Airport entrance money donated to charity
RBS
Loanhead Ceilidh
London Olympics 2012
Edinburgh rickshaws
Remember the hue and cry over the introduction of the £1 charge to pick up or drop off near the airport building? Well the kiss and fly charge has raised over £100,000 for charity reports the BBC.
***
Just along the road a little way, the CEO of The Royal Bank of Scotland has been awarded a bonus of less than £1m after some interference from the Prime Minister, David Cameron says The Scotsman. Stephen Hester once famously said that his mother thought he earned too much, and now it seems that the government agree. The bonus is paid in shares, and is of course additional to his salary of £1.2m.
***
Loanhead Ceilidh is being held tonight to raise funds for Midlothian School Bands’ German summer trip
Tickets cost just £5 (£3 concession) and will be available on the door.
The ceilidh has been organised by Midlothian Council’s Instrumental Music Service. It aims to raise funds for the Midlothian Schools’ Ceilidh Band and the Lasswade High School Concert Band to visit Germany for a series of musical performances this summer.
Midlothian Councillor Peter Boyes, Cabinet Member for Education, said: “You’re guaranteed a great night’s entertainment from our highly talented young musical performers. It’s also in a very good cause, with all funds raised going to support our young performers’ trip to Germany in June.”
The bands are planning to perform three concerts in the Bad Salzig region – including open air concerts in Andernach Square and in the beautiful spa gardens of Bad Neuenahr. The pupils are also planning to take in a range of cultural and fun attractions, including the Beethoven Museum in Bonn, Cologne’s Chocolate Museum, Burg Eltz Castle, and the Nurburgring.
Ceilidh organisers promise a fantastic evening of musical entertainment. The evening will start with a special performance from the Lasswade High School Concert Band, to be followed by lively traditional toe-tapping ceilidh music from the Midlothian Schools’ Ceilidh Band.
The event is open to all ages, with bar facilities available on the night for over-18s.
***
Six months today the Olympic Games will start. On 13 June 2012 Edinburgh will welcome the Olympic torch which is travelling around 8,000 miles around the UK on its way to the opening ceremony on 27 July 2012. According to the Olympics website some tickets may be available for resale from spring 2012.
Another part of the spectacle takes place when Edinburgh hosts the Edinburgh Flame lighting event and Flame Festival on 26 August 2012 as part of the Paralympic Games which open on 29 August 2012.
***
The rickshaws that roam our streets in the summer months are being discussed at the council’s Regulatory Committee which meets this morning, and particularly the licensing arrangements for them. The council propose a new arrangement where each individual pedicab driver has to have a licence rather than one provider with several employees. The report produced to the meeting says that there are only 6 pedicab companies in Edinburgh, so there is an obvious cost to the providers if each cab has to have its own licence which costs around £200 each.
