Bross Bagels
Many readers have read our top story on Monday about the Portobello-based bagel business which faces some financial problems after a background of difficult trading conditions.
East London Street Petition
The residents of East London Street have had enough of buses passing their front doors on the cobbled surface on their street.
This week they are presenting a petition to the Transport and Environment Committee asking for a change which they estimate they have been putting to the council for at least three years.
We first wrote about two petitions being presented to the council in 2018 here.
The petition reads: “For at least three years, we have sought a reduction in the number of out of service buses using East London Street to leave and return to the Lothian Buses garage on Annandale Street. East London Street has been used by these buses and other traffic to avoid road works and closures associated with the Trams to Newhaven and other transport projects in the vicinity. Despite promises of improvement, out of service buses are continuing to use East London Street from very early in the morning until late at night. This usage is creating significant nuisance in terms of both noise and vibration for the residents of East London Street especially at night when their sleep is being disturbed on a nightly basis. This is having a detrimental impact on their health and well-being.
“The number of vehicles using East London Street, as a result of the diversions required by the Trams and other projects, has resulted in significant damage to the largely setted road surface adding to noise and vibration levels. Given continuing city centre road construction works and its location just outside the boundary of the new Low Emissions Zone, there is concern that the increased traffic on East London Street will not return to the levels experienced prior to its use as a primary diversion for the Trams Project. This is of concern to both the residents of East London Street and to the parents of children at St Mary’s RC Primary School.
“Although the primary focus of this petition is on East London Street, there is a similar problem on many of the other residential streets in the New Town again mainly because of the use of these streets by out of service buses and other traffic being diverted to avoid road closures and congestion.
We, the undersigned, seek the following actions by the City of Edinburgh Council:
· An immediate and sustained reduction in the number of buses and other heavy vehicles using this street to 2019 levels; in particular between the hours of 7.00pm and 7.00am
· A traffic count to determine the current volume and speed of vehicles using East London Street to inform decisions about improving traffic management on this predominately residential street.
· Urgent repairs to the road surface to rectify the damage caused by the use of East London Street as a primary diversion route for the Trams project
· A longer-term plan to better manage the traffic on this street both in terms of number and speed of vehicles, which will effectively mitigate the impact on residents and pupils at the primary school.
· Replacement of setts with tarmac in the central running lanes to reduce noise and vibration as has already been undertaken in the adjacent London Street.”
Scran Fir Bees
Photographer Alan Simpson got his drone out to take some shots of the Scran Fir Bees installation near the Red Bridge on Ferry Road.
North Edinburgh Arts commissioned me to produce a landscape piece for pollinators in 2021 which I developed as the first iteration of Scrand Fir Bees on Ferry Road.
This is designed to be viewed ideally from the top of buses, or from the Red Bridge, but is also good for ground level passers by. It is also conceived for the non-human, ie the pollinators such as bees, butterflies, hoverflies, ladybirds, etc. Sadly as you are probably aware, the UK has lost 60% of our pollinators in 20 years. pollinator stats over last 20 years. This has serious implications for us humans as one in three bites of food is insect pollinated, contributing £690 million to the UK agricultural industry.
Fringe shows
What have you seen at the Fringe that you really enjoyed? Send us your reviews. There are too many shows for our reviewers to get to and we are interested to know what audiences are loving.
We recorded interviews with shows which had been highlighted to us:
Our August issue
Our August newspaper is on the streets now and we hope you like it.
Our cover story is about Rachel, with a strapline to our exclusive story about the leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats.
And inside we have a feature from George Mair who is writing for us for the first time this month – and loads of sport from both Nigel Duncan and Bill Lothian.
If you would like to receive a copy just a wee bit ahead of everyone else then please subscribe by clicking on the image below. (And do read about Rachel and the Barbie story here)
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
