Home News Edinburgh councillor blogs – Councillor Maureen Child

Edinburgh councillor blogs – Councillor Maureen Child

December 4, 2015 10:02 am

Maureen_Child_17_200x200

Dear All

You will be very welcome to join Tribe Porty on Sunday, 6 December for their Christmas Makers Fair! 12 noon to 6pm 19 Windsor Place: pic.twitter.com/G7exLmUwIg

The Holyrood Boxing Gym is organising a food bank collection in association with The Trussel Trust for families throughout Edinburgh. From 8-18 December at 146 Duddingston Road West. See here: pic.twitter.com/SFpbRLd9O8 and here: http://chronicleonline.net/2015/12/03/christmas-foodbank-collection/

‘Portobello Loves Circus’ event at Full Cirqle on Saturday 12 December 6.30pm to 9.30pm. Doors open 6pm. A fun filled evening of performances. To book go to their website: www.fullcirqle.org.uk Tickets £10 single, £7 concessions, £30 family. More here:https://www.facebook.com/events/1605662766322811/permalink/1605662779656143/

Congratulations to Edinburgh College Community Gardens and Orchards volunteers. They won the UK EAUC Green Gown Student Engagement Award and the International Student Engagement Award. Congratulations to all! Fantastic news! More here:

https://www.facebook.com/MiltonRoadCommunityGarden/posts/855332474577340

A link to some of the fabulous award-winning animation work that Mark Carr of the Arts and Environment Project has enabled local kids to do this year: https://www.youtube.com/user/CMartsandenvironment

Based at Castlebrae Business Centre, Cre8te Opportunities’ award-winning fabulous Digital Skills project team are running classes on a Wednesday morning 9.30am till 12.30pm and Wednesday afternoon 1.30pm till 4.30pm. They have trained over 1500 people since they started 3 years ago. If you are interested in attending any of these great classes, do contact Clare on 0131 661 8888. More here: http://chronicleonline.net/2015/12/03/interested-in-learning-basic-computer-skills/

Silver Robin is a lively and light-hearted meeting place for older people to share and discuss interests, views, experiences and connect with other like-minded people. You can find find useful information, new ideas, have fun, and when necessary, have a good grumble. It’s your space to publish articles, memories, personal anecdotes. It’s run by a self-styled ‘oldie’ who knows that life can be lonely. Click on here: http://www.silverrobin.co.uk/

Equalities Ambassadors Wanted! Are you passionate about equalities and championing human rights? Then here is an opportunity to volunteer! pic.twitter.com/CvpM1idnwC

Strength in the Community is a resource that has started in Portobello for people affected by someone else’s alcohol/drug use or addiction, including gambling. Talking about this may help, or you may help others. Information is on hand that could be useful. Talking about these issues may help those affected, and useful information is readily available. They meet every first and third Monday of the month at 6pm to 8pm in Portobello Library upstairs. The next drop-in dates are the 7^th and 21^st December. If you would like more information please phone 07419 919 336 or emailstrengthinthecommunity@gmail.com.

Portobello Amnesty International Group will provide cards for the ‘Write for Rights 2015’ Greeting Card campaign to support people whose basic human rights are being attacked. We hope you might be able to fill out one of the cards at our stall this month at the Portobello Organic market in Brighton Park on 5^thDecember. We are a fairly active and friendly group and welcome anyone to also come to our group meetings. Our next meeting is on Monday 14^th December at 7:30pm at Portobello Old Parish Church in Bellfield Street, where anyone with an interest in Amnesty International is welcome to join us for the meeting, a cuppa and some Christmas nibbles. If you would like more information about the above, please phone on 07462 271 808.

On Monday evening at Portobello High School, it was good to talk through what Portobello Community Council and partners might do with the feedback from young people about living in Portobello and what would make it better. A summary of the consultation carried out by the community council and Council’s community learning and development service online at portobellocc.org/Minutes/2015/PFYP/PFYP_report.pdf. Any questions? Send them to:sfyp@portobellocc.org

Every Caring Christmas Tree bought from Bethany raises vital funds for the Edinburgh Winter Care Shelter to bring rough sleepers in from the cold. No-one should have to sleep rough this winter. You can make a difference. With increasing numbers of people seeking shelter over the winter months, it’s a sad fact that this service is needed more than ever. Over the last 2 years Bethany have seen an 86% increase in numbers of people with nowhere else to go and this year they are already busier than ever. They need your help more than ever. Please buy your tree form Bethany or give a donation:

http://www.caringchristmastrees.com/edinburgh/

New Adult Education Classes at Portobello High School – January 2016. Coming soon to your community, booking goes live on 9 December, places are limited so log on and create your online account. Website is here: https://www.joininedinburgh.org/enrol/venue-programmes/portobello-high-school/ For more information about classes please contact Ellie: ellie.forgan@ea.edin.sch.uk

Saturday mornings with Portobello Parkrun in Figgate Park is huge successful and a great part of local community life. There have been one or two local complaints which the organisers do try their best to address: “I’d like to thank everyone for listening to the pre run brief and heeding our weekly requests to be considerate of other park users and each other, as well as staying on the paths and generally being a super bunch” and “Just to reiterate my post during the week, please park considerately in the local area. There’s usually plenty of parking on Baileyfield Road (near the finish point) rather than inconveniencing local residents. If you can get to parkrun by public transport or under your own steam – even better!” Full report of last week’s run here: http://www.parkrun.org.uk/portobello/news/2015/11/28/event-32-28-november-2015-thanks/

Thanks for the feedback during the week. If you are reading this through Chronicle Online, and if the links don’t work, I have left the full text in the link and –hopefully – you can highlight, copy and paste that into a search engine to get it to work. If all else fails, do get in touch with me direct!

Don’t forget to take part in the Edinburgh Budget Consultation (see below). The deadline has been extend a week from 10 December until 17 December.

Please note, I won’t be at my local surgeries on Monday – neither at Sandy’s/Castleview Community Centre at 5.30pm or at Portobello Library for 7pm – because of another commitment, but will be back on Monday 14 December. And my other contact details are below.

Have a great weekend!

Best wishes

Maureen