Murrayfield Community Council meeting 1 November 2011

The community council for the Murrayfield area meets on Tuesday 1 November 2011 at Murrayfield Parish Church Hall 2b Ormidale Terrace at 8.20p.m.

 

This is the agenda:-

Agenda 1Nov11

And here are the draft minutes of the last community council meeting in September:-

Minutes 14 Sep 11

Liberton and District Community Council meet tonight

The Liberton and District Community Council meet this evening at the Liberton Kirk Halls, Kirk Gate at 7p.m.

 

This is the agenda, and you will see that a representative from Scottish Water is attending the meeting:-

 

 
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And here are the minutes from the last community council meeting:-

 

 
ldccmins1109261

Five things you need to know today

 

Happy Halloween! Hope your pumpkins are as ghoulish as these ones we saw at the weekend…

Has the coalition administration at the City Chambers now run its course? According to The Edinburgh Evening News article it seems that it might well have entered a new phase at the very least. The administration has been run as a coalition since 2007 under an agreement signed between the LibDem and the SNP groups. But the SNP had indicated before the council meeting last Thursday that they would not vote with the administration, leading it seems to some difficulties which may mean some dispute resolution moves early this week.

The Herald has a great article about the lack of wifi on the Edinburgh to Glasgow train service, and concludes that although First Scotrail carried out a feasibility study last year, which has not been made public, there is no legal obligation on the operator to provide wifi. We love wifi. We sometimes travel to Glasgow, but apart from the exorbitant rail fares the other factor which encourages us to use the bus is the free wifi. What about you? Do you use the train? Would you like wifi to be provided?

If you live in the New Town and like to shop local then you might be interested in the article in The Broughton Spurtle where they explain that number 28 Howe Street may yet become a Sainsbury’s Local.

The Daily Record reported yesterday the story of the death of Martin Douglas last Hogmanay outside The Playhouse, and the fight by his widow to find out the truth behind the hit-and-run incident involving a car driven by an off-duty police officer. An investigation instructed by Lothian and Borders Police into the incident will be carried out by officers from an outside force, Central Scotland Police, and will begin today.

Today marks the beginning of Dyslexia Awareness Week  highlighting the fact that one in ten of us encounter problems with this to some degree.

Here a young boy called Alfie tells us about his experience:-

Rugby – Watsonians v Stewart’s-Melville, RBS Premier 2, 29 October 2011

Watsonians welcomed undefeated Premier 2 leaders, Stewart’s-Melville to Myreside on a breezy, but bright Saturday afternoon. With Stew-Mel guaranteed a place in the league play-offs, there were whisperings (faint hopes, maybe…) that they might be tempted to take their foot off the gas and cruise their last three matches. They were indeed handed their first defeat of the season, but it wasn’t down to any shortcomings on their part. Watsonians were quickly off the mark and were 6-0 ahead after less than 10 minutes with two penalties from scrum-half, Brian Walls. Stew-Mel’s new Antipodean import, Kaide Whiting pulled three points back for the visitors before Matt Hannay went over for the opening try after 20 minutes. With the kick missed the score stood at 9-8 to Stewart’s-Melville.

A few minutes later, Walls put another kick between the sticks to take the hosts back into the lead 9-8.

Throughout the first half, referee Lloyd Linton had had a few words with both sets of player and captains all through the first half about what he saw as negative play, slowing the ball down at rucks and just generally too many penalties. This ‘wee chat’ culminated in Stew-Mel’s Reece O’Leary falling foul of the warnings and he was sent to the sin bin a few minutes before half-time.

With the score at 9-8 in favour of Watsonians at the start of the second half, the game was fairly evenly poised for an entertaining second period. Stew-Mel started the ball rolling with another penalty which seemed to galvanise the home side and first Harris Grant and then Marcus Di Rollo tore through a rather weak defence to score a try apiece, both of which Walls converted. With the score at 23-11 after 15 minutes Watsonians were looking fairly comfortable. Another try for Di Rollo took the home side almost out of sight with the score at 30-11 before Mike Hanning slotted a penalty over for Stew-Mel. This woke the visitors up somewhat and sub Angus Lean galloped in less than two minutes later to score under the posts.

The successful conversion brought Stewarts-Melville up to within 9 points of Watsonians who were forced to defend quite deep at times (pictured) before Richard Borthwick scored the Inverleith team’s third try with less than a minute to go. With Mike Hanning adding the conversion, the ref blew up for full time to bring the match to a successful conclusion for Watsonians 30 points to 28.

Watsonians are starting to come good at the sharp end off the before the league split and, with their pack pushing the Stew-Mel forwards all over the pitch, they lookied strong in the set-piece department.

Stewart’s-Melville are, so far, the only team guaranteed a slot with 40 points, and with Hamilton and Watsonians on 33, Jed-Forest on 31 and Selkirk on 30, nobody can sit back and rest on their laurels. Even Biggar on 24 points have a mathematical chance of a place if they win their last two matches with a bonus point and two of the teams above them fail to score. ‘It’s all to play for’, as they say in the best sporting circles!

Report and Photo – John Preece
Web - http://www.photoboxgallery.com/jlp-photography

Public Meeting 1 November 2011

 

A public meeting will be held in Meadowbank Sports Centre at 6pm on Tuesday 1 November 2011 to report on the progress of the campaign against The City of Edinburgh City Council’s plans to privatise services. Councillors from the East Edinburgh area have been invited to discuss their party’s position and answer questions from their constituents.

 

 

 

Last week councillors were due to decide whether refuse collection, recycling, and parks maintenance should be moved to the private sector, but at the last minute the decision was deferred for one month. The council is also expected to decide on the future of Integrated Facilities Management in November and Corporate and Transactional Services in December.

 

 

 

The organisers say:-”The meeting will also give members of the public an opportunity to speak to public sector workers who plan to strike on 30th November. Representatives from PCS and UNISON will be attending to explain why their members are being balloted for strike action, and to answer questions from attendees. It is hoped that this will give members of the public an opportunity to form their own opinions about the strike.”

 

 

 

The meeting has been organised by Save Our Services East Edinburgh, a local campaign group which was started by local residents in July this year. The group is not affiliated to any political party or other organisation.

Edinburgh protest against land grabs

by Sunnah Khan

 

Oxfam campaigners rallied together outside Edinburgh’s St John’s church today to raise awareness about the issue of land grabs in third world countries as part of their bigger campaign GROW: an ongoing campaign attempting to highlight and address ways of overcoming global food poverty.

 

The campaign focuses specifically on land grabs in Uganda where Oxfam carried out investigations this summer and published a report last month which detailed how at least 22,000 people were found to have been evicted, some violently, off their land without consent or compensation in order to make way for the UK-based New Forests Company (NFC) plantations.

 

Following the report, this week saw the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) filing a compliant against the body who certified the NFC. “The FSC complaint to its certifiers shows clearly that they too have concerns that something went wrong in Uganda,” said Katia Maia, head of Oxfam’s Grow campaign.

 

The aim then is to put pressure on such companies to act ethically. Adam Butler, Oxfam’s campaign organiser in Edinburgh said: “Oxfam is not against companies buying land. Investment can be a good thing however our governments and the governments of those countries must make sure they are acting responsibly so that when land is bought it is not done in a way that harms the interests of the poor, especially for those that currently depend on that land to farm, harming the ability of the people of that country to produce food.”

Occupy Edinburgh Protesters call for Robin Hood tax

Approximately 80 members of Occupy Edinburgh and their supporters marched through Edinburgh calling for the introduction of a ‘Robin Hood ‘ tax.

The protesters, many of who have been camping in St Andrew Square for the last fortnight, marched along George Street, Princes Street and the Mound. The marchers stopped for a brief rally at the foot of The Mound before finishing with a protest outside the RBS headquarters.

Among those donning outlaw gear for the protest was 22 year-old Edinburgh Napier student, Eric Nelson. Originally from Boston, Massachusetts, Nelson found inspiration from events in his home country. Indeed his mother has been heavily involved with the Occupy Boston movement.

On today’s march, which was one of hundreds around the globe to raise awareness, Nelson is convinced that some form of Robin Hood tax is vital. Nelson said :- “The Robin Hood tax is a very good first step in the redistribution of wealth and taking that complete power the 1% has over the 99% has to offset it a bit.

“It’s a first step in thinking about a new system. We have to accept that the current system does not work and have a complete overhaul.  We need to take the monetary system down and, through consensus, find a system that works for us. ”

During today’s march it was hard not to notice many calls from members of the public to ‘get a job’. Nelson is acutely aware of the image problem the group has. Nelson said:- “Right now the public perception seems to be that we are hippies with no jobs. ”

However Nelson and his fellow campaigners are determined to stick it out and turn opinions around. He said:- “Complacency is a huge problem, ignorance is our biggest enemy. The combination of complacency and ignorance, how people are more than happy to be ignorant, how people refuse to address the issues; we are here to make them see that these are problems they can’t ignore.”

Nelson feels that part of the problem with public perception lies in negative media coverage. He is at pains to point out that the movement covers a broad spectrum of views and is not merely an ant-capitalist group.

Nelson said:- “One thing  I really don’t like about the media coverage of occupation  movements is that it is being branded as anti-capitalist. I cannot stress this enough; we are not anti-capitalist – we are clearly not pro capitalist but we are not necessarily anti. There are many forms of capitalism – we live in a society of consumer capitalism, and yes we are against that because it doesn’t work for us. We want to change the system and that could come in the form of another type of capitalism. ”

Rugby – Edinburgh v Leinster 28 October 2011

Friday night’s match in Round 7 of the RaboDirect PRO12 League saw Edinburgh boosted by the return of five International players to the starting line-up. Visitors Leinster, current Champions also had a few returnees, so it looked like a good match in prospect for the 3,500 spectators.

It took the hosts four minutes to score the first points, after securing ball from a turn-over in their own half, with a Greg Laidlaw penalty. However, Leinster only took 3 minutes to draw back level, Jonny Sexton being the scorer, with a penalty kick awarded for off-side in the Edinburgh 22 – a repeated infringement which was to cost Edinburgh by the end of the match. He followed this up with another penalty 10 minutes later to put Leinster in the lead 6-3.

17 minutes into the game, an inside ball from Laidlaw to Tim Visser, saw the big Dutchman crash through the visitors defence to score the first try of the evening, and, with Laidlaw converting, the hosts were now 10-6 up. Again, Leinster struck back almost immediately with another penalty from Sexton, followed up on the 25 minute mark, by scrum-half, Isaac Boss ‘fell’ through a big hole in the Edinburgh defence to put Leinster 16-10 ahead. A trade of penalties before the interval saw the half time score 19-13 in favour of the visitors.

The second half started well for the Edinburgh side, with Visser again crashing through tackles, and both Kearney brothers to score Edinburgh’s, and his, second try of the match. With Laidlaw converting, Edinburgh now lead by the one point, 20-19.

After another exchange of penalties a deep penetration into the host 22 had the ball out to Leo Auva’a, who had an easy couple of strides to the line for try in the corner.

By the 74th minute, Leinster had stretched away to a ten point lead before Matt Scott (pictured) was put through to score following some incisive running by Nick de Luca, and with Laidlaw missing the conversion, the score stood at 33-28 to Leinster. A late penalty, however, and a bit of creative time wasting, put the Eire men 36-28 ahead with only ten seconds to go.

With a gathered kick-off, Boss stuck the ball in the crowd to end the match Leinster 36, Edinburgh 28.

Overall a better performance from the Edinburgh side, but too many penalties given away probably lost them the game and the Capital side are now languishing in eleventh place in the RaboDirect league, four points ahead of Aironi and with only two wins from seven. Not so good.

RaboDirect Man-of-the-Match was again Tim Visser – who qualifies for Scotland (on residency) next June
Edinburgh’s next home match is in the Heinekin Cup against French side, Racing Metro 92, and given French side’s legendary lack of form away from home, hopefully they can manage a home win.

Report and Photo – John Preece
Web – http://www.photoboxgallery.com/jlp-photography

Five things you need to know today

One of Elizabeth Taylor’s eight honeymoon beds will go on sale at Lyon and Turnbull in Edinburgh next week. Reuters explains more about the history of all the items in the auction.

More shopping news for you. Primark has told STV Local that they plan to open on 10 December 2011 on Princes Street. What is happening about Apple we wonder…..

An Edinburgh woman who starved her dog so much that it died when it was given food has been fined £250 and banned from owning animals for two years reports The Press Association. 

Today is Feed the Birds day.
And just in case you don’t know how to do that here is the video to show you…

Come dine with the birds from The RSPB on Vimeo.

And finally Hogmanay is just round the corner and The Scotsman has details of the full line-up including rather excitingly, Primal Scream……

Be safe with Fireworks

As Lothian and Borders Fire and Rescue Service gears up for one of their busiest nights of the year they are urging the public to heed key fire safety messages to make sure this year’s Guy Fawkes celebrations stay safe.

The Service has been working closely with partners including Lothian and Borders Police and Councils to deliver fire safety advice and discourage unsupervised bonfires which can be a risk to the public and greatly increase the number of calls to the fire service at this time of year.

Community Safety Manager for the Service, David Lockhart, said: “This is always an exceptionally busy time of year for us although in recent years we have seen a reduction in calls which is good news. This has been linked to the vital community safety and prevention work carried out by fire crews and partner organisations leading up to bonfire night, with a helping hand from the wet weather which kept the number of fires down.

“In a bid to continue this trend we’ve been delivering fire safety information and advice to schoolchildren, shops selling fireworks and to the public to highlight the dangers associated with fireworks and unsupervised bonfires.”

Every year, hundreds of people in the UK are injured by fires and fireworks.

David continued: “People can be seriously hurt by misusing fireworks which are very similar to explosives. Those most at risk are unsupervised children, particularly those who play with fire or who get too close to bonfires. At this time of year the Fire and Rescue Service is regularly called out to extinguish uncontrolled or badly sited bonfires, putting pressure on resources immediately available for more serious incidents, including house fires and road traffic accidents, where our life saving equipment is really needed.

“The lead up to Guy Fawkes Night is our busiest period and along with the Police, Councils and others we will continue to work together to reduce the number of incidents and accidents we are called out to.

“We want everyone to enjoy this time of year but stay safe and stick to supervised bonfires and firework displays”

Stay safe:

Bonfires should be set up at least 18 metres from any building, and must be no taller than 2.5 metres.

Burning rubber, plastics, and painted surfaces – materials found in many bonfires – produces poisonous smoke that blows into neighbouring properties and across roads. In addition, piles of rubbish or waste are often used as a refuge by animals so, when lit, wildlife can be injured or killed.

Firework code

• Only buy fireworks marked BS 7114
• Keep fireworks in a closed box
• Follow the instructions on each firework
• Light them at arm’s length using a taper
• Stand well back
• Always supervise children around fireworks
• Light sparklers one at a time and wear gloves
• Keep pets indoors
• Don’t drink alcohol if setting off fireworks
• Never go near a lit firework. Even if it has gone off it could still explode
• Never put fireworks in your pocket or throw them
• Never give sparklers to children under five
• Don’t set off noisy fireworks after 11pm

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