SCOTTISH Water are upgrading the water main in Boswall Gardens, Edinburgh, to ensure you continue to enjoy fresh, clear drinking water and reduce the chance of pipes bursting.
Work will commence on Monday, 18 November and is expected to last approximately six weeks.
The work is being carried out by our contractor, Cleantech.
At A Glance:
Water main upgrade to improve resilience
From Monday, 18 November
Six week duration
Delivered by Cleantech
What to Expect:
Boswall Gardens at the junction with Boswall Terrace will be closed for the duration of our work. Diversion routes will be via Boswall Crescent, Boswall Drive, and Boswall Parkway.
The road closure is essential to allow our team to replace the water main. It will be in place from 8:00am to 5:00pm daily, with an amnesty period at lunchtime between 12:00 noon and 1:00pm to allow essential access for local residents only.
The road will remain open out with hours of operation. Weekend working will also be utilised to expedite work. The hours of operation will be:
Monday to Friday: 8:00am to 5:00pm
Saturday: 8:00am to 4:00pm
Sunday: 9:00am to 4:00pm
Access will be maintained at all times for emergency vehicles and pedestrians. Please take care while following any diversion signage and allow extra time for journeys through this area.
We will do our best to minimise any disruption and construction noise where possible. Any areas of operation will be made safe and secure, with full reinstatements carried out on completion of the work.
Thank you for your patience and understanding while we complete this essential work.
Scottish Power / Excalon move back to Craigleith on Monday (19 August) with Groathill Avenue closed between Telford Road and Sainsbury’s garage for around 5 weeks.
Groathill Road South will also be closed at Telford Road with local access retained via South Groathill Avenue.
The founders of People’s Energy, a community interest energy company set up with the aim of eradicating fuel poverty, have expressed their sadness at the decision of Nottingham City Council to sell Robin Hood Energy to British Gas.
The news comes following a strategic review of the council owned energy firm, which was originally launched as a competitor to the Big Six. With similar aims to People’s Energy, Robin Hood was the first not-for-profit energy company in the UK, however it has been blighted by financial problems and a critical report from external auditors Grant Thornton showed it put tens of millions of taxpayer funds at risk.
The Robin Hood Energy website says it was set up ‘to help give people a cheaper, more helpful alternative to the Big Six’. The failed firm has now been sold to the highest bidder, meaning that well-meaning households who had chosen Robin Hood Energy for its doing-good mission, will now be automatically switched to British Gas, which despite many years of huge profits to shareholders, last year made a £1.1 billion loss.
The team behind People’s Energy believe it would be much better for the people of Nottingham, and other customers across the country, to have been transferred to an ethical energy company more in line with the initial vision for Robin Hood Energy.
People’s Energy was set up to provide an alternative to the Big Six and has pledged to return 75% of its profits to its customers in the coming years.
Launched in 2017 following a successful crowdfunding campaign, People’s Energy is growing fast, with 180,000 customers in just three years. The organisation’s mission is to eradicate fuel poverty, which it aims to do through charitable projects and partnerships with local authorities, amongst other activities. People’s Energy has no external shareholders to report to and has customer and staff representation on its advisory board.
People’s Energy has now set up a free helpline for any Robin Hood Energy customers who would like to discuss their options for switching. Concerned customers can call 0131 3701819 free of charge over the next ten days.
Karin Sode, co-founder of People’s Energy said: “We were saddened to hear that Robin Hood Energy has been sold to one of the very companies it was set up to disrupt and our thoughts are with the 250 Robin Hood employees who have been made redundant during this process.
“As this, and other failed not-for-profit energy companies, has shown, running energy companies should be left to the experts and we believe a better model is for councils to work with strategic partners to offer lower cost energy to their residents. Partnering with an existing energy firm and negotiating a competitive rate is win-win for everyone and avoids councils being burdened with huge financial risk when things go wrong.
“A great example of this is the new tariff we’ve just introduced with East Lothian Council. We are offering all East Lothian residents a deal significantly below our already competitive rates and would like to do more of this across the country.
“Our aim, as the UK’s first community interest energy company, is putting people before profits and right now we feel compelled to help the hundreds of thousands of Robin Hood Energy customers faced with a transfer to an energy company they don’t want.
“We welcome any former Robin Hood Energy customers who would like to be supplied by an ethical, customer-owned company that doesn’t report to external shareholders. We’d love to hear from anyone interested via our dedicated helpline.”
People’s Energy has a specialist team set up to support Local Authorities and housing associations across the UK who are interested in a very low risk alternative to offering residents competitive energy pricing.
Communities will face less disruption with new standards to manage road works and speed up the installation of fibre broadband. A national code of practice will see the standardisation of faster and more modern techniques for trench digging for improving utility services.
The development of more compact cables has seen modern techniques, such as requiring narrower holes and less excavation required, increasing the speed of delivery. The technique also safeguards the roads by reducing the need for return visits to repair failed trenches.
As well as broadband cable installation, this will mean shorter periods of disruption for power, water and gas works who use this technique.
Connectivity Minister Paul Wheelhouse (above) visited a Virgin Media dig to see a new broadband installation taking place and discuss the new code with the installation team. He said: “The Scottish Government has listened to the views of companies who tell us that narrow trenching can help companies deliver fibre broadband faster and with less disruption to communities.
“We understand that utility companies operate in a competitive market. They are therefore constantly looking for ways to improve their efficiency and to reduce their costs in order to keep ahead of their competition. This has led to innovation in how infrastructure, such as broadband, is deployed.
“We have updated the code to enable narrow trenching to take place consistently, and in a manner which protects our pavements and road network, and this has the added benefit that will result in the faster deployment of broadband across Scotland and a reduction in the disruption communities face during the roll out itself.”
Julie Agnew, Regional Director for Scotland at Virgin Media, said: “As Virgin Media continues to invest in bringing ultrafast broadband to more areas of Scotland, this new code gives much needed clarity for networks to be built in a fast, flexible and efficient way with minimal disruption.
“We thank the Scottish Government for working with us and creating an environment that encourages and supports broadband builders like Virgin Media.”
Every one of us needs the supply of electricity and a lot of people also need gas for heating and cooking. We all need a supply of fresh water: yet all of these industries are owned by private companies, able to fix prices to maintain multi-million pounds of profit for investors.
This supply of electricity, gas and water is essential and is provided by workers in those industries.
Why, then, should such essential services be in the hands of private companies? These basic essential services should be publicly owned.
The control of these basic essential services cannot be left to private individuals and groups of investors. It is backward thinking; it is greedy and immoral however measured.
The 52% who in 2016 voted to leave the European Union expressed various reasons for doing so. In the main there was widespreda concern about how the country was being run: frozen wages, rising prices and drastic cuts in both local and national public services – and there seemed to be no end in sight to this policy. It was indeed a deliberate policy, aimed in turn at different sections of the population, a ‘divide and rule’ tactic to exercise control.
Massive confusion was created in the UK and those in power seem to talk about anything but the real problems, such as who own major industries – and are they operated to benefit all, or just shareholders and investors?
Major industries such as electricity, gas, water supply and sewerage, public passenger transport; all these are life essential services for all people – and because they are they should be publicly owned.
These are the questions that should be put to the people, and only the Labour Party is doing that. It is not right that these industries should be privately owned and controlled to make millions in profit for the few.
One of the problems and difficulties most working people have is making ends meet. In most cases, and for many years, wages have been heavily restricted but prices have risen and local services have been repeatedly cut back.
It is no wonder people are searching about for solutions, or in some cases someone to blame. The press, television, etc. have entered the fray in a devisive way, fuelling the blame game on individuals or groups, not dealing with the basic causes of being unable to manage.
To survive, everyone needs electricity and/or gas supplies for heating, cooking and lighting – yet the main supply of these basic needs are in the hands of just six companies who extract millions upon millions of pounds for shareholders: money that could be used by the industries to benefit everyone.
This is a crazy way to run essential services; one most people would agree should be changed.
To survive, most people need transport by rail, bus or tram to access their workplace, paying high fares to do so. Again, these essential services are mostly operated by private companies – and again, most people would agree this should be changed.
These two industries, energy supplies and passenger transport, should operate for the benefit of all. Millions of people would agree with this and vote for it.
The Conservative Party and UKIP will never put working people before the shareholders, the Labour Party would and will do so. This puts the real reason for the non-stop anti-Labour, anti-Jeremy Corbyn campaign into perspective.
City of Edinburgh Council Transport Convener Councillor Lesley Hinds has been joined by representatives from utility companies in signing a public pledge to uphold high standards in the management, coordination and communication of roadworks in the Capital.
The vast majority of people support the NHS because it is service there for them if required. Politicians will know the wrath of this majority if they move against this universal service: the people know there are attempts to privatise some of the NHS and those politicians will learn a lesson at the ballot box.
Other essential services needed and used by everyone must also become universally, not privately, owned. The main ones are gas, electric, water and railways. The first three are needed by everyone, otherwise modern society cannot function. The railways, although not used by everyone, are a main vein transporting goods and people.
There can be no justification for these essential industries being used for private profit by those who have money to invest: it is obscene to pay them dividends when there are other people who cannot afford to heat their homes.
Profit made should be used to maintain those industries and benefit the users: this should apply to all energy companies. To reach this situation the population will have to apply the same pressure and support it gives to the NHS. These issues are common to all, around which maximum unity is possible.
