Breaking news

Powys-based Notemachine UK Ltd is seeking three kinds of retrospective consent for an ATM it has installed at 20 Broughton Street (18/011343/FUL; 18/01344/ADV; 18/01345/LBC). 

There are many obvious pleasures to be had from heavy, cold and sustained rainfall over several days, such as noticing multiple flaws in the roof and getting to spend hours indoors with small children. 

But let us not forget the less obvious pleasures – such as encounters with marvellously strange creatures driven to the surface from the sodden bowels of the Earth. 

Caroline Roussot encountered this worm yesterday on the footpath/cycleway between the Rodney Street Tunnel and King George V Park.

City of Edinburgh Council has consulted the public today about the proposed layout of the (as yet unapproved) tramline from Broughton to Newhaven. 

The event, held in McDonald Road Library (10am–4pm), was well attended for the hour we attended, with enough staff on hand to answer questions. 

A Met Office Yellow weather warning is in place for Edinburgh and the Lothians (and elsewhere) until 11.59pm tomorrow. 

Police Scotland have therefore issued a Stage 2 ‘travel with caution’ warning, effective from midnight tonight. 

‘We are expecting snowy conditions over the next couple of days, especially on the higher level routes,’ said Supt Louise Blakelock, Police Scotland’s Deputy Head of Road Policing. At 6pm this evening, sleet had turned to snow in Bellevue.

Snow and spray from melting snow are the most likely challenges overnight.

 COMMUNITY APP TO FIX ROADS 

Cyclists and motorists could soon enjoy smoother journeys across Edinburgh thanks to a bespoke pothole-repair app going live tomorrow. 

UberHole is the brainchild of Broughton-based entrepreneur Bernard Dintman, who spots a gap in the market now that cash-strapped councils struggle to maintain roads across Scotland to acceptable standards.

As you read this, the April issue of your local stirrer has been printed, folded, cardboard-boxed and divvied up among our crack team of local distribution operatives. 

Unfortunately, owing to inexplicable Government and Church failures to adjust the date of Easter around our wholly predictable production schedule, not all copies will be available in all the usual outlets by the first of the month. 

 PUBLIC LIFE STREET ASSESSMENT IDENTIFIES PROBLEMS AND OPPORTUNITIES 

As first reported in Issue 269, the Council is looking carefully at how to redesign George Street and the First New Town (Hanover, Frederick and Castle Streets) ‘with a people friendly, walkable, public life focus’.

 CREATIVE SPACE AND NEW HOMES IN THE OFFING 

The Council is considering the creation of a ‘workspaces and community space’ in the B-listed former stables and offices at 165 Broughton Road. 

Artists’ studios and micro-enterprise offices could be leased out upstairs with flexible function space and other uses available on the ground floor. Attic and lower-ground-floor areas could be dedicated to ‘higher-value uses’. 

The world may be falling apart about our ears, but some people are trying to stick it together again one piece at a time. 

Spurtle’s unusual optimism has been prompted by the appearance of at least two intricately tessellated designs in Broughton. 

The first was spotted on Monday, situated low down on the western wall of the Rodney Street Tunnel. We estimate the flowering poppies (?) comprise around 500 individual pieces, and the work seems to serve no other purpose than to bring colour and delight into the dark.

In that, it succeeds admirably.

 ADVERTISING GIANT RETURNS WITH NEW DIGITAL DISPLAYS 

JCDecaux and its controversial adverts are back. 

Readers will recall the French-based multinational’s unsuccessful efforts to brighten-up George Street and St Andrew Square back in 2016 (27.10.16).