Edinburgh Festival of Cycling – Queen’s Birthday Honours – Condé Nast exhibition – Royal Blind School – Today’s photo
The first Edinburgh Festival of Cycling starts in earnest today. Running from 15- 23 June, the Edinburgh Festival of Cycling boasts a packed calendar of events from exhibitions, films and talks, to rides and races, workshops and the world’s first cycling poetry slam, Bike Slam.
Heels on Wheels, a ‘Ladies day’ of cycling, will be held at The Meadows on Saturday 22 June from 11am to 3pm and aims to be a fun and educational event for the whole family. This event is free and all are welcome.
Copenhagen’s bicycle ambassador, Mikael Colville-Andersen, will give a talk on “Bicycle Culture by Design” on Saturday 15 June in the Assembly Hall, Mound Place at 7.30pm. Tickets are £15 (£13 concessions).
In ‘The Fastest Woman to Cycle Around the World’, Juliana Buhring will give a talk about setting the first women’s world record for fastest circumnavigation of the world by bicycle, which she achieved in just 152 days, finishing in December 2012. This talk will be at 7.30pm on Saturday 22 June at George Square Lecture Theatre – tickets are £12 (£10 concessions).
The Council has provided £8,000 in funding, as well as advice and support to the organisers of the Edinburgh Festival of Cycling.
Councillor Jim Orr, Vice Convener of Transport and Environment, said: “There is so much to do, see and hear in this exciting festival programme – I would encourage anyone with an interest in bikes to check it out, you never know what you’ll discover. It’s not just for cycling enthusiasts, either – there are plenty of events for families and for people who don’t already cycle but are keen to take it up.
“Having just been on an inspirational visit to Amsterdam, where cycling is such an intrinsic part of urban life (half of all journeys in the city centre are by bike), I’m very keen to build on Edinburgh’s already-established reputation as acycling city. Events like this terrific Festival of Cycling are exactly the kind of collaborative, forward-looking initiatives which will help us do just that.”
Kim Harding, Festival Director, said: “We set out with the aim of creating a real Edinburgh-style festival, something that would act as a showcase for all aspects of bicycle culture and the host city. From rides (sporty and otherwise) to family activities to a range of cultural events, we hope that the Edinburgh Festival of Cycling will truly have something for everyone. Let the fun begin!”
The Council has committed 6% of its Transport budget to cycling, with current projects including the A90 cycle route from Haymarket to Forth Bridge and the resurfacing and widening of North Meadow Walk.
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The Queen’s Birthday Honours List is published today, and includes honours for Adele and Claire Balding along with others involved in last year’s Olympics and Paralympics.
Among the notable Scottish recipients is Stephen House the Chief Constable of Police Scotland who has been knighted for services to Law and Order and Sir Menzies Campbell MP for North East Fife, who is made a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour. Major Nicholas Abram of the Royal Regiment of Scotland has been awarded an MBE. Richard Findlay chairman of STV Group has been awarded a CBE along with Professor Alison McLeod of Aberdeen University, journalist Allan Massie and Professor Hugh Pennington of Aberdeen University.
In Edinburgh, Jonathan Mills the outgoing Director of the Edinburgh International Festival has been knighted. Christopher Gay the Senior Porter at Holyroodhouse and former Daily Cleaner, Mrs Alexandra MacMillan have both been awarded Silver Royal Victorian Medals. Professor John Dixon a surgeon at the Western General has been awarded an OBE for services to the treatment of breast cancer and also for charitable services. Mrs Maureen Garvie lately the Principal Estates Surveyor for the Scottish Government is also to receive an OBE. Irene Hogg manager of the Loanhead After School Club gets an MBE for services to children and families in the Midlothian community.
David McLetchie Conservative MSP for Lothian has been awarded an MBE.
Christie Smith who headed up the reform of the emergency services in Scotland, and John Smith who was Chief Constable in Central Scotland Police have been awarded an MBE.
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The exhibition of Condé Nast fashion photos opens at the City Art Centre today. Read and listen to our article here by Trystan Davies.
Information about tickets can be found here.
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Councillor Cameron Rose has alerted us to the news that the Royal Blind School in Craigmillar has been put on the market for sale.
The Royal Blind School’s Craigmillar Park Campus is being sold as part of a move to merge two campuses into one. By Autumn 2014 all pupils at the Royal Blind School will be relocating to the campus at Canaan Lane in Morningside, which is being refurbished to accommodate the changes over the coming year.
Two of the school’s campuses are being merged as part of a longer term strategy to become even more specialised in educating and supporting children with a visual impairment, including those who also have social, emotional and behavioural difficulties, autistic spectrum disorders, motor or learning disabilities. The School is also establishing a national education resource centre for visual impairment, which will provide support to visually impaired pupils in schools across Scotland through pupil assessment, advice and training for the education sector.
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Today’s photo is from the gallery of photos provided by the council to show the work done in laying new Caithness paving slabs on Constitution Street recently. WOrk there is ongoing and will follow this schedule:-
Section 12 (Coatfield Lane to Bernard Street)
Work is due to commence on Monday 17 June in the final section of Constitution Street (Coatfield Lane to Bernard Street) and is scheduled for completion on 16 August. The first part of the work will be concentrated in the Coatfield Lane to Queen Charlotte Street section. The works will include:
the complete resurfacing of the road
completely new pavements (Caithness natural stone slabs will be installed on both sides of the street from Bernard Street to Queen Charlotte Street)
the partial widening of the pavement on the western side of the street from Maritime Lane northwards
new build outs at Mitchell Street
evaluation of four sites to determine their feasibility for accommodating new trees
Section 11 (Foot of the Walk to Coatfield Lane) site completion
This section has undergone a complete road and pavement resurface and improvements to the cycle Advanced Stop Lines (ASLs) and lead in lane at the Foot of the Walk junction. Work commenced here on 29 April and will be completed by Monday 17 June and fully re-opened to all traffic.
Section 12 (Old Dock Gates to Bernard Street) site completion
This section has undergone a complete pavement resurface including the installation of Caithness slabs at the junction with Bernard Street. Partial re-setting of the carriageway is also being carried out in preparation for the installation of new trees in planters on the locations of the former tree pits. Work on this section is due for completion during week commencing 17 June.
If you are down that way then do send us some photos!
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
