Update from Maureen Child

Dear All

This coming Saturday local residents and community groups are invited by HERE+NOW to share and gather design inspiration for the new Greendykes North Park.  If you would like to be involved, just head along to the front East Room Craigmillar Library on Saturday 19 November any time between 10am and 1pm.

HERE+NOW is a team of landscape architects and urban designers specialising in user-led design, and they were appointed by EDI to design and develop this neighbourhood park as a part of their Greendykes North development. Come and share your ideas! HERE+NOW will bring some materials to start the conversation and will be there to listen to your opinions and ideas.

Bells Galleries are hosting a local pop up Art Lounge event in Wrangholm Lodge, 6 John Street on Saturday 19 November from 11am to 4pm.  An eclectic collection of vintage and antique paintings, prints, photographs and original movie posters will be available for sale on the day, with the majority of pieces not available on their website.  The gallery will be held in a spacious, recently renovated Victorian drawing room. Check them out at www.bellsgalleries.com or on Twitter @bellsgalleries

Portobello Heritage Trust is holding their free annual lecture, St. Kilda: the Last and Outmost Isle, is at 7.30pm on Monday, 21 November in St .Mark’s Church. All are most welcome, so do invite any family and friends who might be interested.

Save the date(s) for a new and expanded photographic exhibition compiled by Archie Foley and Peter E Ross from black and white negatives amassed by a British Railways engine driver in the mid-1950s to the early 1960s. Taking us behind the scenes, they show railwaymen and women at work re­minding us of the days before diesel replaced steam.

There will also be books and railway magazines on display along with models, artefacts, ephemera and other exciting material from the Museum of Scottish Railways and the Bo’ness and Kinneil Railway. Portobello Library, Rosefield Avenue, Portobello 23 November to 14 December. Admission Free  Come along and chat with the authors on Wednesday 30 November 6.30-7.30pm.

A good meeting last night for the Save Bellfield Campaign and the constituted Action Porty Group which is focussed on taking our community buy-out forward.  A lot done and achieved, and a lot still to do!  Do find out more about what you can do to help and keep in touch with developments here:  https://www.bellfield.scot/

Just whisper for the Bah Humbugs in our midst – Christmas Trees! are arriving and this year will give a donation for every tree sold to Action Porty’s Save Bellfield fund. Porty Hardware

Put it in your diaries! 10 December 12-4pm for Tribe Porty’s Christmas Makers Fair above Earthy on Windsor Place. There is some serious talent for lovely gifts.

If you have an older friend or relative who is feeling a bit isolated and needs a little inspiration and encouragement to get out of the house and connect with all the opportunities and friends out there waiting for them, do call LOOPs on 0131 603 8311.  LOOPS stands for Local Opportunities for Older People. The next White House Tea Dance and Singalong might be just the ticket, for example.  It’s on Tuesday 29 November 12.30-2.30pm.  £3 includes tea, sandwich and a scone at The White House, 70 Niddrie Mains Road, EH16 4BG.

Top of the pops for free things for kids to do with Dads Rock -ers is Portobello Beach – of course! More here: http://dadsrock.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/top-10-free-things-to-do-with-under.html?m=1#!/2016/11/top-10-free-things-to-do-with-under.html

A new community sport hub (CSH) will kick off at the Jack Kane Sports Centre later this month. The Jack Kane and Craigmillar CSH is part of a nationwide sportscotland led initiative to support and develop club sport in Scotland. Supported by lottery funding, community sport hubs provide a home for local sport clubs, physical activity organisations and local partners who will work together to get more people of all ages active in sport and physical activity. At present there are over 150 hubs across Scotland working to develop a stronger environment for community sport.

More here: http://chronicleonline.net/2016/11/15/community-sport-hub-set-for-jack-kane-sports-centre-and-craigmillar/

Over the next few weeks Bridgend Farmhouse will continue to run their weekly drop-in on Wednesday and Sunday from 11am-3pm. Activities include building an outdoor shelter; maintaining the garden and wildlife area; working towards developing an outdoor kitchen; and more. Do go and lend a hand on the land if you can.

People are welcome to drop-in for any length of time and are free to also come along to socialise with others. All are encouraged to come down. There’s lots of photos on Bridgend Farmhouse Facebook of exciting work that has been happening recently.  Drop by!  More here: www.bridgendfarmhouse.org.uk  and here: http://chronicleonline.net/2016/11/14/exciting-times-ahead-at-bridgend-farmhouse/

 

The lights in Rosefield Park were out for a time, hopefully now back in.  There was a fault in the timing mechanism, I was told.  If you notice a faulty street light, do please report it and this link tells you how:  http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/info/20089/roads_and_pavements/1071/report_a_street_light_problem

The transformational changes the Council is undergoing, moving to a new ’four-Localities’ way of working, is matched by big changes for our partners in police, fire and rescue and health and social care – and the voluntary sector in all its diversity, including all our citizens.

The next step is to build our Locality Improvement Plans, based on the excellent work already done with local people and professionals, working together over the years through neighbourhood partnership activity.  Find out more about the strong partnership working already here:  http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/info/20133/community_planning/391/edinburgh_partnership  There is a lot more to do together once the changes are bedded in.

I was delighted to chair the health and wellbeing subgroup of our Neighbourhood Partnership this week, bringing together the voluntary and statutory sector people, helping to build and sustain good trusting relationships at local level so we can best meet the growing needs and demands.

I believe Community Councils, Local Ward Councillors and active engaged citizens have a great potential role to play in all this and it is great to see some of those great local partnerships become models of best practice. Like Portobello CC’s model of community engagement:  Portobello Community Council Rated Excellent For Community Engagement And A Model For Other Scottish CCs and Voluntary Sector Bodies – Public Notices  Craigmillar Community Council is likely to be revived in the New Year as the necessary petition is being raised with the Council to set it up again.

Local school children and young people are being involved in looking forward to the future of their city, so don’t get left behind!  See here for our own local young leadership: http://edinburgh.org/blog/portobello-high-school-city-vision-is-worthwhile-endeavour-edinburgh2050/ and get involved yourself here: Edinburgh 2050 City Vision Launch | #Edinburgh2050 – YouTube  I came across an interfaith group in the City Chambers doing this exercise and they said they had come to the agreement they wanted to see Edinburgh as the ‘Compassionate City’.  So – what’s your vision?

On a practical level, around now rather than 2050, what do you want to see in and around a new Meadowbank Sports Centre?  Here’s an opportunity to shape the ideas:  http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/news/article/2193/have_your_say_on_the_new_meadowbank

The snow and ice will descend at some point, so it as well to be prepared!  More here: http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/info/20227/gritting_and_salt_bins/1141/self_treatment_of_roads_and_pavements

I was happy to be part of the thinking around our Co-operative Capital City initiative, reflecting on what had gone well in the last 4.5 years and what we still have to do.  Some of our thinking captured here by Andrew Burns as Council Leader: http://andrewburns.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/co-operative-capital-big-look-back-big.html?spref=fb&m=1 and keynote speaker Ed Mayo’s reflections too from a UK perspective: https://edmayo.wordpress.com/2016/11/12/co-operative-cities/

A lot of people face some hardship in their lives and may be in need of some financial help with what they are facing, sometimes just for a little while until they get back on their feet, others every day.  There may be something in this website to help you, or someone you know of: .https://www.turn2us.org.uk/Your-Situation/Ill-Injured-or-Disabled

Lastly, I have been doing quite a lot of walking about Portobello/Craigmillar Ward in the last couple of weeks, delivering letters, improving my health and wellbeing, meeting nice post men and women who do a lot of walking about for a living.  One of my favourite bits is here off Niddrie Mains Road, not least because all the letterboxes are on the outside of the buildings, no annoying door entry systems or stairs to negotiate. Sheer bliss!  http://www.scottishconstructionnow.com/15708/housing-transformation-of-former-edinburgh-school-complete/#?platform=hootsuite

Enjoy the rest of your week, and the weekend when it comes!

Best wishes

Maureen

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