An item of "Breaking News". Will appear on the Breaking News page and the front page.
An application to change the use of a small lock-up in East Scotland Street Lane from domestic garage to studio office has been turned down (Ref. 15/00700/FUL).
In what reads like a fairly comprehensive refusal, Planning officials stated that the proposal was contrary to:
Seven of the 7th is an exhibition forming part of Gretna 100, which commemorates the Leith soldiers who lost their lives in the Quintinshill rail disaster on 22 May 1915.
The overall project – funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and managed by Out of the Blue – aims to let Leithers connect with the disaster that devastated their community 100 years ago.
This particular exhibition was researched by a community group who worked with Citizen Curator and artist Jan-Bee Brown to explore the lives of seven soldiers who were involved in the disaster.
Stakeholders and Council officials met today in a public meeting to discuss the latest visitor research findings on the George Street experimental lay-out.
The figures were compiled by interviewing 100 people each month in March, April and May this year.
Attached below are the raw data presented at the meeting, and a presentation by CEC’s Iain MacPhail.
Summarising what had been learned from the trial so far, MacPhail highlighted:
An Edinburgh charity helping older people and those with disabilities to live safely and independently in their own homes seeks your help.
Now in its 30th year, Care and Repair Edinburgh (CRE) is looking for young people wanting work experience, tradespeople, DIY enthusiasts and active retired people to join their vetted and experienced team to help with small repairs, adaptations and improvements in the home.
CRE volunteers' skills will include some of the following:
Draft plans for the revamp and reconfiguration of Leith Walk between Pilrig Street and McDonald Road went on display yesterday.
Council staff stressed that what we saw was very much a work in progress, and acknowledged that some aspects of the design required further thought.
A warm summer's evening: the perfect time to relax, writes David Sterratt.
Just as summer arrives, Spitaki, a new Greek taverna, brings a taste of the Aegean to Broughton at 133 East Claremont Street!
Occupying the former Elbow premises, Spitaki is a joint venture between David Hastings and Christos Babalis.
We decided at short notice to eat at Spitaki on its opening night, and it was full, so we ate dinner on one of the outside tables. The experience was authentically Greek: friendly, family feel, wonderful home-cooked food and slightly chaotic!
Are you concerned about the quality of state education in Edinburgh? Or about social care for the elderly? What about how often the bins are emptied or potholes repaired?
Whatever your priorities, the Council Tax is capped, and there are further swingeing cuts coming to City of Edinburgh's expenditure over the next few years. Things don’t look like getting better anytime soon.
So, boring as it may seem, there’s a pressing need to think calmly and carefully about how we raise money to pay for local services.
NEW TOWN GOTHIC
—By David Hill
If New Town streets, resplendently enigmatic in their hues and mysteries, are sometimes minded to reveal a little more of themselves, the familiar yet less discovered country of that most personal of local terrain – our own homes – can feel unyielding to our enquiries, even hostile to our aims.
In Issue 241, John Ross Maclean fondly recalled the Ritz cinema, which used to stand on Rodney Street where the modern flats are now.
Reader David Boyd remembers it well …