Public debate on environment services – 10 November 2011

Council to Allow Cyclists to use Footpaths

The City of Edinburgh Council’s Transport, Infrastructure and Environment Committee met yesterday at the City Chambers.

All motions from the agenda were agreed, and then the reports were discussed in more detail, most notably:

(8) Carriageway and Footway Capital Investment

(11) Supported Bus Service 18: Renewal of Contract

(18) A8 Glasgow Road and Granton – Commencement of Statutory Procedures to Permit Use of Footways by Cyclists

(19) Traffic Calming (Road Humps) Consultation – Buckstone Phase 2 and Broughton Zone Edinburgh.

The Carriageway and Footway Capital Investment (Report 8) was agreed. This report recommended approval for a proposed capital investment programme to repair roads and pavements in the city between October 2011 and March 2012. Councillor Child queried how funding for repairs and road works is to be allocated – as many streets need attention and only a fraction of these will be attended to – while Councillor Hawkins questioned the implications for traders on Portobello High Street of work on carriageways. Hawkins asked for information on whether the street would be closed during the works. Councillor Mowat also voiced her concerns over the state of roads on which work has been delayed due to the tram works.

It was agreed that local councillors will be consulted on street lists for their own wards, to ensure works do not interrupt other repairs or maintenance in the areas, and that a scheme of prioritisation is in place, mainly based on the physical condition of the roads and the amount of traffic.

Supported Bus Service 18: Renewal of Contract (Report 11) sought approval from the Committee of the award on the contract for the number 18 bus, which is the city’s main route between the Royal Infirmary and the Gyle Centre. The present contract for the service was negotiated with Lothian Buses, which expires in July 2011. This report recommends that the tender for the four year contract goes to First Scotland East’s tender, as it achieved a weighted cost/quality score of 66.11,  in comparison to Lothian Buses score of 55.29. Issues were raised about confusion for passengers – the same service number will operate on two bus operators.

Approval was granted by the Committee, after the convener Councillor Mackenzie explained that the contract can still be changed, or even terminated, if it does not work out in the first three months, and that a report will be issued on the effectiveness of the service within three months of its start date, which will ensure standards are being met.

Report 18 requested the Committee’s approval to permit cyclists to use footpaths  on the North footpath beside the A8 Glasgow Road between Dechmont Road and Maybury Road, and also on various footways adjacent to West Granton Road, Waterfront Broadway, Waterfront Avenue and West Shore Road.

Councillors agreed to the changes, both of which will link existing cycle paths in the areas to form a continuous off-road cycle route. Councillor Buchanan also assured the Committee that cyclists will have to adhere to designated footpaths only, so as to prevent any danger to pedestrians.

Report 19 also referred to carriageways, this time the road humps in Buckstone Phase 2 and Broughton Zone. It is proposed that the traffic cushions already on this road – put in place to allow ambulances to travel more easily – be removed and replaced by road humps. This is in response to the public consultation on traffic calming in Buckstone and Broughton, which showed that lack of road humps only encouraged on-street parking. Councillor Buchanan advised that ambulance services would be consulted of any changes to these routes, and that was agreed.

Edinburgh Council goes Electric

Today the Council has launched a trial of electric scooters. Environmental Leader, Councillor Robert Aldridge, is trialling one of the vehicles provided at no cost to the council by Robert Steele from Go Zippyr, the company who makes the special scooters.

State-of-the-art electric scooters will also be trialled by staff from the City of Edinburgh Council in a bid to help reduce carbon emissions and find new ways of sustainable travel.

The four month scheme, which starts in May, aims to collect information on the economic and environmental benefits of the electric scooters.

During the trial, workers will be asked to keep a log book of their experiences and comment on how they found driving the vehicles.

Staff will use the bikes to commute to and from work, go out on Council business and for personal use.

The project, which is free to the Council, also hopes to demonstrate the different ways Edinburgh can make a contribution to reducing carbon emissions and meet Scottish Government targets on climate change. The trial also fits in with the Council’s Sustainable Travel Plan (2009-12) which looks at how the Council can improve its environmental performance.

We spoke to Councillor Aldridge who seems excited about the project:-

Councillor Robert Aldridge 1 March 2011 by PMStephenmstephen”>PMStephen

Greenest car park in Edinburgh!

The Knight Residence has declared their car park to be the greenest in the city. From October 2010, the luxury five star serviced apartments in the city centre has been charging guests £5 per night to use the car park with 100% of the profit donated to Trees for Scotland.

Energy conscious General Manager, Colin Stone, has set guests the challenge of raising enough money to plant 3,000 trees over the next ten years. This means that not only will the apartments be carbon neutral today, but the contributions will offset carbon generated by the business since the day it opened in August 1999.

The company estimate that planting 3,000 trees by 31st December 2019 will offset the approximately 2,181,000 kg of CO2 generated by the business over preceding 20 years. Anyone parking at The Knight Residence for four nights or more will have contributed a whole tree, and will receive a certificate to remind them of their contribution to Scotland’s landscape.

Colin commented: -“Since opening we have tried to minimise our environmental impact, including recycling waste and using energy saving bulbs and recycled paper, but we wanted to do more to help Scotland meet its climate change targets.

“We are very pleased with the response. We even had guests asking to pay before the scheme had properly started! So far, 112 trees have been planted, right on the target of 28 trees per month.”

Angus Crabbie from Trees4Scotland said: -“We are in the business of helping our clients be as imaginative as possible in the way they engage their customers with the climate change agenda.  Creating a ‘green car park’ is one of the best yet and we thank The Knight Residence and their guests for their continued support.”

Trees4Scotland was founded in 2008 and is dedicated to planting native permanent woodlands in Scotland. The current project is called Teaghlach Wood (meaning family or clan) located on a 35 hectare site in central Scotland with space for over 35,000 trees.

Located in the heart of Edinburgh’s Old Town, in the shadow of Edinburgh Castle and walking distance to the city’s main business districts and best loved attractions, the Knight Residence five-star serviced apartments offer space and comfort, teamed with the luxury of a fully serviced hotel.

Council extend consultation on rubbish

A Council consultation seeking the views of local residents on how to improve waste collection in the city centre World Heritage Site has been extended until 28 January.

During the next few weeks, the Council will be seeking views from the public by inviting all people within the area to fill in an online survey on how to modernise the waste collection service in this historic area. There is also to be a special roadshow for residents to have a look at some options available and have their say at the City Centre Neighbourhood Office, 1 Cockburn Street today, 10 January.

The Council has already hosted a number of meetings and is urging residents to have their say.

At the moment, black bags are currently used but are ripped open by seagulls and vermin. This can lead to litter being strewn across the street. The current service means that all the household rubbish is thrown into one black bag – making it more difficult to recycle.

Maybe the council could have a look at these bags used by South Ham council – pretty obvious what this would mean, but then do we want to keep using plastic bags of any kind for our rubbish?

The Council wants to tackle these local issues, so that waste is better controlled, the area is kept clean and beautiful and there is a better uptake of recycling.

Councillor Robert Aldridge, Environmental Leader, said: “This consultation is all about improving the cleanliness and appearance of the City Centre and any solution has to be both practical and deliverable in a cost effective way. We want to deliver a 21st Century waste service for local residents with less litter and better recycling and I am looking forward to working with residents and hearing suggestions from locals on how this can be achieved.”

When finding a solution to waste management in the city centre, different kinds of house sizes and designs will have to be taken into consideration, as well as planning constraints.

Some of the options that may be considered for trials in the spring include kerbside collection of food, paper, card and other materials, gull proof bags, individual or communal containers for waste or recycling, garden waste bins, different collection times as well as other practical ideas from residents.

The public survey will run until 28 January 2010 and can be filled in online, downloaded from the website, posted or taken in to one of the local Council offices or libraries.

Get up and go with 2011

Yes it’s January, the month of the credit card bill, the tax bill and other doom and gloom. But here at The Edinburgh Reporter we have no time for standing still and feeling sorry for ourselves.

So let’s look forward to the year ahead and decide now a few of the things that we can all do to cheer ourselves up, help some of the organisations in  Edinburgh and also make this city a better place to live and work.

Volunteer for a charity. There are loads of them. Whether or not you are in employment it might help you add to your CV and introduce you to something new. Have a look at this website for inspiration. Biodiversity Volunteer, Library Volunteer, Visual merchandiser,volunteer tutor – the list is really endless and the benefit to you might be priceless.

Join a gym. But really join it. Don’t just pay for the membership and then forget to go after the end of January. We also recommend that you try out  British Military Fitness (BMF). They have classes in a few locations in Edinburgh’s parks. Yes that’s right you exercise outside in the fresh air for an hour at a time, and are instructed on what to do by ex-military personnel. It is hard work but very rewarding.

Here’s video to whet your appetite!

Enrol your company in the Bike to Work scheme which is a tax efficient way for employees to use bikes to get to work. You can save half the cost of buying a bike. (But please, please have showers installed in your office building too….)

Buy a membership for Edinburgh Zoo. According to reports the zoo is in some financial danger. Until 8th January the cost of a ticket for the Zoo is £5 per person. But otherwise you can get a membership by applying here and you will be able to go four times this year to the Zoo by which time your membership will have paid for itself. You can also use your membership to go to the Highland Wildlife Park and you can skip the queues at the gate! Have a look at what you might see of the Budongo Trail webcam here. Or if you are already fit from going to the gym you could enrol in the Edinburgh Half Marathon and run for the Zoo – see our article here.

You can help Lothian Buses keep their lovely buses on the road by buying a Ridacard for the bus – but actually Lothian Buses and other transport companies could it be a bit more like an Oyster card? It would make it so much easier to use the buses – could it be integrated with Lothian and First as well as the Aircoach – oh and could the trains form part of it somehow too?

Stop using plastic bags completely this year. Italy has just banned these completely. Perhaps we could start with our capital city? We are already aware that it costs us to use the bags in all our large supermarkets. All we have to do is carry a little fold-up bag in our pockets when we go out and bingo – no need for any plastic bags. If you need convincing of the environmental impact of all this plastic then look at this – The Great Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch – and if that is not enough then watch this video! Who is to say that the plastic bag that you have used does not end up there? Apparently the average plastic bag is used for 12 seconds….. And of course not to be outdone the Atlantic is getting its own garbage patch according to this report in The Independent.

Recycle your food waste. You can read our earlier article about the Kitchen Canny project which Changeworks are running.This involves keeping a separate caddy for food waste which would allow you to measure how much food you throw out in a week. But as well as that there is a food waste service which is planned by the council to help cut the cost of landfill. The Council say:-

“The new strategy will work towards increasing recycling in Edinburgh to 75% by 2020.

We are launching two new schemes in 2011 to encourage people to recycle more waste:

• Residents will be able to recycle plastic bottles using kerbside recycling services early in 2011.
• A new pilot scheme will be introduced in Spring 2011 to collect food waste from 20,000 households in the city centre and east areas of Edinburgh.

The pilot will cover a variety of housing types to test the service before food waste collection becomes available to around 250,000 houses in the rest of the city.

We will also hold consultations with residents in the World Heritage area to look at waste services which best suit the property types and preferences.

As we introduce more opportunities to recycle across the city, particularly for households with kerbside collections, less waste for landfill will be produced.”

And there are many free things to do in Edinburgh. The National Museum of Scotland is one big favourite on our list, especially now that they have Jackie Stewart’s car in the entrance hall.

To find out what else you can get up to then you can watch out for our weekly What’s on feature which is published every Monday morning. Otherwise we plan a new weekend feature each week the first instalment of which should be ready tomorrow. Also there is The List, Edinburgh Spotlight, Informed Edin….. Any others? Let us know!

VIBES awards 2010

Scotland’s most environmentally-friendly businesses were crowned yesterday at a prestigious award ceremony at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Glasgow.

Eight companies have beaten off stiff competition from the cream of Scotland’s green businesses to take winners titles at the 2010 Vision in Business for the Environment of Scotland (VIBES) Awards – which are celebrating their eleventh-year anniversary this year.

The winners are:

Best Management Award
    Large company category (more than 250 employees): FMC Technologies Ltd

    Medium (between 50 and 250 employees): Clark Contracts

    Small (less than 50 employees): EAE Ltd

We told you the story about EAE Ltd one of the five Edinburgh companies short listed for an award here. The company is the leading arts and tourism leaflet distribution company servicing over 5,000 display sites and 800 clients across Scotland.

Another Edinburgh based company, Vegware, won the best Microbusiness Award and Aquamarine Power won a special commendation in the Product Award.

Now in its eleventh year of operation, VIBES recognises and rewards the efforts of Scottish businesses to become more efficient and competitive through improving environmental performance and benefiting their bottom-line.

Keynote speaker at the event, Iain McMillan, director of CBI Scotland said: “We are blessed with a natural environment in Scotland and, as a nation we trade on its quality, so its continuing health is vital to sustainable economic growth. Companies are not just responding to environmental issues, but are leading the way in developing new products and services which will enable customers to reduce their own carbon footprint. The purpose of the VIBES Awards is to showcase these new developments and the companies responsible for them and these awards have a strong track record in attracting entrants from some of the most dynamic and forward thinking businesses in Scotland.”

VIBES chair Alan Farquhar commented: “All of the winners were companies who showed real dynamism and innovation in their approach to their business and environmental performance. They are a great example to others and it shows how developing management systems, services and products to deal with environmental challenges, can make real cost savings whilst identifying new business opportunities.”

VIBES is a partnership between: Environmental Protection UK; NetRegs; Scottish Business in the Community; Scottish Environment Protection Agency; Scottish Government and Zero Waste Scotland.

The scheme is also supported by: CBI Scotland; Energy Saving Trust; Forward Scotland; Green Business Partnership and Scottish Enterprise.
Stagecoach Group sponsored the Best Micro Business Award and William Tracey Group sponsored the Service Award, both of whom are previous winners of VIBES.

VIBES winners are eligible to enter the European Business Awards for the Environment. These awards have been running since 1987 and attract around 200 entries per year from the cream of Europe’s most environmentally positive businesses. VIBES is the only award scheme in Scotland that feeds in to these prestigious European awards.

Regular updates on how the 2010 winners are doing will be posted on Twitter and the VIBES blog. Follow @VibesAwards or visit www.vibes.org.uk/blog

For more information on how to apply for next year’s awards, please visit www.vibes.org.uk

Five Edinburgh companies shortlisted for VIBES awards

Five companies based in Edinburgh have been shortlisted for the Vision in Business for the Environment of Scotland (VIBES) awards. One of these five is EAE Ltd.

EAE Ltd is Scotland’s leading arts and tourism leaflet distribution company servicing over 5,000 display sites and 800 clients across Scotland. The company operates from a main storage and distribution centre in Loanhead near Edinburgh, and has a further 14 storage and distribution sites across Scotland from Orkney to Dumfries and Galloway.

Managing Director, Glen Bennett, said: “We are thrilled to be shortlisted in the 2010 VIBES Awards Management Category for small businesses”.

“A commitment to environmental sustainability is fundamental to our operations and has led us to introduce initiatives such as installing our own wind turbine, which now supplies 50% of our electricity needs at our Loanhead HQ; purchasing the Electric Green Leaflet Machine, Scotland’s first electric leaflet delivery van which is powered by the wind turbine; offering discounts to clients who produce leaflets on 100% recycled paper; and providing staff with additional holidays to work on environmental projects”.

“Thanks to the active help and support of our staff, we have reduced our carbon emissions by 60% since 2005 and are working towards being carbon neutral by 2015. At the same time, we have significantly increased our turnover, client base and staff numbers, proving that operating in a sustainable manner can help a business to grow.”

Last month, EAE Ltd was awarded the Sustainable Tourism Award at the 2010 Scottish Thistle Awards, the premier annual awards for the Scottish tourism industry.

Talk about Waste Free Edinburgh

Changeworks is looking for people who are willing to give an hour of their time to talk about Waste Free Edinburgh in exchange for £25.00. They are holding feedback sessions in South Edinburgh to get your views on the Waste Free Edinburgh project. They are looking for people to attend and talk about whether or not Waste Free Edinburgh has made an impact on their lives, their family, friends and neighbours. Changeworks are interested in hearing from everyone to help them improve local projects and events in future.

Whether or not you got involved, they would like to hear from you and find out more about your opinions. Your views and comments will be treated confidentially.

The session will be held at

Cameron House Community Education Centre. Cameron House Avenue, Edinburgh on Wednesday 1 December, 6.30 p.m. to 7.30 p.m.

To register, please email Jane Adams or contact her for more information on 0131 539 8574.

Edinburgh’s buzzing about bees!

Edinburgh has been chosen as one of four UK cities to help save pollinating insects, such as bees, which are on the decline.

A biodiversity officer from City of Edinburgh Council will work with Edinburgh University and wildlife trusts to explore how cities could help to bring back insect populations many of which are essential to the pollination of UK crops.

Environmental changes, pests and diseases have all led to recent falls in numbers of pollinating insects, and a science-based strategy for improving this situation is needed.

Now, as part of a UK-wide initiative involving academic researchers in ecology, Wildlife Trusts and Local Authority conservationists, four UK Universities (Edinburgh, Bristol, Leeds and Reading) are to explore how cities could help to restore insect populations. The countryside is under increasing pressure as cities are expanding. Which means it is crucial that urban environments are able to support pollinators.

Dr Graham Stone of Edinburgh University’s Institute of Evolutionary Biology and Malcolm Fraser, a biodiversity officer at the City of Edinburgh Council will lead the Edinburgh component of the project. They will work with local practitioners and enlist the help of schools and residents from Edinburgh -the project aims to inspire more people to get involved in pollinator conservation.

Dr Graham Stone said: “As long as flowers are allowed to grow in city habitats, and areas are left undisturbed for nesting and development of young stages such as caterpillars, then city habitats can support almost as many pollinators as found in the countryside. Our aim is to identify which habitats in cities are best, and how others might be improved – for example, by increasing the diversity of plants present or changing the intensity and timing of mowing.”

In each city, a team of researchers will look at whole communities of bees, flies, butterflies and beetles that visit flowers, constructing food webs that describe the patterns of flower-insect interactions. A series of mathematical models will then be drawn up which will map city pollinator hotspots. These models can be used to improve existing habitats and create new ones, leading to a set of “pollinator margins”, locally adapted to each city. These will act as test beds to assess whether the environments identified as most beneficial do actually encourage the most pollinating activity.

Malcolm Fraser, said: “This project could be a major step forward for nature conservation in Edinburgh. Finding out where our pollinator hotspots are means we can focus our efforts in these areas to make them as biodiversity-friendly as possible.”

At the end of the project the findings will be presented at a conference for practitioners and academics alike, providing evidence-based data for policy makers, farmers, growers and producers about the causes and consequences of threats to insect pollinators. The data should ultimately inform strategies to protect the pollination of both agricultural and horticultural crops and wild flowers.

Prof Jane Memmott from the School of Biological Sciences at Bristol University, is coordinating the whole project. She said: “The idea is to do some absolutely excellent science but also to make a real difference, to have a long term sustainable impact. Bringing local conservation practitioners on board from the very beginning has been a really important step, because they have the knowledge that can make it happen.”

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