Edinburgh councillor blogs – Cllr Maureen Child

Maureen Child is the Labour councillor for Portobello/Craigmillar who regularly blogs for us.

On Monday, the fabulous Edinburgh Tool Library will be launching their new service in Portobello Library and will be there with their Tool Box between 4.30pm and 7pm! It’s the answer to the DIY person’s prayers. Don’t buy expensive kit you may only use for one project – borrow it instead! Find out more at Portobello Library from 4:30pm to 7pm every Monday from 26 June onwards.

While I am not nearly as useful to anybody as a tool library, I will be there and atPortobello Library too – for face to face consultation meetings with constituents most Mondays at 7pm, just as the Tool Library is finishing.

Give us a call or mail on the contact details below. Of course you now have three more keen new Councillors to contact and we are working well as a team to make sure you get the best possible service. They have their own regular surgery times, places and spaces and we four have ensured we don’t overlap and have also checked we won’t be away on holiday at the same time over the summer.

We have much more in common than the few issues that will divide us as our local rainbow coalition.

Contact details for Kate, Mary and Callum are on the Council website and I’ll CC them in one more time.

If you mail us all, we agreed that the first person to get to it in their inbox will take the issue forward with Council officers and copy the others in. We agreed that this seemed to be working fairly well, but do let us know if it isn’t working from your point of view!

I dropped in for a customary cuppa in The White House on Monday and took in a drop-in information event for the public and interested parties on about the up-coming proposal for ’21st Century Homes’ housing in the Craigmillar Town Centre, a new long-awaited development by the Council itself.

Officers provided information on the proposal and were gathering comments. The intention is to submit a planning application by the end of the month. I am back on the Council’s planning committee, so have to hold my tongue on what I might think of it, once the application is submitted. Mary, Kate and Callum are not on the planning committee so won’t have that constraint.

I will be attending a Board Meeting of Castle Community Bank (CCB) on Friday afternoon. Ours is a community based financial cooperative, a credit union offering a good place for people’s savings and fast affordable loans when most needed, keeping people out of the clutches of loan sharks.

I want to hang on there for a while to make sure we absolutely stick to that core principle of meeting the needs of the financially excluded.

One of our original branches is in a good place on Niddrie Mains Road, right opposite Craigmillar Library. Our Board Chair made the big time with a piece in the New Statesman. Click here.

We four Councillors had complaints about caravans, motor homes and camper-vans parking at the foot of Kings Road. The Council and Police established some of them actually belong to local residents. Environmental Wardens visit the site daily. Recently, they found four caravans and one motor home were occupied by people on short stay visits. At the time there were no concerns about antisocial behaviour, the welfare of the residents in the vehicles, or littering or fly-tipping. They have as much legal right to park there as anyone else’

If you have any concerns about it, do contact the environmental warden team leader Michelle Hood 0131 529 3989.

Any new enquiries, enquires or concerns, the generic email address is northeast.environmentalwardens@edinburgh.gov.uk

Local hero Graham Henderson, a Trustee of Jack Kane Community Centre collected a volunteer award. Recently “Graham filmed ways of growing produce in the garden, uploading the films to show how good food can be when grown sustainably within the community, and inspired many more people to become involved.

“Graham’s desire to see produce grown, cultivated, and eaten within the community assists families who reside in poverty to gain new knowledge, keep within a budget and enjoy food they may not otherwise taste. Graham will travel miles in a specially adapted car to take part in our activities, represent us at events and lead 2 drop in sessions for community gardens too. With a can do attitude Graham undertakes everything with enthusiasm and passion.” More about the fabulous Edinburgh volunteers here:

http://www.volunteeredinburgh.org.uk/organise/Blog_Article_Depository/iva_2017_programme_a5_web_ready.pdf

Community Compass are holding free mindfulness taster sessions for anyone that might benefit. People can attend all three sessions, or just one or two. The sessions are at the White House on Niddrie Mains Road and will be from 11am – 12.30pm, followed by lunch. Dates: Thursdays 29 June, and the 6 July. There was one last week. If you have any further questions, contact Helena Richards, Manager, Community Compass on 07920 267564.

There is obviously a huge concern about tower block living, following the appalling fire in London at Grenfell Tower. The lead officer Council’s housing service, Michael Thain and Edinburgh’s Chief Fire and Rescue Officer, Kenny Rogers gave all Elected representatives, Councillors MPs and MSPs a briefing first thing on Monday morning and an opportunity to answer questions about situation here in Edinburgh and in our own local areas. People have been emailing me about this. Click here for the full information we have sent out this week:

http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/downloads/file/9498/fire_safety_in_tower_blocks

The brilliant Craigmillar Literacy Trust who run the truly fabulous Books for Babies in Craigmillar Library are looking for new Board Members. Find our more here:

http://www.craigmillarliteracytrust.org.uk/news/latest.html

On Saturday 30 September, Portobello Timebank will be holding a Repair Café in Tribe Porty. The idea is that members of the public drop in with something they need fixed, and the Timebank will field a number of their members who will be on hand to tackle the repairs. They’re looking for volunteers who could offer the following skills:

Furniture repair;

Bike servicing /repair

Set-ups for phones, tablets

Clothing repair

Upcycling clothing/accessories

Tool sharpening / maintenance

Jewellery fixing / pearls restrung

Small electrical repairs

Please reply to info@portobellotimebank.co.uk if you think you can help out. And if you have any fixing skills that Portobello Timebank haven’t thought of that can be delivered in or in front of Tribe Porty, by all means do let them know!

The 35th AGM and 349th meeting of Portobello Community Council will be held on Monday 26 June 2017 at 7:30 pm in Portobello Baptist Church Hall, 185 Portobello High Street. Meetings are open to the public and all are welcome.

35th AGM Agenda

http://www.portobellocc.org/Minutes/2017/Meeting%20Papers%20260617/35thAGMAgenda.pdf

349th Meeting Agenda

http://www.portobellocc.org/Minutes/2017/Meeting%20Papers%20260617/349thMeetingAgenda.pdf

And if you complete Portobello Community Council’s Quick Porty Prize Survey, you are in with a chance to win £100 cash. Click here:

http://www.portobellocc.org/prizesurvey/ Prize Draw Rules: Open to PortobelloCommunity Council area residents aged 8+ and only one entry per person. The winner will be drawn from all the valid entries at Portobello Village Show on Sunday 3 September.

There! – I have defeated the technology this time, even if it did take me two days longer than usual! I aim to ‘publish’ Updates on a Wednesday. Thank you for all the positive feedback, request to include positive local news and emails. I’ve still got quite a few of those to catch up on…..

Best wishes for a great weekend!

Maureen

maureen.child@edinburgh.gov.uk