Five things you need to know today
Today the news is about an emergency session of the licensing board on Friday, two sad occasions at St Giles’ Cathedral today and tomorrow and a recap to our stories – plus a Black Friday deal.
Unlawful premises no longer to be used to house homeless people
A special meeting will be held at 10am this morning in the City Chambers when applications for licences for a dozen or so Houses in Multiple Occupancy (HMOs) will be considered. An HMO is legally defined as a property where three or more unrelated people share facilities such as a kitchen or living space and the council runs the licensing scheme for these properties.
The problem is that in trying to fulfil its duty to house homeless people in temporary accommodation the council has used unlawful HMOs which do not comply with legal requirements on shared facilities or room sizes, and this has now come to the point where council funding cannot be used in this way any longer.
Read more about this here – it affects up to 700 people in the city who have been living in such premises.
EICC resignation
In response to an article we published earlier in the week, the decision by the EICC boss to resign has been described as unsurprising.
Cllr Chas Booth, co-convener of the Green councillors group, said: “Greens have long been outspoken that the EICC should be doing more to align with the Council’s priorities, particularly in relation to their hosting of arms manufacturers and climate criminals, so this resignation does not come as a complete surprise.
As the Council continues to review all of our arms-length organisations, the recruitment of a new EICC Chief Executive should be used as an opportunity to ensure closer alignment with the strategic objectives of the council. If that is not possible then the council may need to ask what purpose continued ownership of the EICC serves.”
Read the original article here.
Janey Godley
Comedian Janey Godley’s funeral will be held in Glasgow on Saturday. Her daughter Ashley Storrie explained earlier in the month that the funeral cortege will pass through Edinburgh this afternoon marking her mother’s “final appearance” in her adopted home of Edinburgh.
The hearse will arrive at 2.30pm at the top of the Lawnmarket and will then pause for a short time outside St Giles’ Cathedral where the 100 strong Soundhouse Choir (otherwise known as “Big Jeanette & Aw The Sandras”) will sing Amazing Grace as the hearse approaches.
After a short time for reflection, the choir will then sing One Day Like This by Elbow.
The hearse will then move off down Cockburn Street and Market Street after which it will travel to Glasgow for the funeral on Saturday. And the choir will sing on with a short excerpt from the set they will perform at the Soundhouse Winter Festival taking place between today and Monday. Songs will include Moving on Up, Tender, Lifted (The River Will Never Run Dry) and Sunshine on Leith.
Details of the Winter Festival here.
Saturday – Memorial service for Alex Salmond
St Giles’ will also be central to a memorial service on Saturday morning for former First Minister, the Rt Hon Alex Salmond, led by the Reverend Dr George Whyte. Mr Salmond died suddenly in Northern Macedonia in October.
Dr Whyte is the former principal clerk to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland and chaplain to HM The King.
On Saturday the music will be performed by Dougie MacLean who may sing Caledonia, The Proclaimers singing Cap in Hand, and Sheena Wellington who sang A Man’s A Man For A’ That at the opening of The Scottish Parliament. She also took part in Mr Salmond’s Fringe show, Salmond Unleashed.
It is expected that many of the invited guests will include former political colleagues of Mr Salmond, including First Minister, John Swinney, who served as Deputy First Minister to Mr Salmond.
campaign as the first full week of the general election campaign got underway. PHOTO Alan Simpson
The Edinburgh Reporter Black Friday Deals
All of our newspaper subscriptions and advertising deals are on sale between now and midnight on Monday 2 December. These are temporary Black Friday deals to tempt you into supporting our local independent journalism.
Click here or on the image below
