Community Council may fold

Southside Community Council area

The Southside Community Council is in abeyance after several members, including the Chair, resigned their membership.

Periodic elections are due in October 2012 but the Council has invited any volunteers interested in standing to make contact.  Details can be found here.  Nominations can be made between today and 21st November.

Southsider Pat Rogan dies

Southside residents moved to Craigmillar

There is an obituary in today's Scotsman which throws interesting light on the history of some Southside streets.  Pat Rogan, who died last week aged 92, was an Edinburgh councillor associated with the clearance of many of the Southside slums in the middle of the last century.  The obituary can be found here with a further report here.

Here is one of many references in the obit to Southside locations:

It was in November 1959 that Rogan came to prominence when the so-called penny tenement - the landlord had offered to sell it for a penny - in Bowmont Place in his ward collapsed after terrential rain, with residents miraculously escaping death.

Transparency and expenses

My Council expenses

In 2009 I pushed to have Edinburgh councillors' detailed expenses accessible online.  Initially my request was refused by the current administration but with the Westminster expenses scandal breaking it was not long before itemised expenses were accessible for each councillor on the Council's webpage. 

That has contributed to a very significant fall in expense claims by councillors from the profligate days of the last Labour administration.    That is not to say councillors should not have expense claims incurred in doing their public duty.  It just means that for some of us there will be very low, or nil expense returns.  My expense page is here.

I am fortunate in living in my ward and close to the City Chambers.  I do travel to meetings and conferences on behalf of the Lothian Pension Fund which is a separate body from the Council, but travel arrangements and occasional accommodation are handled by the LPF.  I seldom have incidental expenses which are worth claiming.

Grange author targets Malawi

Anne Hepburn, who lives in the Grange, has published a book Memories of Malawi and Scotland.

The content is in the title and Anne is 86 so has quite a few memories.

Schools Beautiful - from the 30s

A fascinating project in the 1930s (Schools Beautiful) has left a number of schools with works of art which can still be seen today.  Prestonfield Primary has the 'Mother and child: the bath' a sculpture by Tom Whalen whilst the Cameron House Nursery Building has stained glass panels from the same period.

The occasion for drawing attention to this period of educational art is the opening to the public today in Wardie Primary School the vast mural depicting the tale of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland.

More information on the prestonfield Primary art can be found here.

Brawl at Sick Kids

Middle Meadow Walk

Wednesday's football match between Hibs and Celtic was the occasion for a clash between supporters which spilled into the Sick Kids and Middle Meadow Walk.

The flash point began at the International Bar at Tollcross. More details here.

Update:  The polkice appeal for witnesses can be found here.

Gunpoint carjacking conviction

Edinburgh High Court

A man, who has been on the run after being bailed for robbing a woman of her car and possessions at gunpoint in East Mayfield, has now been convicted.

The original horrifying incident was reported in a post on this blog in September 2008.  Police made arrests a few days later.  However, as the BBC report of this week's court appearance recounts, Paul Purves was bailed and failed to turn up for his High Court hearing in June 2009.

He was arrested in the Republic of Ireland last September on an international arrest warrant.

At the time of the crime Purves lived accommodation for the homeless in Dalkeith Road. He will be sentenced next month.

Decision delayed

The Administration running Edinburgh have decided to postpone until 24th November the decision on whether to accept the recommendation to engage in a partnership with a private company to deliver a range of 'environmental' services.

In the vote this afternoon the Conservatives (11) voted to seal a deal with the partnership company, Labour (15) and the Greens (2) voted to continue with in-house staff running the service, and the SNP (12) declared themselves in favour of the in-house service - but voted with the Lib Dems (16) for a delay of a month to enable further consideration, mainly by the Lib Dems who have not all seen the detailed information.

Note. The recommended deal (now put on hold) relates to a range of environmental services which are contracted to deliver very substantially improved services (including refuse collection) and at significantly reduced costs.  There are two further areas being considered.

Previous post here and STV report here.

Decision time

I've been asked to report on the public meeting sponsored by Unison which I attended earlier in the week.  It was held in the Appleton Tower.

As you may imagine there was much talk of "cuts" and "fights" and "strikes".

As you can probably also imagine that it was not a meeting conducive to balanced consideration.   As an example, the chair, Evening News SNP columnist Martin Hannan  left us in no doubt where he stood.  "Shocked and appalled" at the proposals being considered he assured us, "I'm gong to be in the first rank of a campaign"(against the proposals).  Cue future articles - though this evening there is currently going round some suggestion that SNP colleagues have now decided they cannot support the process.

There were two specific questions of me, as a trustee of the Lothian Pension Fund.

1. The first was whether the LPF has investments in Enterprise, the recommended bidder. It has - through its parent company.  The LPF is a separate entity from the Council.    
2. There was a further suggestion that it is illegal, after allowing current staff to TUPE across to the Pension Fund, to close the Fund to new entrants - as they will not be council employees.  As the Fund has been closed to new entrants in other employments this is not an unusual procedure.  I have been assured that this proposed procedure is not illegal.

I will try and get an early post tomorrow after the decision has been taken.  It should be late afternoon.

More background information and a link to the report before the Council tomorrow is in my earlier post.

Alternative Business Models

The Unison meeting

The phrase above (ABM for short) is in vogue for the process of using competitive tendering to get efficient services.  Privatisation, in other words, though the tenders are compared against 'in house' proposals and the key is to get the best value possible, either from the Council continuing to manage the service or by bringing in an external company.

Since early 2009 Edinburgh Council has been preparing to offer a range of services to undergo this process.  All councillors meet tomorrow (Thursday) to consider the Environmental (including waste) range of services.  The company Enterprise has been recommended to run the range of services and you can read the report here. 

I attended the Unison public meeting on the subject in the Appleton Tower (just off Potterrow) on Monday and some people have asked me to respond to some of the points made there.  I'll do that in a subsequent post.

Winter weather

St Leonard's Street

The Council now has a winter weather page which includes:

• volunteer snow wardens
• advance adverse weather information
• gritter routes information
• how school/nursery closure decisions are taken
• waste collections during snow disruption
• support for vulnerable people

and much more.  The link to the page is here.  The volunteers snow wardens page can be accessed here.

22 years for murder

Guilty:  Frank Moore

The Chalmers Crescent murder judge has jailed Frank Moore for life (a minimum of 22 years).  He was found guilty last month of the murder of Stewart Taylor and the attempted murder of Lyndsey Methven at 18 Chalmers Crescent on 7th February this year.

More details from the BBC here.  The back story can be found in links from this earlier post.

Remembering Maggie Wilson

Evening News:  Maggie with her MBE

Last month I reported the death of Southsider Maggie Wilson on 27th September.

The Evening News have now published a memoir of her life.  See here.

Cost of blocking Craigmillar Park

I've been away from internet access for a few days.  I'm starting back with a court case about a collision on Craigmillar park on 10th April this year.

Ronald Sale was fined and accumulated six penalty points.  Details here.

Cop cops medal thief

The Sun identifies the guilty  man

 

Steve Cairns is a policeman based at St Leonards.  Earlier this month he came third in the Keilder Marathon.

Alas, he was awarded fourth place because another competitor, who had hitched a lift for part of the way in a bus, crossed the line in front of him. Steve didn't believe it, alerted event director Steve Cram and, after the investigation, was today reinstated to his medal position in a special ceremony at Waverley Bridge.

There has been loads of media coverage - such as this BBC article.

The culprit in this story is Rob Sloan.

Transgression Park opens

Just outside the ward in King's Haugh, off Peffermill Road, a new skateboard and biking park has opened this month.

Transgression Park opened last week-end.  On a bus route, and sitting between Craigmillar and Prestonfield, it should be accessible to many young skateboarders, rollerbladers, BMX bikers and many more.

Find more information here.

Meadows marathon is back

Pic from BBC

And it may well be bigger than ever before.

The date is 4th March and the event is open for bookings by entrants.

More details here with a summary here.

Gardens competition results

Livingston Place residents did well in the Marchchmont and Sciennes Commmunity Council gardens competition.

Three winners took prizes in the street.

The full list of winners can be found on the MSCC website here.

Site search for new Boroughmuir

Catchment area includes part of ward

Edinburgh council has bid for the Lloyds TSB site in Fountainbridge which had a closing date for offers last Wednesday.  If successful it will be considering the site for a new Boroughmuir Secondary School.

The current Boroughmuir building is in need of replacement or refurbishment and Education staff have had difficulty in identifying a new site.  Because of the constrained nature of the present site in Viewforth it is considered difficult to identify locations for education to continue during a rebuild on site.

More details here.

Arrests after crime rampage

Members of a gang responsible for some fifty crimes in a period of around 6 weeks have been arrested in a police operation.   Crimes throughout the city and surrounding area are understood to have figured in the rampage including, I understand, at Prestonfield Golf Club.

I note this report which may be one of those involved.

The Evening News carries the story but, curiously, it is not yet included in its online edition.

Five-month-old survives fire

A child was taken to hospital this morning after an electric blanket apparently ignited this morning in a home in Cobden Crescent off Mayfield Gardens.  Details here.

Student election: ends tomorrow

A previous EUSA election

The Edinburgh University Students Association (EUSA) elections are under way with a deadline of noon tomorrow for the casting of votes.

Fuller details on the EUSA website here.  You can find a list of candidates here.

Tram inquest - BBC version

For those of you who missed the BBC programme The Great Tram Disaster earlier this week, the link is here.

It is only 30 minutes.  It does contribute some useful information and broadly tells the story of the debacle.  It , doesn't really scrutinise the position of Bilfinger Berger and gives John Swinney an uncritical opportunity to give his slant. It is clearly very selective in the extracts from the interview with Cllr Gordon Mackenzie.

Nonetheless, many will learn important details from this account.

Cemetery secrets at Grange

Grange Cemetery (Tom Bishop)

A project to record all the information contained on gravestones in Grange Cemetery has been completed after 10 years.

Details can be found here.

Famous people interred there include

• Sir George McCrae,  as a volunteer soldier in WW1 he famously raised the 16th Battalion of the Royal Scots with the entire Hearts football team as recruits.  His funeral in 1928 was the biggest seen in Edinburgh before or since.
• Robin Cook, former Foreign Secretary who died in 2005.
• Rev Thomas Guthrie, preacher and philanthropist, he founded the ragged schools to give destitute children a free education.  He died in 1873 and Guthrie Street is named for him.
• Hugh Miller, geologist who died in 1856.
• Rev Thomas Chalmers, converted after he became a minister, he went on to lead the Free Church.  A mathematician and political economist, he died in 1847.

Chimp busker

For many months now, an occasional performer in Middle Meadow Walk has been a chimp.

The simian drummer, who remains anonymous, gave an interview to the Evening News - which you can find here.

Update 3:15pm:  The Evening News appear to have withdrawn the story perhaps because it was an old one revamped their website.  But here is a photo from the Edinburgh Spotlight site

Quartermile accounting loss

Gladedale, the company which has put Quartermile on the market in September, has announced a loss for the accounting year 2010.

Details here.

Meadows cricket interrupted

Lisa Notman plead guilty this week to interrupting a cricket match on the Meadows.  It was some interruption.

She hurled racial abuse at players and attacked a woman, punching and kicking and dragging her.  The has been remanded in Cornton Vale Prison.  More details here.

Stupid but not as stupid as many

The Kismot Restaurant specialises in publicity.  Wacky food and curry ice creams and the like.  The latest was the Killer Kismot Curry challenge which took place on Saturday and went a bit wrong as two competitors ended up in hospital.  People do stupid things.   See the BBC report here.

But just before everyone gets too self righteous about the competitors and organisers, consider the number of people who get themselves blitzed with alcohol or drugs - and those who supply them - and who load staggering costs onto our acute health services, especially every Friday and Saturday night.  And then there is the slow burn abusing of our bodies by drugs, alcohol and even food - often no less serious or costly.  (BTW I'm only admitting to the occasional excess on that last one.)

Certainly I don't think it very smart of the Kismot Killer competitors.  Or Abdul who dreamed up the stunt.  But some people pointing the finger would do well to address their own habits.

Road closure: East/West Mayfield

Replacing gas mains

A closing order has been obtained for East and West Mayfield near to the junction with Minto Street.

The closure is due to take place from Saturday 8th October and is expected to last 9 days. 

The closure is to facilitate gas repair work which is already underway in Minto Street and the surrounding area.

Joining the debate

Murdo Fraser

Forgive me for another occasional politics post. With the Conservative Party conference under way in Manchester there is also under way a leadership contest to choose the new leader in Scotland.

Murdo Fraser set the pace with radical proposals to fold the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party into a new centre right party, separate from, but allied to, the UK Conservative Party.  At 32, Ruth Davidson represents a new generation and her presentational skills, honed as a TV presenter are considerable.  Jackson Carlaw brings considerable experience of business and politics to the table.  Margaret Mitchell completes the broad choice on offer, especially with her distinctive anti devolution views.  Updates, news and campaign statements can be found at the Tory Hoose blog.

Ruth Davidson

In my previous post on the leadership election, I explained why I will be voting for Murdo Fraser.  Whilst the idea of creating a new party attracting a broad range of supporters prevents detailed policy until those members are given a chance to come on board, Murdo Fraser has published a list of six key aims and values in support of his vision of a centre right party.  Here is a summary.

1. Develop a distinct Scottish identity - with policies genuinely made in Scotland.
2. Strengthen the United Kingdom - devolution of power but with certain things better done at a UK level making us stronger together than apart.
3. Devolve power to communities and people - diversity will flow from decentralisation of power is, together with the ingenuity of people, the key to progress across the board.
4. Deliver quality public services - with the emphasis not on central command and control, but on local diversity.
5. Extend economic opportunity - ensuring government provides the right environment of lower and simpler taxes, sensible regulation and good public infrastructure to extend opportunities.



Jackson Carlaw

6. Build a strong society - 

• founded on government action and personal responsibility
• upholding vital institutions encouraging them to be built from the bottom up rather than top down
• encouraging family loyalty, philanthropy and mutual benefit
• championing the traditional Scottish belief in voluntarism, mutualism and community, removing barriers that prevent voluntary organisations, social enterprises and community bodies from serving the needs of people in their local communities
• speaking and acting for all - especially those least able to look after themselves.

The full document is here.

Margaret Mitchell

Fine time for cyclists

Police have been issuing fines for cycling offences in the Meadows area recently.

Here are more details.

Statutory Notices: meeting report

Last week I noted the meeting in the Minto Hotel for people affected by the Statutory Notice scandal.

Here is the STV report of that meeting

BUPA Great Edinburgh Run

Tomorrow the Great Edinburgh Run takes place.  The 10k course routes through the Meadows.  See end of post for the timetable.  The 5k course is below.

09:30 Bupa Great Edinburgh Run 5k start time
10:15 Elite Women start Bupa Great Edinburgh Run 10k
10:35 Elite male and mass start Bupa Great Edinburgh Run 10k
13:45 Bupa Mini Great Edinburgh Run
14:30 Bupa Junior Great Edinburgh Run