Cameron Rose, Councillor for Southside/Newington, Edinburgh - Conservative
It was December 17th when snow fell in Edinburgh covering the Meadows with a white blanket which has been there ever since (along with many other areas.) And the forecast suggests we can expect to enjoy a few more days of snow cover.
Can't remember when we last had that duration of snow cover. New Year's day will be day 16.
Here are sources of information for getting around on Edinburgh on Hogmanay.
A lot of roads and pavements in the area are still subject to very slippy hard packed snow and ice. For your information, with more sleet and snow forecast, the council gives priority to Category 1 roads and pavements, that is principal roads, major bus routes, access roads to hospitals, ambulance depots and fire stations. Then other main roads are treated and now, in the last day or two, other roads and residential areas are now being treated.
I understand a full complement of vehicles have been allocated today to refill salt-bins for “self-help” purposes to grit residential footpaths.
A number of you have had difficulty getting through to Clarence in the last few days. Certainly it has been busy - though there has been a full complement of staff on the phones. I understand there may have been a call management glitch which caused some calls not to get through. I trust it has been sorted. You can email issues to them as well as phone. See details here and here.
Edinburgh University has already benefited from over £1.25m from Ronald Storey who inherited and invested the estate of his friend George Birtwisle. He has promised as further £2m from his own estate. The money is to be used to set up a new medical imaging centre at Little France. More details here.
Scotland's oldest known book is on display in the the inaugural exhibition in the new Exhibition Room in Edinburgh University's Main Library in George Square. The book is a pocket sized book of Psalms in Latin, possibly from Iona, and dated to the 11th century.
Along with a range of other rare books the exhibition which opened earlier in December, will re-open on Tuesday 5th January at 10am. Other books on display include the Aberdeen Breviary, a copy of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet published during his lifetime, and a 15th century illustrated manuscript of the works of Virgil.
Please pass this information on to anyone who may find it useful.
Waste and Recycling Public Holidays - 28 December and 1, 4 January.
• Christmas tree recycling: Cut your tree in half and place it beside your brown garden waste bins. Trees will be made into compost for city gardens. If you are in a tenement area place your tree beside your communal waste bin. Trees will be collected on 29, 30 and 31 December 2009 and 6, 7 and 8 January 2010. You can also take your Christmas tree to any of Edinburgh’s four Community Recycling Centres.
• Red and blue recycling boxes: If your red and blue box collection day is on a public holiday, put your recycling boxes out on the next scheduled collection day.
Household and Trade Waste
• Public Holiday wheelie bin collections: If your bin is due to be collected on a public holiday, put your bin out the following day and leave it out until collected.
• Black sack customers: Put your bags out for collection on Thursdays 31 December and 7
January as there will be no Monday collections during those weeks
Trade Waste: Put your sacks/bins out for collection on Saturday 26 December and Saturday 2 January as there will be no collections on Friday 25 December 2009 or Friday 1 January 2010.
Using a technique developed by astronomers Edinburgh University spin out company Blackford Analysis is marketing technology based on an algorithm which analyses huge amounts of data quickly. The technique has won the Thales Scottish Technology Prize for the technique submitted by Dr Ben Panter at the Royal Observatory at Blackford Hill.
Work is due to start on 4th Janury to reconstruct the steps between Viewcraig Street and Viewcraig Gardens.
The Crawford Library at the Royal Observatory at Blackford Hill is arguably the world's best for early astronomical books. With four printed volumes from the 1470s and Copernicus's De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (Nuremberg 1543), the world's most important astronomy book from the 16th century, the collection is a little known gem. See here for details of this remarkable collection.
Ron Haggarty, the owner of Continental Jewellers at the corner of Nicolson Street and West Richmond Street is moving on after 30 years. Details here.
Here is an extract from the local police newsletter:
A number of complaints have recently been received with regards to private vehicles using the ‘bus gate’ on Prestonfield Avenue. Use of this lane is exclusively for buses and other vehicles including private vehicles, motorcycles and taxi cabs, should refrain from using it.
The use of the CCTV camera situated opposite the Cameron House Community Education Centre will shortly be used to assist in enforcement of the bus gate.
Motorists who continually use this route may find themselves the subject of a £30 fine or report to the Procurator Fiscal.
Last Saturday this newsblog reported work would start on the longstanding repair needed for the footway on the south side of Nicolson Square. It has now been finished.
Here is an interview with John who sells the Big issue in middle Meadow Walk at North meadow Walk.
The junction of Blackford Avenue at Charterhall Road and West Savile Terrace is an awkward one. Especially so for traffic southbound in Blackford Avenue and turning west into Charterhall Road. This includes the 41 bus.
A number of motorists have made representation and, in the last few days, an adjustment has been made in the phasing of the lights to assist traffic turning west into Charterhall Road.
If you have any views about the changes please contact me or the Transport Department direct at tom.cowan@edinburgh.gov.uk.
The application for the development of the Royal Blind School in Craigmillar Park can now be seen. Enter the application numbers 09/03075/LBC and 09/03075/FUL here. You can see an earlier post with the background here.
Eighty four scientists and students at Edinburgh University have signed a declaration in which they express 'the utmost confidence in the observational evidence for global warming and the scientific basis for concluding that it is due primarily to human activities'.
The declaration, released during the Copenhagen summit to support the under-fire Climatic Research Unit scientists at the University of East Anglia, has been co-ordinated by the Met Office. The Edinburgh University 84 include key authors of the IPCC reports who have featured in the CRU emails and are amongst 1700 who have signed the statement.
However, the tactic has come under fire from an increasing number of commentators who characterise the statement as a 'groupthink' exercise which does not address the real debate amongst scientists about the key science issues. Professor Philip Stott of the University of London comments here and Clive James broadcast a thoughtful analysis on the BBC this weekend - text here. The Times Higher Education Supplement wades in here.
For readers of this newsblog who are unfamiliar with the issues of what has come to be known as climategate or warmergate, it might be helpful to sit down with a glass of mulled wine this Christmas and work through the issues and links below.
This is crucially important, even on a local level, because so much of our public policy is based on the assumption that there is a scientific consensus that the science of human caused global warming is settled. That assumption, long challenged by some, has been further undermined by recent events and revelations.
The declaration by scientists is an effort to influence the politics. Above all, what is needed now, is for those close to the disputed science to engage in its reassessment - a process which is under way online. Any of the Edinburgh 84 willing to engage?
After many months the pavement on the south side of Nicolson Square at Nicolson Street is due to be resurfaced in the week beginning Monday 14th December. The Council are taking over the work after the development, managed by Festival Inns, has run into difficulties.
Subject to approval at the full council meeting next Thursday (17th), Edinburgh Council will move to inviting tenders for services currently worth £95m in a bid to save money and drive up standards. Fuller details in this article and its associated links - and the full report on 'alternative service models' can be found here (though wading through the detail and euphemisms is not for the faint hearted).
The hotel belonging to the Royal College of Surgeons, Ten Hill Place has partnered with Mercy Corps to fund health care facilities in Colombia. More details can be found here.
On Thursday this newsblog reported on a Melville Drive collision in which a 64 year old woman sustained serious injuries in a collision involving a car. Dorothy Oxley had been delivering a grandson to an address in Livingston Place shortly before the incident and here is the background to the incident from her family.
Look at this queue of people waiting to play tennis on a recent November day at the Meadows tennis courts. All 16 courts were occupied.
The Edinburgh tram network was always envisaged as having a line running through Southside and Newington. A route has long been safeguarded down the bridges and on to Cameron Toll and the Royal Infirmary. This article implies that it has been resurrected. In fact it has been a safeguarded route since the trams project started. That does not mean it will go ahead.
Melville Drive was closed last evening for to police investigation unit to carry out their enquiries into a collision which resulted in a 64 year old pedestrian being seriously injured after a collision with a car. The incident occurred near the pedestrian crossing opposite Victor Hugos near Livingston Place. More details here.
Tomorrow you can visit me at my surgeries - the details are on this page.
Scientists at the King's Buildings campus of Edinburgh University have close links to the group of researchers at the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia where the director Phil Jones recently stood down pending an investigation. For more local background on what has been dubbed Climategate see here.
Professor Tom Crowley, has been mounting a defence of the CRU researchers under fire and himself features in the leaked email correspondence. In an interview with the Washington Post he defends the technique which was referred to in the emails as 'Mike's Nature trick'. A detailed explanation and (critical) analysis of 'Mike's Nature trick' (which addresses the hockey stick concept of global warming) can be found here.
Professor Crowley also features in a BBC interview with Professor Phillip Stott here.
Local resident Professor Simon Tett, chair of Earth System Dynamics and Modelling at Edinburgh University also features in the leaked emails. He contributed to the last three IPCC assessments and has provided scientific advice to the UK government on the science of climate change.
Local boxer and former world champion Alex Arthur lost his fight at the weekend and now ponders the future. Details here.
Tomorrow local boxer Alex Arthur boxes to save his career, according to this article in the BoxRec News. Alex stays with his family in the Southside.
A programme to carry out repairs to the Royal Observatory has been unveiled. It is expected to result in significant changes in appearance. Details here.
The Bike Station in Causewayside has been awarded the above sum to take measures to encourage people to use bikes and leave their cars at home. Details here.
Around 150 people crammed into the main hall at the Royal Blind School in Craigmillar Park last night to consider the latest proposals to alleviate the parking pressures in the area.
Here is a letter in the local paper from a Prestonfield Primary School parent (Clare Clarkson) praises James Thomson and the Prestonfield Hotel for hosting the recent school ceilidh. (Scroll down to the last letter.)
The Christmas lights in St Patrick Square will be switched on this evening. The event begins at 6:00pm. More details here.
Posts
All Comments
