October top 10

Here, in order, are the most viewed of the 40 October posts:

1. Primark on course for Christmas - 2011
2. Web startup and Wateraid events
3. Lutton Place Bowing Club 150
4. Ciara's Dad gives to Blind School
5. Public question time Gavin Brown MSP
6. Ban for Craigmillar Park driver
7. Blackford Avenue shop embezzlement
8. BT upgrading Newington broadband
9. Poetry month at Newington Library
10. Newington resident for Miss GB?

Graffiti taggers charged

Graffiti tags

I understand that in the last couple of weeks two people have been charged with offences in relation to graffiti tagging.  At least one of these related to offences in the Middle Meadow Walk area.

Police and Council officers now keep a photographic record of graffiti tags with a view to libelling multiple charges when a culprit is caught.  It can be assumed this record will have been used in the recent cases.

Potterrow to be targeted for cleanup

Graffiti tags

The underpass area at Potterrow has been cleaned numerous times of late.  Following the success of official poster and advertising sites during the Festival, there are plans to create official advertising and public notice sites in, and on the approaches to, the underpass.

This proposal is designed to take control of the site, and in doing so, to create a tidier environment.   It will involve seeking planning permission and, if successful, will also provide some income to public funds.

As well as reducing illegal flyposting, it is hoped this will also reduce the graffiti tags in the Potterrow area and similar proposal are being considered for selected sites in the Middle Meadow Walk area.

It is hoped this will reduce the graffiti tags in the area

(In the much longer term there are plans to rework Potterrow, removing the underpass and linking George Square more directly to the Old Quad and South College Street.)
I will post about graffiti taggers tomorrow - including some positive news. 

Cleaner Southside

Poster control area (yellow)

Flyposting and graffiti have reduced in some areas over the last year and a bit and this is particularly evident in the Middle Meadow Walk area.  There are several reasons.

1. Environmental teams have negotiated an official poster policy for the festival, providing sites for posters over a wide range of sites.  This has resulted in a significant reduction in flyposting whilst generating some revenue for public funds.  Middle Meadow Walk and surrounding areas have been part of this scheme which has been administered through City Centre Posters.
2. Enhanced cleanup of flyposting.  At a number of traditional locations, street furniture has been given an invisible coat of an invisible liquid which make it easier to remove flyposting.
3. A number of people have joined those of us who already rip down flyposting as soon as possible after it appears

In a later post I will give details of further proposals to take back our streets from flyposters and taggers.

Blackford Avenue shop embezzlement

Richard Humphries, one time assistant manager at The Avenue Stores, has admitted stealing money from the till between August 2009 and May 2010.

At Edinburgh Sheriff Court yesterday he was sentenced to 180 hours community service after admitting the embezzlement.   The BBC and STV have more details.

Edinburgh's Bike Superhighway

London has introduced a network of cycle superhighways using sponsorship from Barclays.

The Edinburgh quality bike corridor from Potterrow to the King's Buildings will not be of the same scale or vision, but, with the plans due to be announced, you have a chance to be consulted on how it turns out.

Leaflets about the scheme will be distributed along the  route in the first half of November and there will be a public exhibition in Newington Library between 15th and 29th November.  Further details will be available on the Council website consultations page in the coming weeks along with an opportunity to comment on the proposals.

I await the detailed proposals with interest.

Michael Ancrum elevated to Lords

Michael Ancrum

Michael Ancrum was the MP for Edinburgh South for 8 years till 1987.

He did not stand at the last election (he was MP for Devizes in Wiltshire).  Belatedly, I note he has been appointed to the House of Lords.  

Statutory Repairs in Edinburgh

An internal audit review of the service has exposed specific areas of failure in the current service.

The Council's Property Conservation Service steps in where tenants cannot agree on repairs on common parts of a building - for example where not all tenement owners can agree on undertaking repairs to the roof for which they are jointly liable.  Legislation enables the Conservation Service to step in with a statutory notice to undertake urgent or necessary work and to apportion the charge to all liable owners.   

An internal audit review of the service has exposed specific areas of failure in the current service.  You can read the report, along with its recommendations here and get more information on statutory notices here.

Mayfield Road ATM to go as well

In a post at the end of September I noted the immanent closure of the Mayfield Road branch of the Bank of Scotland.  The increase in online and telephone banking is a trend which is leading to the reduction in branches.  

In a reply to my letter of enquiry, the Assistant  Manager of the Bank's media team notes that there are 20 ATMs within one mile of the branch.

". . . many customers are increasingly dealing with their day to day banking needs using non-branch channels, namely, Bank of Scotland internet and telephone banking.  This trend is a major reason for the smaller number of customers visiting us face to face and is a trend that every retailer operating from the High Street is experiencing.

"It is our intention . . . to explain the rationale for the changes and also to ensure that anyone using this branch is aware of the full range of services on offer nearby.  We will not be retaining the ATM.  However, there are 20 ATMs within one mile of the branch.  Customers of Mayfielduse the local post office where they can also draw cash over the counter.Customers of Mayfield Road can also use the local post office where they c"an also draw cash over the counter."

The nearest post offices are in Salisbury Place and Blackford Avenue.

Snowboarding in Bristo Square

The week before Bristo Square was designated a no alcohol zone it was being used for the first time ever to host the Scottish Universities Dryslopes Championships.  Snow in Bristo Square in October.

There's a video on YouTube if you didn't see it in person.

S Clerk St roadworks: cable damage

Roadworks at this junction

The roadworks in South Clerk Street are for repairs to a damaged high voltage electrical cable.  

Work is expected to be complete around next week-end (29th).  In the meantime, traffic moving south in South Clerk Street is banned form turning left into Bernard Terrace or right into Hope Park Terrace.   This is to keep southbound traffic moving.

Pear Tree wins toilets appeal

The Peartree House

The owners of the Pear Tree in West Nicolson Street have won an appeal against the Licensing Board's insistence that they reduce their capacity because of lack of toilets.  

The ruling stems from another interventionist part of the Licensing Scotland Act, which has resulted in pressure to prescribe the number of male and female toilets in licensed premises.  Many pubs have made significant and expensive changes - prior to this appeal ruling casting doubt on whether they needed to do so.

The City Council has settled the case out of court and paid the legal expenses of the Pear Tree.  Details here.

Designated - no alcohol

As reported last week, Nicolson Square and Bristo Square were yesterday designated no alcohol zones.

Here is the STV account.

Class sizes information

Sciennes, one of 3 primaries in ward 15

I know many parents are keeping an eye on class sizes in the light of the confusion about the government targets. Edinburgh Council has recently provided information revealing the sizes of P1-3 classes this autumn at Sciennes, Preston Street and Prestonfield Schools:

• Sciennes: P1 = 3 classes each of 30; P2 = 3 classes each of 31; P3 = 2 classes of 31 plus a composite class of 25 made up of 10 further children from P2 and 15 from P3.
• Preston Street: P1 = classes of 23 and 24; P2 = 1 class of 30; P3 = 1 class of 29 plus a composite class made up of a further 13 children from P2 and 11 from P3.
• Prestonfield: P1 = one class of 25; P2 = one class of 27; P3 one class of 23.

The focus on class sizes seems to shift attention unduly from other more important factors in a good education.

James Gillespie's decant consultation

The proposals for the decant of James Gillespie's High School are subject of a consultation report which will be presented to the Council's  Education Committee on 9th November.  You can inspect the proposals and report here or at the Newington Library.

Edinburgh spending review

As one way to save money Edinburgh has embarked on an 'alternative business models' programme.  It is an acceptance that the council can no longer deliver services in the same way if it is to make the necessary savings. 

In effect it is an opportunity to look at different ways of delivering public services.   The Council administration puts it this way:

The Council is looking at two options: remodelling the services we provide and exploring partnerships or joint ventures with external organisation.

Some would say that the second of these options is just a cuddly collection of words meaning privatisation or competitive tendering. Broadly speaking, such people would be right - though the 'competitive dialogue' method of tendering is a painfully long drawn out process.  Here is where we are in the process.

• Outline plans are due on 25 October from both the internal and the external teams proposing how savings can be made and services delivered in the future. These plans will be compared in November to identify if any should be investigated further
• Evaluation panels made up of senior officers will make the initial assessment of the external plans.  Each of the plans will be scored and strengths, weaknesses, risks and issues will be considered. At the same time the central management team will review the deliverability of the internal improvement plans.
• Councillors will decide on the way forward in principle at a meeting on Dec 16th.
• If  services are to be tendered out shortlisting and further negotiations will begin in January.

Some of the original plan can be found here.

Pleasance benefits fraud

A Pleasance woman has been convicted of benefit fraud and sentenced to180 hours community service. Apparently she also managed to spend a generous family legacy.  The Evening News has a quote from her:

She denied a suggestion in court that she had handed out bundles of £100 notes to neighbours, saying that she had only made one £100 loan which had not been paid back.

Details here.

UK Spending Review and Edinburgh context

Tomorrow, George Osbourne will unveil the long awaited spending review - aimed at trimming the national debt which is currently projected to be in net deficit by £149bn for this year alone. A month or so later Edinburgh Council will be told by the Scottish Government what its budget will be for the following year.  The Council will set its budget on 3rd Feb 2011 having given consideration to these figures.

Let's put some of the figures we will be seeing in the next few days and weeks in context.

• £2,403 - the approximate net amount that the UK government is borrowing for every man woman and child in the land this year.That is £149bn and latest monthly figures suggest the government will struggle to keep it that low.
• £29.2bn - the amount the Scottish Government has at its disposal. That is around £5,720 per person.  Scottish Government spending amounts to about 40% of government spending in Scotland.
• £1.04bn - Edinburgh Council's main revenue expenditure budget, which is approximately £2176 per person
• 40% - the proportion of spend which goes on education. Social work gets just over 17% with Services for Communities accounting for 17%

More figures for Edinburgh can be found here.  A look at some council proposals to save money will be posted this evening.

Newington resident for Miss GB (2)

Earlier this month this blog drew attention to Sara McLean, a Napier University Student who has qualified for the finals of Miss UK.

Today the Evening News runs an article from the front page about her and her Dad who is suffering from terminal lung cancer.  The story and photos are here.

Public question time Gavin Brown MSP

Gavin Brown MSP

On Monday evening at 7pm Gavin Brown and I will hold a public question time at the Cameron House Community Centre in Prestonfield Avenue. 

The meeting is to give residents in the Prestonfield and Dalkeith Road areas the opportunity to meet and ask questions of two of their elected representatives. Just come along.  Monday 18th October, 7-8pm

Web startup and Wateraid events

Launch48 is a web business start up conference/seminar held in Buccleuch Place at the end of October.  It is hosted by the Edinburgh University Business School and is sponsored by PayPal and Google and will take place in Buccleuch Place.   It costs only £5 to join the mini conference on Friday 29th October.  Details here.

Tonight there is a ceilidh in aid of Water Aid in the Royal Medical Society building in Bristo Square from 8pm.  More details here.

Alcohol ban goes ahead

Evening News photo

The alcohol ban in Nicolson Square and Bristo Square is to go ahead from next week.

Signs will be displayed around the squares from October 20th  making them designated 'no drinking of alcohol zones' under the Consumption of Alcohol in Designated Public Places Bylaws 2006.

Whilst the Byelaw will not solve the problems of anti-social behaviour, it will be a helpful tool to minimise the disruptive behaviour.  Police and Council have invested considerable resources this year in policing the area and the drain on resources to so should now be curtailed.  More important,  the environment for people in the areas should be improved.

Previous posts give more details of the history and background and can be found here, here and here.

Ciara's Dad gives to Blind School

Earlier this year this blog reported on the battle to fund the education at the Royal Blind School in Craigmillar Park of Ciara McGearey.   Ciara, now 13, lost her sight when she was only a few days old and, although she attended the Royal Blind School for a time, moved away when her soldier father was posted elsewhere.

Although the Council and the Army eventually agreed to share the costs of her specialist education, her father Mac McGearey, had already embarked on fundraising events.  Now the money he raised is, in part, to be donated to the Royal Blind School.   Details here.

Poetry month at Newington Library

Ryan Van Winkle

October is poetry month at Newington Library and events by Ryan Van Winkle, who is Edinburgh's poet in residence, feature.

Details here and here.

Eat at the Dragon Way the Halal way

Michael Yip, who owns the Dragon Way in South Clerk Street has turned it into a Halal Chinese restaurant.   And he already has a Halal Chinese takeaway in West Crosscauseway.  Cross culture indeed.

More details in this report.

Primark on course for Christmas - 2011

I keep getting asked when Primark Edinburgh will be open for business.  It has been a long haul.  A decision to increase the planned size meant delays for consultation and planning approval.
But the building and fitting work has now started and is anticipated to take about 12 months.  

So it will be open for Christmas 2011 and probably several months sooner.

Want to know what else is coming to Edinburgh soon?  Proposals lined up are:

• Ducati due to open a store at the beginning of 2011
• Conte of Florence are planning a store in Jeffrey Street

MacRae's Battalion play at Prestonfield

Steve Potter is preparing to preview his musical tribute Farewell My Son to potential backers in the Prestonfield House Hotel next month.

This musical is a tribute to those, including members of Hearts football team who left the South Side area of Edinburgh for the trenches in 1914.  Many failed to return and the story, legendary at the time, was brought back to memory recently by a Prestonfield author Jack Alexander who wrote McRae's Battalion, a superb and thoroughly researched account of the the heroic endeavours of Sir George McRae and many Southsiders who left Edinburgh for the battlefields of France.

More details here of the tribute and how the tribute project began with a visit to the Somme by Steve Potter, a Duddingston resident.   See also here for another earlier post with further background information.

Prestonfield role in new SNP Government

Author David Torrance

Today's Scotsman includes an article which gives the back story behind the 2007 landing of a helicopter containing a triumphant Alex Salmond in the grounds of Prestonfield House the day after the Holyrood election in 2007.  

It is by David Torrance who has published a biography of Salmond.

Robbery at Metropole cafe

Metropole cafe

Metropole cafe in Newington Road suffered a knife point robbery around 5:30pm on Sunday evening.

The culprit , who was masked, brandished a knife before taking a three figure sum from behind the counter.  He is described as of slim build, 17-25yrs, 5'8"-10", wearing an olive green coloured hooded top or jacket and made off on foot south in Newington Road.  Police would like to hear from anyone who has information which might lead to identifying him.  More details from the police press release here.

Malaria progress at King's Buildings

Scientists at the School of Biological Sciences at Edinburgh University believe they have isolated a gene in the malaria parasite which may give it resistance to some anti-malarial drugs.

In turn this may lead to the development of medicine which is more effective.  The research was announced in a press release yesterday from Dr Paul Hunt at Edinburgh University.  Additional details here.

Sciennes girl represents Scotland

Captiva Mills  from Sciennes is representing Scotland in the World Youth Chess Championships later this month in Greece.  Captiva is in the under 12 girls section and the championship is being held between 20th and 30th October.  The full team can be found here.

Captiva recently took the Junior prize in the Lothians Allegro Tournament in Edinburgh earlier this month.

Lutton Place Bowing Club 150

Bowling Club trophies

On Saturday (9th), the final day of the season, Lutton Place Bowling Club celebrated its 150 years by making donations to charities (RNLI, Erskine and the Personal Recovery Centre).

More background details here and here and the history of the Club can be found here.

Grange housebreaker gets 12 months

Last month this blog reported on the arrest of a St Alban's Road man for two housebreakings in Grange Road..

On Friday at Edinburgh Sheriff Court Kenneth McLennan was a sentenced to 10 months in prison.

More of the background here and here.

Proposed Prestonfield nursery closure

Edinburgh Council is proposing beginning consultation on the closure of the Princess Elizabeth Nursery in Clearburn Crescent.  The decision on whether to begin formal consultation will be taken on Tuesday (12th) at the Education Committee.

The Nursery has a capacity of 24 full time places and currently is operating at 60% capacity.  Details can be found in this report, especially appendix 3.   High School Yards Nursery is also proposed for closure as is Westfield Court Nursery, though in this case for different reasons.

Lutton Court for NHS Surgeries?

The Council is considering a deal which will see the Lutton Court Business Centre - between Bernard Terrace and Lutton Place - leased to the NHS for medical surgeries and a dental surgery.  If the proposals go ahead they would be beneath a block of residential accommodation.

The premises used to be occupied substantially by Wolfson Microlectronics, the successful provider of microchips and other parts parts for the iPhone and other electronic equipment.  

More details can be found here and here.

Ban for Craigmillar Park driver

Local resident Leith Woodrow was banned from driving earlier this week at Edinburgh Sheriff Court after being convicted of drunk driving.   On July 22nd he was stopped by police when he was found to be over twice the legal limit.  

He is a well known property developer.  The ban was for 16 months and went along with along with a £500 fine.  More details here.

Newington resident for Miss GB?

Sarah McLean won the Miss Edinburgh title and will be competing the Miss GB title at Weston-super-Mare in December. 

Sara lives in Newington and is a student at Edinburgh Napier University.  She is also a shop assistant at Top Shop.

Council pension bill up 139%

Lord Hutton

In 10 years the pensions bill at Edinburgh Council has shot up 139%.

Ten years ago the Council's bill for pension payments was £32.176m.  For the year to 31st March 2010 the bill was £76.879m.  That is an increase of 139% in cash terms. The inflation rate (RPI) for the same period was just 31.1%. 

What are the causes of this huge rise? 

1. Staff numbers have increased.  In the period, staff numbers rose from 15,320 to 16,453 full time equivalents.  That is over 7% up - even after advances on technology and ongoing efficiency savings.
2. The burden on employers has increased.  For the Local Government Pension Scheme, in the ten year period, the proportion of pensionable pay employers pay has increased from 13% to 20% (that is an increase in the employer contribution rate of 54%.)   For teachers the equivalent rate has increased from 6.9% to 14.9% - an increase in the rate of 116%.
3. Benefits have increased.  There have been improvements in the benefits of the scheme which have led to higher contributions from employers.

Here is part of the answer to why, on a local level it is so difficult to bring roads and pavements up to a reasonable standard.  Here is part of the reason why the nation is wrestling with a debt crisis. We have spent rapidly increasing amounts of money on paying our staff.

A subsequent post will address what the Government needs to do in response to the initial report of Lord Hutton on public sector pensions, which was published yesterday.

Beautiful Prestonfield award

Prestonfield won a bronze medal in the beautiful Scotland awards which were judged in August.  Here is the citation:

 "The Prestonfield group has a long tradition of working in their area. The war memorial is an important focal point in the community and the work of the group here and the beds by the community centre provide welcome colour. There are a number of attractive private gardens."

Details can be found  here and here.

Edinburgh also won the best Scottish city award.

BT upgrading Newington broadband

The Newington Exchange is to be upgraded to super-fast broadband by Autumn 2011, BT has announced.  Using fibre optic cable to street cabinets (FTSC) the new links should offer download speeds of up to 40Mbps and upstream speeds of up to 10Mbps.  More details from the BT press release here.

Around Causewayside in pictures & maps

Chris Fleet - maps curator

The National Library in Causewayside has recently moved its map reading room - now accessible from a new entrance in Causewayside.  It has put together a small exhibition entitled Around Causewayside on old maps and pictures.  It is a must for those interested in the Southside and the post links to a wealth of old pictures of the Southside.