup of the edges and green spaces in our area. The City of Edinburgh Council is supporting us with this work and is providing equipment for the day.

The hope is that together we can make the area a place that is safe and enjoyable for everyone who lives here. In order to do this we want to make sure that everyone meets their responsibilities, so we will be working with the council and others to find ways to best achieve this.

If you are able to spare some time on Sunday, then please come along and take part -it would be great to have as many people as possible helping!Please egt in toucj if you have any questions

SUNDAY 14 DECEMBER 10am – 12 noon

MEET AT CRAIGROYSTON HIGH SCHOOL end of GRANTON MILL PLACE

Contact Willie Black 0751 568 6421, email w.black@blueyonder.co.uk

Fraser Sinclair, North Neighbourhood Office 0131 529 5023

#StrongerNorth

Be part of it

Some pictures taken during the recent West Pilton cleanup:

CEC  community clean up on West Pilton Gardens CEC  community clean up on West Pilton Gardens CEC  community clean up on West Pilton Gardens CEC  community clean up on West Pilton Gardens CEC  community clean up on West Pilton Gardens CEC  community clean up on West Pilton Gardens CEC  community clean up on West Pilton Gardens CEC  community clean up on West Pilton Gardens

 

 

Letter: Muirhouse & Salvesen CC supports the NEN

Dear Dave,

Members of the Muirhouse Salvesen Community Council wish to convey a vote of thanks on behalf of members of the community on the latest issue of the NEN.

The local people’s newspaper has been much missed over the past few years in keeping people in touch with happening in their local community, especially for older people of the community and those who find it hard to get out. Great to see it coming through our letter boxes once again.

We look forward to your December issue which is sure to be filled with local happenings and interesting articles.

We wish the team all the best and are looking forward to more regular issues into the New Year.

Our Community Council support the NEN in its venture and would be happy to assist in any way it can.

Roy Douglas

Chairperson, Muirhouse & Salvesen Community Council