Dear All

Lots going on this weekend!  The Portobello Walking and Cycling Festival is tomorrow, Saturday 6 October from 11am to 2pm in the Community Garden, at the bottom of John Street, off the Promenade.  Includes basic bike checks, a bike obstacle course, balance bikes, electric bikes, smoothie bike, buggy walk and lots of free activities for all ages and abilities.  http://www.edinburgh.gov. A uk/info/20087/cycling_and_walking/1769/cycling_and_walking_events

The monthly Portobello Market is on tomorrow at Brighton Place, 9.30 am to 1pm, as usual.  To find out more visit the website: http://portobellocg.org.uk/  and check out the PEDAL website for a full list of traders: https://bit.ly/2xFBj3v 

The 10th Portobello Book Festival is this weekend and starts this very afternoon.  Got your tickets?  There are always a few of the free tickets kept at the venue and given out on a first come, first served basis.  Some venues are more restricted on numbers than others.  Full programme: https://portobellobookfestival.wordpress.com

Listen to the latest Porty Podcast here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/71622/820971-96-portobello-book-festival-10th-anniversary

A later date for your diary – Portobello Heritage Trust annual lecture this year is on Thursday, 8 November. The  speaker is Rob Engl, AOC Archaeology, and the title of his illustrated talk is Bricks & Bottles – Archaeological Evidence for the development of the Abercorn Brickworks, Portobello, which relates to the archaeological dig which took place in Fishwives’ Causeway. The talk will is at 7.30pm in the small hall in Bellfield, 16b Bellfield Street. 

It was really good to be invited to the official opening of St John’s Primary School this week. It’s a fabulous new school building, admired by everyone from inside and out, built for a really great school community. My biggest highlight was chatting with many of those involved in the project, especially pupils Nina and Jack!

There has been some discussion about the regrettable loss of the original St John’s building in Hamilton Terrace. It IS a great pity, but its fate was decided when the Private Bill went through the Scottish Parliament to allow the building of the new Portobello High School on Portobello Park and then the St John’s School Community decided they wanted to build a new School rather than refurbish and extend their old school building. The Private Bill decision meant that, once the needs of St John’s were met, the rest of the site was to be public park land. The space in the old school was around 60% of what is available to the school community now.  The new Treverlen Park proposals went through extensive and in-depth public consultation, led by the Craigentinny/ Duddingston Neighbourhood Partnership and undertaken by Edinburgh and Lothians Greenspace Trust.  The planning application to demolish the old school and build the park attracted only a handful of objections.  The current Grahams Construction contract to build the new school includes completing all the work on the rest of the site.

You can experience Craigmillar Castle in a new light as the story of the infamous Craigmillar Bond is brought to life through illumination and projection.  Listen in on the dark plot of 1566 and encounter key characters as you tour the castle and hear of the fate that befell Mary Queen of Scots’ husband Lord Darnley.  Starting form Holyrood, tours will take place at Craigmillar Castle 6-9pm, 1 – 4 November. More here: https://edinburgh.org/whats-on/spotlight-on-mary/

As we all discovered – in spades! – last week, traffic disruptions are events that can affect traffic flow and may causes delays on your journey. These can be planned roadworks, unexpected incidents such as a car collision, or a special event resulting in a road closure.  To find out what’s going on, this is a really useful website – click here: http://edinburgh.cdmf.info/public/disruptions/list.htm. I wish I hade used it last week to find out about the planned Willowbrae Road partial closure!

Porty is on the city map for outdoor activities.“Portobello Beach offers a delightful alternative to the city centre. This beach is a much loved escape for most Edinburgh locals, and offers a great view of the sunset. On a sunny day, the beach is full of people having fun in the sun, great for dog walkers and nature lovers. There are also some charming cafés on the Promenade, and traditional fairground amusements where you can play air hockey to your heart’s content”.  https://edinburgh.org/things-to-do/activities/outdoors/

Portobello Timebank does amazing things and you will always be made welcome, member or not!  Coming up this month : Burn Clean-up – Saturday 6 October 2-4pm, Niddrie Mill Drive. Bring wellies, gloves, waders if you have them. Jaffle Joint Chat Café – Tuesday 16 October 11am. Walk-in induction session available. Autumn Coffee Morning  – Saturday 20 October 10am – noon, Baptist Church Hall.  More here: http://www.portobellotimebank.co.uk/

Lothian Buses operations manager tells me they intend to run all their diverted services back to their normal routes (i.e. as per pre-closure) when Brighton Place reopens in December. They will wait for definitive dates from the Council and will probably make the change overnight to avoid confusion.

Councillor Mary Campbell has arranged a meeting about planning for that Christmas period so we can all help support our Portobello High Street shops.  The first meeting is on Monday the 8 October at 7pm, at Bellfield (16 B Bellfield Street) in the foyer of the celebration hall. Do come along if you are keen to do stuff to help and get involved in planning activities to support local Christmas shopping. 

We Councillors get complaints about the dozen or so caravans legally (!) parked up at the foot of Kings Road.  The Council’s local transport and environment manager Darren Ryan has submitted the report to get the process started for waiting restrictions at King’s Place.  As we know from experience – e.g. at Brunstane Road South – this legal process can take quite a bit of time!  Darren is also getting in touch with Transport Scotland to discuss the possibility of restrictions specifically for caravans.

The sports pitches and cycling facility at Hunters Hall Park, including BMX track and velodrome, now have planning consent.  The plans include the demolition of the former janitors’ houses, which there is the opportunity to extend the community garden there. Details here: 

https://citydev-portal.edinburgh.gov.uk/idoxpa-web/simpleSearchResults.do?action=firstPage

Finally, another fab local initiative seeded by the amazing Edinburgh Shoreline Project.  http://edinburghshoreline.org.uk/shoreline-wildlife-watch/

Have a good weekend!