Dear All

A reminder about the fun family fundraiser Zumbathon this Saturday (tomorrow!) at Portobello and Joppa Parish Church.  More here: https://www.facebook.com/Porty-Zumbathon-1685355955050675/

For Portobello/Craigmillar’s very own You Decide!, community grants applications are to be in by close of play today.  Community decision time is at the event is on Saturday 14 May in Portobello Town Hall. More here: webpage http://www.edinburghnp.org.uk/neighbourhood-partnerships/portobello-and-craigmillar/about/you-decide!/ You Decide! is just one of an increasing number of similar events happening throughout Scotland.  See here:  http://pbscotland.scot/

Cre8te is a fantastic social enterprise in Craigmillar, the Board of which I currently Chair.  In partnership with Saheliya, we submitted a proposal to the RBS Skills & Opportunities fund to support vulnerable ethnic minority females to obtain the skills they need to lead independent lives.  If successful Cre8te will work with a total of 40 women enabling them to explore self-employment, progress their business ideas and give them the opportunity to test trade. We are delighted to make it through to the voting round with RBS and now we need as many people as possible to vote for our proposal, you can find out more and cast your vote by following the link: http://skillsandopportunitiesfund.rbs.com/vote/vote-in-scotland/about-saheliya.html  We also need the message shared as widely as possible, so would appreciate if you could share our tweets and Facebook posts here https://twitter.com/Cre8teLtd and here https://www.facebook.com/cre8teopportunities/ Thanks in advance for everyone’s help, fingers crossed!

Eve Parsons wanted me to tell you about the Portobello Pizza Oven Project, which has been dormant for some time now.  Now is the time to revive it and get our Portable Portobello Community Pizza Oven built and working! There is a great technical team (including Andreas Teschner and James Lewis) to oversee the community construction. There will also be fun sessions for kids and families. Earthy Foods have agreed a place out the back of their Portobello shop to store the oven and for it to be picked up and used once it is built. However, for the project to be sustainable a core volunteer team is needed to plan how to run the community project. If you are interested to be part of a team taking this project forward or want to find out more and/or join the team, contact Eve Parsons by email r.everoberts@hotmail.com.

St John’s RC Primary School pupils tell me they are getting involved in this cycling and scooting project with Sustrans, which is a great initiative:  http://bigpedal.org.uk/

I regularly get asked about how to go about raising a concern that some bit of building has been constructed that is not quite according to the original plan or suddenly appears without any prior notice.  Anyone can report a suspected breach of planning control using the online form here: http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/info/20066/enforcement

As part of the Rotary’s End Polio Now campaign, a local Portobello Rotarian Daniel Barreto is training for an epic 1200 miles in 30 days sponsored bike ride and raising funds for this hugely worthwhile cause. This is Daniel’s Blog: https://smilespermile.wordpress.com/2016/04/15/this-is-how-cycling-50-miles-in-3-hours-feels-like/  which includes access to more about him and his fundraising page.

Just a very gentle reminder that I’m also raising funds for a good cause and would welcome sponsorship too!  I am trying not to think about it as Sunday 12 June gets closer, and closer, ….. This is the kind of great work the Thistle in Craigmillar do:  http://thistlefoundation1415.com/?platform=hootsuite – and that’s why I am supporting them to do more by throwing myself off … no, abseiling down – from the Forth Rail Bridge both to overcome my fear of great – big – tall – scary heights and to raise some cash for Thistle.  Please do sponsor me, if you can: https://thistlefoundation.everydayhero.com/uk/maureen-abseil  I’m about half way to target and every little £1 helps stiffen my resolve.

EDI Parc Craigmillar, are holding a pre application consultation event about the proposed Greendykes South Masterplan. The event will be held at the White House on Tuesday 26 April, bewteen 3pm and 7pm.

The planning pre-application consultation event for the proposed Costa Coffee Drive-Thru at Milton Link is taking place at the Magdalene Community Education Centre, 106B Magdalene Drive, Edinburgh, EH15 3BE, between the hours of 3-7pm on Wednesday 25 May.  Drop in any time.

One of the Bridgend Inspiring Growth (BIG) volunteers John Nowak has made a film of the farmhouse project. More about BIG here www.bridgendfarmhouse.org.uk  The new film focuses on the Sunday drop-in in 2015 and some of the various events, activities and volunteers involved. Give it a watch at the link below. The Sunday drop-in continues every week from 11am-3pm and all are welcome, with free home-made lunch provided.

Local community clean ups are going on almost every week. According to an Edinburgh list I got from the charity Keep Scotland Beautiful (KSB), 5 of the 27 listed in Edinburgh are in Portobello/Craigmillar Ward.  And that list doesn’t yet include others I know of e.g. in Magdalene and Bingham. See here: http://chronicleonline.net/2016/04/20/community-renewal-start-building-green-clean-communities/  But there is always more we can do:  KSB want to celebrate local heroes throughout Scotland, so if you know someone in your local area who’s making a difference, do let us know: http://www.keepscotlandbeautiful.org/local-environmental-quality/clean-up-scotland/get-involved/nominate-a-hero/  A Greggs treats offer is running throughout April and May.  To be eligible for this, groups need to have an event registered on the KSB system and give them at least two weeks’ notice of the event.  http://www.keepscotlandbeautiful.org/media/846566/greggs-treats-ordering-guide.pdf  The newsletter can be found here:http://www.keepscotlandbeautiful.org/media/846699/cus-newsletter-march-2016.pdf

Maybe see you tomorrow, either at the Brighton and Rosefield Parks Annual Clean Up or at Pedal on Parliament?  I’m hoping to do a bit of both.

Best wishes for a great weekend, whatever you do!

Maureen