Royal baby – Edinburgh libraries and Malawi – Upgrading of public loos – Legionnaire’s outbreak – New Bishop to be announced tomorrow
So the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have had their baby boy. The new Royal family left the London hospital this evening where the, as yet unnamed baby, was born at 16.24 yesterday afternoon. The baby is third in line for the throne meaning that there will be a line of three kings, with Charles and William ascending to the throne before the newborn baby.
We all know this of course since the news has been awash with Royal baby trivia.
What we want to know is this. Who else was born yesterday? Did you have a baby or is there a new baby in your family? Then tell us about it! And of course you might send us photos and tell us any names you have chosen ….
theedinburghreporter@gmail.com
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An innovative partnership between Edinburgh Libraries and APSTAR has seen over fifty boxes of withdrawn library stock donated to establish the first community library in the Mzimba District of Malawi.
Cllr Norma Austin Hart, Vice-Convener of Culture & Sport, and Tamara Nyirenda from North Edinburgh charity APSTAR packed up the final boxes to be shipped out this week.
Councillor Norma Austin Hart, the city’s Vice-Convener of Culture and Sport, said:- “We were delighted to be approached by APSTAR about providing books to help establish the first community library in the Mzimba District. Our libraries service has been only too happy to help this worthwhile cause. The joy of reading and the benefits it can bring are universal and is something that unites people from all over the world.”
Tamara Nyirenda, from APSTAR, said: “For the past seven years I’ve gone to Malawi every year to volunteer in various Community Based Organisations. It is very frustrating to try to gather information on any subject as there is no community or public library in Mzimba. There is one reliable internet cafe but people queue an hour before the cafe opens.
“In April this year a local man asked members of the community to donate books for him to start a library at Mzimba Boma. He collected only 25 books in total. He made his readers leave the books behind and each person was allowed one hour.
“When I phoned Mzimba District Council Commissioner and told him about the 52 boxes of books that I got for the community library from the City of Edinburgh Council, he asked me several times if I was telling him the truth. I think the news did not sink in at that time.
“I’d like to thank Edinburgh Libraries for their generosity and for collecting the books and dropping off them here.”
APSTAR is a charitable organisation which was formed in 2004 after seeing so much suffering amongst the elderly and other vulnerable members of the community in Mzimba District extreme poverty, illness, hunger, malnutrition were prevalent in this section of the community.
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The Council is to refurbish seven public toilets in Edinburgh’s city centre to bring them up to modern standards.
The work is being carried out on a phased basis to cause as little disruption as possible to those using the service. The more popular toilets will be open while the festivals and the Tattoo are running and when a toilet closes there will always be another one open nearby.
When each facility reopens there will be a charge of 30p to use the toilets and the money raised will be reinvested in the service.
The first of these facilities to be upgraded will be the public toilets at The Mound and The West End of Princes Street Gardens. These toilets are now closed for approximately four weeks, however, the toilets behind the Ross Bandstand in the gardens will remain open for the public during this period.
The other toilets to be refurbished over the coming weeks are Nicolson Square, Ross Bandstand, Castle Terrace, Castle Hill and Hunters Square.
Lesley Hinds, Environment Convenor, said: “The toilets are in much need of upgrading to bring them up to a modern standard. During last year’s budget engagement the public made it clear that they would like to keep the toilets and many people said they would they rather pay for them to allow us to bring them up to a higher standard.
“There has been a lot of debate about the future of public toilets in the last few years and so I am delighted that we have a way forward to upgrade toilets in the city which the public said they wanted.”
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The board of NHS Lothian will be presented with an interim report into last year’s Legionnaires’ outbreak which affected the south west of Edinburgh which will be released tomorrow 24 July 2013.
Professor McCallum will also point out that the review of the outbreak management found that the locally coordinated public health, environmental and clinical response helped prevent the ongoing exposure to Legionella bacteria for the population of south west Edinburgh and had a positive impact in preventing more people becoming seriously ill.
Professor McCallum said: “It is one year since the outbreak and we understand the community’s desire to move on.
“While elements of the investigation are ongoing, a comprehensive review of the actions taken during the outbreak has been carried out and a range of recommendations have been made.
“These recommendations are being progressed across a number of organisations to ensure that those involved in responding to this outbreak, and others, can be even better prepared in the event of similar circumstances in the future.”
One of the key recommendations is that the template that was developed during the outbreak to help record and analyse the complex microbiological and environmental information be incorporated into national guidance.
Other recommendations which are currently being worked on include further revisions to the national guidance and plans to rehearse the local multiagency outbreak plan.
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The clergyman who Pope Francis has chosen to be the new Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh will be named and presented by the Scottish Church tomorrow morning.
Archbishop Philip Tartaglia of Glasgow will introduce the new archbishop-elect at 11am (noon Rome time) at the Gillis Centre in Edinburgh. The archbishop-elect will then deliver his first message to the Archdiocese. He is expected to be officially installed as archbishop at a Mass to be celebrated at St Mary’s Cathedral within three months.
Archbishop Tartaglia, president of the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland, was named as Apostolic administrator of St Andrews and Edinburgh when Cardinal Keith O’Brien stepped down as archbishop earlier this year.
Three of Scotland’s eight dioceses—Motherwell, Paisley and Dunkeld—still await Vatican-appointed bishops to be named and Bishop John Cunningham of Galloway Diocese submitted his resignation when he turned 75 this year, as required by Canon law.
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Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
