Last council meeting of 2012 today – Edinburgh Airport traffic on the up – Edinburgh Science Festival want inventors – Remploy – Youth employment
Today the full council meets for the last time in 2012. You can watch it live on the council website and we are running our own liveblog from the floor of the City Chambers this morning to help explain the mysterious goings on! One thing which will not require explanation is that St Peter’s RC Primary School Choir will be singing for the councillors before the meeting gets going. Follow our coverage under our TERLive! section.
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Edinburgh Airport is this week reporting a year on year rise in domestic traffic in November 2012 after 5 months of performing under last year’s totals.
Overall, 631,321 passengers travelled through Edinburgh Airport in November, a drop of 1.7% on the previous year.
Although domestic traffic has come back to growth, international traffic was down 6.8% in November as the cuts announced by Ryanair early 2012 began to bite.
Edinburgh Airport and Ryanair announced a new deal last week that will see the low cost carrier grow at Scotland’s busiest airport grow its destinations. 6 new destinations were announced last week and Ryanair has announced further new routes to Bremen, Lodz and Poznan to go on sale this week.
Edinburgh Airport Chief Executive, Gordon Dewar, said:- “Clearly, I’m happy to see our domestic performance come back into growth, but this is tempered with disappointment at the temporary decline in international traffic. We always knew that Ryanair’s cuts would bite and they have.
“That is why last week’s deal was a key priority for my team and I. Ryanair is one of our biggest customers and to fall out with a large customer is never good. I’m glad we could work with them to gain trust and understanding to ultimately create a foundation on which we can together deliver more routes for Scotland.”
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Organisers of The Edinburgh International Science Festival this week put a call out for engineers, inventors, designers and creative ‘makers’ to participate in Scotland’s first Mini Maker Faire. The Edinburgh Mini Maker Faire will take place on Sunday 7 April 2013 as part of the next year’s Science Festival (which runs from Saturday 23 March to Sunday 7 April 2013).
The Edinburgh Mini Maker Faire will be filled with novel gadgets, ingenious inventions, toys, crafts, machines, demonstrations, performances, exhibitions and interactive workshops and the Science Festival organisers are calling for 50 of Scotland’s most inventive and innovative ‘makers’ – designers, engineers and anyone who makes things – to come and take part.
Amanda Tyndall, Deputy Festival Director of the Edinburgh International Science Festival said:- “As technology becomes more accessible, and in these times of financial austerity, a new DIY culture is rapidly emerging in which people do all sorts of things for themselves! Whether you’re a tech enthusiast or a tinkerer, an engineer or an artist, Edinburgh’s Mini Maker Faire is for you. If you make wearable technology or have invented a new musical instrument, use a 3D printer or have created a new computer game, if you are prepared to share your insights, connect with your audience, and inspire others, we want to hear from you.”
This family-friendly interactive showcase will be a day-long celebration of the burgeoning worldwide ‘Maker’ movement and will give audiences a chance to interact and connect with the people who are creating the next generation of technologies, bringing traditional skills and crafts into the modern world or making beautiful, useful or simply playful things.
All ’Makers’ who wish to participate in the Edinburgh Mini Maker Faire should visit the website http://makerfaireedinburgh.com/ and follow the link to the online application form. Closing date for applications Friday 1 February 2013.
The Edinburgh International Science Festival creates and presents hundreds of events for adults, children and families across the city for two weeks from Saturday 23 March to Sunday 7 April 2013. The programme will offer talks, workshops, experiments, activities and events and full details of the programme will be announced on Thursday 31 January 2013.
Mark Lazarowicz, MP for Edinburgh North and Leith, intervened in debate at Westminster as the Government announced a second wave of closures of Remploy factories that employ people with disabilities. The Edinburgh factory in South Gyle closed on 29 November 2012 which meant 28 people losing their jobs in the run up to Christmas.
He said:- “I am angry at the way that disabled workers at Remploy have been treated both here in Edinburgh and across the rest of the UK. It’s going to be a difficult prospect for staff to look for work in the current climate.
“I want to see the Scottish Government follow the much stronger lead of the Welsh Government in announcing a package of financial support both to help the workers find jobs and where possible save the remaining factories.
“Some workers will have been with Remploy for years and it’s going to be an extremely difficult Christmas for them. For the UK Government to claim it had no choice is a betrayal of responsibility.”
Mark has asked for specific information from the UK Minister responsible on how many of the South Gyle workers have found alternative jobs.
There were 28 employees at South Gyle of whom 27 were disabled and the factory provided office services. So far only a small proportion of people made redundant at other Remploy factories have found work – 35 out of 1,000.
Mark is also keenly awaiting news of what additional support the Scottish Government will be offering after Fergus Ewing, Minister for Energy, Enterprise and Tourism the Minister raised the prospect of some kind of package of financial support in the Scottish Parliament on 29th November.
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‘Make Young People your Business’ was launched yesterday by the Scottish Government at Diageo in Edinburgh. The initiative, supported by Skills Development Scotland and the UK Commission for Employment and Skills promotes the value of employing young people and highlights a range of companies across Scotland who have found benefit from bringing young people into their business.
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
