Cooperative Capital
National Trust for Scotland’s pop-up shop
Learning to grown your own organic food
Crime prevention afternoon at Morningside Library
Sale at the Fruitmarket Gallery
You may already know that the administration at Edinburgh Council is run by a coalition of Labour and SNP councillors. Although it would be true to say that it is the Labour group who subscribe most vocally to the notion of a cooperative way of working, the whole council has agreed to run a Cooperative Capital to some degree or other during the last two and a half years.
A small department of council officers is charged with the responsibility of working across the whole council to find ways of introducing cooperatives in some form wherever possible. Although Harlaw Hydro is a cooperative project which was started by a local community in Balerno, the council gave it support in kind by offering services of council officers in advisory positions. Harlaw Hydro is now fully subscribed and building has begun on the hydro scheme which will produce electricity and invest surplus funds back into community projects. This is quite rightly held up time and again as an example of what can be achieved.
Most recently the council leader, Andrew Burns was appointed the Chair of the Cooperative Capital Innovation Network which is a UK-wide body, of which The City of Edinburgh Council was the first Scottish member.
There are several areas in which the council pledged to develop cooperative initiatives all under the ethos of ‘doing things with people rather than to people’, namely energy, housing, childcare and social care. Now the council will agree next week on a way of evaluating all of these. This is in response to a demand by the Communities and Neighbourhoods Committee who want to ensure that the benefits of any cooperative schemes are measured in some way. The evaluation tools will then be put in place with data from the first two years which will provide a baseline.
Examples of cooperatives in Edinburgh include the Edinburgh University Student Housing Cooperative, Energy for Edinburgh (ESCo) which will run a range of energy-related projects, the Edinburgh Community Solar Cooperative which will install solar panels on council-owned buildings and collaboration on the Craigmillar Eco Housing Cooperative which will provide affordable homes in Greendykes.
All of this and more will be discussed at the full council meeting next Thursday. Council papers will be published on the council website later this morning.
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This festive season give the gift of ‘Glad’. Support the National Trust for Scotland and buy some gorgeous goodies, a gift membership or just make a Christmas wish come true at Gladstone’s Land where there is a pop-up shop and Christmas wishing tree.
Visit the winter wonderland to find unique gifts, perfect stocking fillers, decadent decorations, sensational Christmas cards and stunning Scottish products. More details here.
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PC Dickson from St Leonard’s Police Station, Edinburgh will be at Morningside Library, tomorrow afternoon between 2pm – 4pm.
He will be available to advise the community on ways to protect their property and help the police. He will have available crime prevention advice and provide how members of the public can report suspicious activity and/or persons in their area.
PC Dickson will also have available the items below from the South Edinburgh Crime Prevention Panel:
Bike “D” locks – £12.50
Shed alarms – £10
Personal alarms – £5
Hi- Viz rucksack covers – £5
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The Fruitmarket Gallery is counting down the days until Light Night with a sale. Get money off some of the lovely items in their shop from now till 23 November 2014.
Today it appears that this book by Richard Murphy is discounted by 20%.
“This brilliant Artist Books department includes many locally, self-published or hand made artist books that deserve your attention. The Fruitmarket Gallery is proud to support local artists, so please come in and browse our great selection.”
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
