A reminder that North Edinburgh News’ annual general meeting will be held on Thursday (27 September) at 7pm in Drylaw Parish Church, Groathill Road North. All welcome.
For further information email northedinnews@gmail.com
Come along and support your community newspaper!
Just a reminder that NENgage – the NEN’s programme of fun, informal Social Media workshops – continues in Stockbridge Library tonight at 5.45pm.
This is our second workshop, but you don’t have to have attended the first one as each session is independent of the others. There are a very limited number of places left for tonight’s session – An Introduction to Blogging – but you need to register if you plan to attend! Please go to:
http://nengage2.eventbrite.co.uk/
Tom, Lucy and I look forward to meeting you all tonight, and thanks again to Inverleith Neighbourhood Partnership for supporting this initiative.
The August NEN’s now at the printers and will be distributed over the next few days. But if you just can’t wait to see the latest edition:
The Board of NEN meets on a regular basis, the most recent meeting being on 7 August. We thought readers might be interested in a brief summary of discussions and decisions. This is what we discussed and agreed:
NEN Board
North Edinburgh News’ (NEN) annual general meeting will be held on Thursday 27 September at 7pm in Drylaw Parish Church, Groathill Road North. All welcome.
Would you like to use social media like Facebook, Twitter and blogging but don’t know where to start? Or maybe you know a little but would like to know more? Wahtever your level of knowledge, help is at hand – starting later this month, NEN is running a series of five informal social media workshops at Stockbridge Library. The sessions are informal, fun and they’re FREE!
Funded by Inverleith Neighbourhood Partnership’s Community Grants Fund and hosted by the NEN, new media experts Tom Allan and Emily Dodd will lead the workshops and help you find your way through the multimedia maze at your own pace.
It’s an exciting new initiative for NEN, offering local people the opportunity to learn new ways to communicate and how to share their stories with the wider community.
The first workshop, ‘Share Your Story – an introduction to Blogging’, takes place on Thursday 30 August from 5.45 – 7.30pm and subsequent sessions will focus on topics like safety and security, video blogging, the joy of stats and how to build an online community.
Interested? To find out more or to sign up visit http://nengage1.eventbrite.co.uk/
All sessions are free, but register early to avoid disappointment!
North Edinburgh Arts Centre is the place to be next Saturday (21 April) when it stages the only Edinburgh performances of the classic ‘Ragged Trousered Philanthropists’.
This hilarious, fast-paced adaptation of Robert Tressell’s classic book shares with its audience a year in the life of a group of painters and decorators as they renovate ‘The Cave’, a three-storey town house, for Mayor Sweater. It traces their hardships and struggles for survival in a complacent and stagnating Edwardian England. These workers are the ‘philanthropists’ who throw themselves into back-breaking work for poverty wages in order to generate profit for their masters.
This enduring and absorbing classic story is brought to life by Neil Gore and Rodney Matthew, two hugely talented and experienced performers, using comedy routines and entertaining songs of the Music Hall, with a few surprises along the way!
Robert Tressell’s book has become a classic of working-class literature since its first publication in 1914. The themes and style of the piece are eternally relevant and provoking as it puts life and politics into sharp focus in an entertaining and accessible way.
Stephen Lowe’s version of the story was first seen in 1978, when Joint Stock Theatre Company toured the country playing to packed houses. The play was revived at the Half Moon Theatre, London in 1983 and again for a touring production by the Birmingham Rep in 1991.
Townsend Productions’ ‘The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists’ excellent cast features Rodney Matthew who joins the production straight off the back of ‘Jerusalem’ in the West End. He has worked at many of the leading repertory theatres, including West Yorkshire Playhouse where he worked for a year and at Dundee Rep where he spent a memorable five years performing in classical, musical and new work around Scotland. Matthew is joined on stage in the two-hander by the talented Neil Gore (Song of Singapore, Chichester Festival Theatre and the West End). The production is directed by Louise Townsend, with the creative team including designs by Fine Time Fontayne and lighting by Jo Dawson.
The play has had the Backing of the unions RMT, Unite, Unite, Scotland, TUC, SETUC, GMB, PCS, Wales TUC, NUT, Accord, UCATT NASWT and the FBU.
Tickets for The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists (performances at 2pm and 7pm) are priced at £10.00 Conc. £5.00 and can be purchased at North Edinburgh Arts Box Office: 0131 315 2151.
STOP PRESS
Tickets for the evening performance are already sold out and tickets for the matinée are going fast. However you can win tickets for the play – North Edinburgh Arts has two tickets to give away for the matinée and NEN has to more for the evening performance. Check out April’s NEN to find out how to win tickets to a must-see show!
Community activists, business leaders, local workers and politicians joined members of the NEN board to celebrate the relaunch of the community newspaper on 16 February.
The paper ceased publishing last March following funding cuts, but since then the NEN’s voluntary management board has been working to get the paper out once again. The relaunched NEN has now been delivered across the area and the NEN board held a celebration event in The Doo’cot to mark the occasion.
NEN chairman Martin Hinds told guests: “Almost a year ago the last edition of the NEN was published, after 30 years of almost continuous publication – an extremely sad day for us all. We all recognise the value of our community newspaper – I don’t think we can underestimate the importance of the NEN; it binds the community together and gives it identity. It therefore gives us great pleasure to relaunch the newspaper this month”
He went on to thank those who helped to make the relaunch possible – past and existing Board members, community groups, contributors and politicians – but pointed out that there are challenges ahead.
“We have been able to produce the NEN with money left over from the sale of the NEN office and staff redundancy costs have been paid. Longer term, the model that we have hit on will depend on contributions from the community – we have applied to the Neighbourhood Partnerships to allow us to recruit volunteer community journalists. We also need to increase our income to make us sustainable on a long-term basis. This is going to be a challenge for us but I think we’re up for it. Onwards and upwards – and welcome back, NEN!”
The next issue of the NEN is due out next month – and remember, the deadline is this Friday!
Local football side Spartans u19’s played host to Dumbarton on Sunday at Ainslie Park.
Despite the strong wind and heavy rain showers both teams played some attractive football, but unfortunately this game wont be remembered for the football it will be remembered for the ten players that were yellow carded and six players were sent off, all this despite there hardly being a bad challenge in the game.
Spartans took the lead in the opening ten minutes after some great play for James Cuthbertson, he went on a run down the wing and when he broke into the box his powerful shot was pushed away by the Dumbarton keeper Ryan Malley, Cuthbertsons’s persistence was rewarded and he had the simple task of heading the ball into the empty net.
Cuthbertson got his second of the afternoon when he was played in and as he broke away from the defence his perfectly placed shot nestled low in the corner of the net. On the half hour mark Cuthbertson got his hat-trick when he again broke away from the Dumbarton defence and the cool headed striker slotted the ball home.
Just as it was looking as if it was going to be Spartans day they were reduced to ten men when Daniel Shields was sent off for a deliberately tripping the Dumbarton striker Ryan Metcalf as he was bearing down on the Spartans goal. From the resulting free kick Dumbarton pulled on back when the ball was whipped in and fell to the feet of Gary McKell who smashed the ball past Ian McTurk in the Spartans goal.
Despite this setback Spartans still managed to sneak another goal before the halftime interval thanks to Callum Donnelly, he got on the end of a long ball forward and slotted the ball past the advancing keeper. Dumbarton felt they should have had a penalty just before the interval when the ball appeared to hit the hand of Lawrence Kidd but referee Ralph Gordon judged it to have been accidental.
On the hour mark Dumbarton were also reduced to ten men when Metcalf appeared to take a dive in the Spartans box and the young striker gave the referee no option having already been cautioned earlier in the match. Dumbarton started to get on top for a spell and Reece Pearson picked the ball up in midfield and his powerful shot beat McTurk but crashed of the woodwork before the danger was cleared.
Pearson did get one back when he got on the end of a cross and his shot beat McTurk and landed up in the net. A melee then ensued in the Spartans goals and Dumbarton’s Gary McKell lashed out at McTurk leaving the Spartans goalkeeper lying on the ground and the referee had the simple task of producing the third red card of the afternoon.
Pearson got his second of the afternoon when he broke into the Spartans box and as the danger looked to be cleared by the defender the ball came off Pearson’s leg and over the McTurk and into the net.
Chris Keddie was then played but the assistant referee had judged the ball was out off play, Keddie made his feelings about the decision clear and after a verbal tirade at assistant referee Peter Peace promptly became the fourth player to be dismissed.
With only a few minutes remaining Alan Longmuir almost levelled it when he got the end of a cross and his powerful header from close range went just wide of the target.Into injury time and just as it appeared all the action was over Dumbarton’s Glen Campbell put in a wild tackle on Paul Henderson leaving the player requiring treatment and Campbell became the fifth player to be set packing. After his challenge there was a coming together of a few players and on receiving advice from his assistant referee, Ralph Gordon produced a sixth red card to Spartans Isaac Imrie.[slideshow]
Spartans will now face St Johnstone in the next round of the Scottish Cup.
CHILDREN as young as ten are said to have set fire to a derelict building in Muirhouse – as besieged locals tell how the area is fast becoming the “Wild West” of the Capital.A gang of 15 youths was seen scaling the disused building in Muirhouse Avenue on Friday afternoon before breaking through metal security shutters on the first floor and running amok inside.
Residents reported hearing the yobs ransacking empty homes on their way to the top floor, where it is thought they started a fire. Fire crews said it was the second suspected fire-raising incident in the building in as many days, while locals told how the external wall of a neighbouring building, which is also abandoned, had been torn down by vandals.
In May, yobs set fire to a block of flats in nearby Muirhouse Parkway while continuing to search for scrap metal as the building burned.
One Muirhouse resident, who wished to remain anonymous, said the area was blighted with relentless antisocial behaviour and called for the two derelict buildings to be demolished.”This kind of this has been going on for months,” he said. “And it seems there’s nothing to stop them, they aren’t afraid of anything. “When these yobs managed to get access to the building, they did so in full view of everyone but they just didn’t care.
“They took the side of a house down the other week and the hole was so big you could have driven a van through it. It’s like something from the Wild West or maybe even Monty Python, because it’s so crazy.”
The unnamed resident, who has lived in Muirhouse for 40 years, said he watched youths climbing to the first floor balcony at around 4pm before breaking in and sparking a blaze. “There were about 15 of them aged between ten and 16 breaking in,” he said. “The next thing a neighbour came up and asked me to call 999 because they had set fire to it.
“There had been a lot of smashing and banging coming from the rear of the building but then there was thick black smoke pouring out from the top floor. My house is only about 30 metres from the flats and I could smell the smoke inside my own house. “As soon as they heard the fire brigade sirens they scarpered.”
A spokeswoman for Lothian and Border Fire and Rescue Service said: “We had already attended a small fire at the property on Muirhouse Avenue the previous evening.
“We are yet to establish whether it was started deliberately but derelict properties often attract a rogue element.”
Ward councillor Steve Cardownie called on residents to help police identify the culprits but said the vast majority of the community were “law-abiding and hard-working” people.
“There is obviously a distinct lack of parental control if parents are letting ten-year-olds get up to such wilful acts of fireraising and vandalism,” he said.
“It beggars belief that kids as young as ten are putting themselves and others in great danger by getting involved in this kind of activity and we need to nip this in the bud before something tragic happens.”
Source: Edinburgh Evening news
