Councillor Maureen Child who represents Craigentinny/Duddingston gives us her usual weekly round-up of news and what’s on in her area.
A plug for local resident Nick Bell – he is planning a charity event later this month in aid of the Indreni Children’s Home in Nepal. Nick worked at the children’s home in January and February this year. Although all the children survived the earthquake, the buildings suffered serious damage and the children are currently camped out in the yard. They urgently need funds to build a new home. Porty Summer Shindig is to raise funds for Nepal Children’s Home The event will be on 27 June, 3pm – 7pm, at Tribe Porty, 19 Windsor Place, Portobello, EH 15 2AJ.
There will be music, Nepali Chai, home made samosas and cakes. There will be an arts and crafts area for kids. Kids go free and adults are £6/£4 concession. There is also a link to buy tickets at: www.portyshindig.eventbrite.co.uk.
Another local resident living near Craigmillar Castle has asked me to let you know that Craigmillar Castle Road will be closed from Monday 15 to Friday 19 June from 09:30 to 15:30 daily for maintenance. This is an annual event on the first two days the road is blocked off from the Craigmillar side and for the rest of the week the road closed from the Old Dalkeith Road to a point south of the castle car park.
It’s the Moonwalk this weekend, so don’t forget to cheer if you see them coming through Portobello, at whatever time of the day or night. I’ve been there – and it helps! The walk does involve road closures, so be prepared for those too.
I had the best breakfast ever served at Castlebrae Community High School on Thursday by pupils there at their Creative Conversation event, sitting amid the fantastic artwork they have produced and hearing a lot about the wealth of partnership working going on there. The S6 youngsters were ‘fresh’ from their Prom the previous evening, courtesy of Edinburgh Festival Fringe at the Hub where everybody had a fantastic celebration. More about this great school and what they have achieved here: Castlebrae Community High School | Information for pupils, parents and staff
The recent regular snapshot bathing water figures from SEPA are bad news for Portobello West (near where the Figgate Burn comes out) but this is not to be to be confused with Portobello Central, our Seaside Award beach. I have since spoken to Scottish Water and they are planning some investment over the next few years in filters and other upstream kit to ensure the bathing water meets the new tougher EU standards. See: Evening News Article
This weekend, Saturday 13-14 June is the Edinburgh Beach Volleyball Championships, which will be worth watching. More here: Hosted by Beach Volleyball Scotland
Private Desks for co-working are now available at Tribe Porty in Windsor Place, Portobello. More here: pic.twitter.com/G0kgSWypyM
Action Earth is helping to get people and communities busy outdoors. The campaign has grants to give to groups of volunteers who are carrying out environmental projects in Scotland. Grants from £50 to £250 are available for practical activities that involve volunteers in improving outdoor spaces or creating habitats for wildlife. Grants can be used to purchase plants, tools and materials or to cover volunteer expenses. If your group is volunteering on a Local Nature Reserve we can give you up to £500 for practical work, wildlife recording or educational activities that encourage more people onto the reserve. The campaign is run by Volunteering Matters (formerly known as CSV) from April to December each year and is supported by Scottish Natural Heritage.
If you have any questions contact Robert Henderson on 0131 622 7766 or action.earth@volunteeringmatters.org.uk For more information and to apply online go to: http://actionearth.csv.org.uk/
Edinburgh is working to become a dementia friendly city, including Portobello which gets a mention here: goo.gl/fb/Ej3ENU
Craigmillar Festival Fun day is on Saturday 27 June this year. An information event will take place at the fabulous art deco White House, 70 Niddrie Mains Road on 27 and 29 June and will run in conjunction with an exhibition of photos of the area taken in the late 80’s early 90’s.The event will provide residents with information on recently announced developments in the Town Centre and Greendykes and plans for the remaining land within the PARC Regeneration area. Do just drop in and get the latest on the regeneration of Craigmillar and visit the cafe. pic.twitter.com/Woh31sFQPd
“Change a life in your lunch break” says Edinburgh charity Care and Repair, which aims to help older people with the small tasks they find it increasing hard o impossible to do for themselves. It could be as simple a changing a light bulb. More here: Care and Repair Campaign
Carrier bag cash from Asda set to kick start five social firms and our now local Portobello Breadshare is one of them. See more here: Carrier Bag Cash Boosts Social Enterprises and even more here with nice Breadshare photo:www.greenbuildingpress.co.uk/article.php?article_id=2116
Two local girls are in the baton twirling Scotland Squad for this year and will be competing in the European Championships in Slovenia in July. Both the Scotland Group and Scotland Team took first place at the British Open in Nottingham in May. Our local ‘starlets’ Martina Bell (Brunstane) and Emma Robertson (Piersfield), both age 16, have been training hard for months. The very best of luck to them! Currently, they are entirely self funded, so if anybody would like to support or sponsor them, I can put you in touch.
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
