Dear All

The Wash House Community Centre, Adelphi Grove are holding their AGM at 8pm on Tuesday 23 October and all are welcome. The varied groups based at The Wash House have been invited to offer a very short, fun and practical introduction to what their group does there. So it promises to be good entertainment, not just the essential but dry AGM business.  And there shall be tea, coffee and cake, of course!  More here: https://thewashhouse.org/

I am delighted that the Council has finally agreed to halt the disposal of the Westbank Powerleague site to the ‘preferred’ private sector bidder and agreed that Council officers to work closely with the local community on a planning brief for the area.  It has been a bit of struggle to achieve this outcome, but all four of us Portobello/Craigmillar Councillors worked together with Action Westbank to get to this point. We have made progress, although there is a lot of work for us all still to do.  The full report on Meadowbank, including those key recommendations is here: http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/download/meetings/id/58805/item_73_-_new_meadowbank_sports_centre_construction_contract

There is a huge amount of building work going on on brownfield sites throughout Craigmillar, Newcraighall, Niddrie and Greendykes.  The most recent start is CCG for the Council’s 21^st Century Homes development here:  http://c-c-g.co.uk/work-begins-on-major-new-housing-development-in-craigmillar/. As the local population increases in the school catchment area, so does the pressing need for a fit-for-purpose new secondary school building. It is being designed and planned right now and the money to build it has finally been found.  The new Castlebrae Community High School building will be fully funded by the Council, as agreed at the Finance and Resources Committee this week. A link to report is here: http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/download/meetings/id/58806/item_74_-_wave_4_infrastructure_investment_programme

My Beach, Your Beach is a Keep Scotland Beautiful [KSB) Campaign to improve bathing water quality at beaches like Portobello’s.  The Scottish Environment Protection Agency’s (SEPA’s) research indicates that dog fouling and gull droppings contribute to the bacteria counts in beach bathing waters. This KSB Campaign is tackling this source of pollution at Portobello.  It would really help inform future KSB Portobello work if you filled out this quick questionnaire and encouraged others to do so: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/PortobelloBeach

Work is continuing on Brighton Place and the site foreman tells me they are on track to reopen on 1 December for the following five weeks. The recently appointed liaison officer is Richard Cobb who will be based in a portcabin on site and his contact details are – email Richard.Cobb@capita.co.uk and Richard’s mobile is 07713 352 847.  Richard is there to deal with any of your queries regarding the ongoing work. The concrete ‘track’ uncovered in the centre of the site covers a modern Scottish Water pipe.  It will be a fairly simple matter to remove the concrete, but I understand they need Scottish Water’s permission to do so.  Leaving it there is not an option since the concrete was built up far too high.  This, and the lack of any solid foundations on the rest of the road, has been a direct cause of the subsidence which needs to be fixed properly.  Adverts and wraps to advertise local businesses should be up next week. The Council’s communications team are looking for input from traders and the community for input on further advertising during the longer closure after the New Year.

The Thistle Foundation, Queen’s Walk, Craigmillar are holding a community event on Saturday 27 October 12 noon to 2.30pm to launch of a life-saving defibrillator which will be accessible to the community 24/7 for use in an emergency. Following the tragic death of a local man from cardiac arrest earlier this year, organisations rallied together to ensure that the Craigmillar community is more equipped to respond in this kind of emergency. The loss of one life has proved the catalyst for an initiative that could save many more lives in the future. Link Up, Thistle Foundation, St Johns Scotland and Save a Life Scotland have all worked together on this.  Brilliant!

As the Halloween season and Bonfire Night approach, we want it all to be really good fun, and we also want everyone to be safe. We do not want a repeat of last year’s appalling behaviour around bonfires and fireworks in some parts of the city. Police Scotland, the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, Council and partners have been working very closely together on local and a citywide operational plans. Portobello is one of the four Edinburgh areas earmarked for more targeted attention, in the light of last year’s incidents.  We do need your help, though!  Police are distributing Crimestoppers postcards and posters to community hubs in the coming weeks and they are being pushed on social media. Any assistance we the community can provide in highlighting sites where combustible material is being gathered and stored, or information on unlicensed fireworks sales, would be very warmly received by Police Scotland on 101 or – always anonymous – Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.  Let’s all help keep our communities safe from harm over the bonfire season.

Craigmillar Community Council now have a superb website which they launched this week. There is still lots of work to be done to update it and populate all the areas with local knowledge and information.  Contact details are on the website.  It has taken a huge amount of good hard work to get it to this stage, so congratulations all round!  Here it is: https://www.craigmillarcc.org.uk/