Cycling event to be staged in Edinburgh – Safe in the city – Sarah Boyack on Fair Trade – World Book Day event – Transport for Edinburgh video
The Pearl Izumi Tour is a televised cycle race series taking place over five weeks across Britain, with highlights of every round shown on ITV4.
The Council has been in negotiation with the event owner, SweetSpot, and EventScotland, and the latter has agreed to make a contribution of £15,000 towards this event in acknowledgement of its anticipated economic impact. This is part of a joint strategy to promote cycling in the city, and to build capacity locally towards the potential future staging of the Grand Depart of the Tour de France in Edinburgh. You will recall that Edinburgh bid for this last year but lost out to Yorkshire.
The Pearl Izumi Tour series will now include a round in Edinburgh, on Thursday 29 May 2014. A set of cycle races will take place on a loop round the Grassmarket, taking in Victoria Street, part of George IV Bridge, and Candlemaker Row. This is the same course as was used for the Nocturne Series cycling event in 2012.
Consultation will be undertaken with local residents and businesses, and every effort will be made to minimise disruption to the normal flow of people and vehicles around the area.
The Council is working with Scottish Cycling and local road racing clubs to develop a programme of youth and lower- category races using the same course prior to the elite programme. This will allow local young and less experienced road cyclists to experience the thrill of racing on a city centre circuit in front of a home crowd.
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The council say that more residents than ever before feel safe in their communities after dark, according to the Edinburgh People’s Survey.
A total of 91% of those who responded to The City of Edinburgh Council’s annual survey in 2013 now feel either fairly or very safe after the hours of daylight, an increase of 16% on the survey carried out five years ago.
Residents also stated that they were satisfied with the way in which the Council handles anti-social behaviour, vandalism and graffiti.
Community Safety leader Cllr Cammy Day said: “I am delighted that people consider Edinburgh to be a place where they feel safe going out at night, and the numbers who agree with this have consistently improved over recent years.
“Lots of work goes into improving the safety of people who live, work and visit the capital, through both short and long term targeted initiatives and mulit-agency work between Council staff and organisations such as the police. This Council is committed to maintaining and improving quality of life and protecting the public.”
The Edinburgh People’s Survey (EPS) is the Council’s annual citizen survey, measuring satisfaction with the Council and its services, identifying areas for improvement and gathering information about residents which is not available through other sources or at neighbourhood level.
The survey is undertaken through face-to-face interviews with around 5,000 residents each year, conducted in the street and door-to-door. Click to access the survey which can also be found on the council website.
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Sarah Boyack MSP for the Lothians has raised in Holyrood the fact that Edinburgh has achieved 10 years of Fair Trade status.
She also lists some of the events which are taking place in the city to mark the anniversary.
We were with the Lord Provost when he received the certificate marking 10 years as a Fair Trade city and you can watch that again below.
This is the text of Ms Boyack’s motion:-
S4M-09102 Sarah Boyack: 10 Years of Fair Trade City Status for Edinburgh—That the Parliament congratulates the City of Edinburgh on its 10 years of fair trade status; understands that a variety of exciting and notable events will take place across the city and Scotland to mark Fair Trade fortnight, which runs from 24 February to 9 March 2014; notes that, in Edinburgh, these will include what it sees as the prestigious Lord Provost’s Fair Trade Award, the Fairtrade and Ethical Fashion Show, which is being organised by St Peter’s, St Columba’s, St Mark’s and Sacred Heart Roman Catholic churches and the Edinburgh Zoo event, Go Bananas for Fair Trade!; congratulates all of the people and organisations who work hard and show determination and enthusiasm toward raising the profile and importance of fair trade; understands that 2014 is being seen by the Fair Trade Foundation (FTF) as the year to Go Bananas; commends FTF on its work and what it sees as its pioneering campaign for fairness in the banana industry; understands that FTF is trying to remedy the situation in which the price of loose bananas in many UK supermarkets has nearly halved while the cost for farmers growing the crops has significantly increased; believes that the Scotland-based One World Shop has carried out transformational work by being at the forefront of buying and selling fairly-traded products globally since 1983; congratulates the people and organisations who are celebrating Fair Trade Fortnight, and thanks them on what it sees as their continuing achievements and their work to create a fairer global society.
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Children’s book event on Thursday 6th March 2014 10am – 4pm, free entry
To celebrate World Book Day, Blackwell’s are bringing our bookshop to Out of the Blue Drill Hall, Dalmeny Street, Leith.
“Join us and some fabulous local authors for a day of book-filled fun and activities. Take the opportunity to browse and buy the latest children’s books or swap your World Book Day Token for one of the specially produced £1 books.”
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Transport for Edinburgh have commissioned an animated video showing how they have been formed from a variety of different organisations which have gone before.
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
