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GIVE US BACK OUR GRASS!

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Photos posted online of the latest desecration of St Andrew Square have met with a huge response.

Yesterday, we asked readers if there was anything they'd like to say to Essential Edinburgh about the changes, and we later invited Council leader Councillor Andrew Burns to gauge the reaction.

'SUMMER COCKTAIL' AT THE UNION GALLERY

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As its name suggests, Summer Cocktail comprises an invigorating blend of styles and strengths which leave one feeling slightly less in touch with the day-to-day world on the way out than one did on the way in. 

This reviewer's favourites included Lucy Jones's 'Blue Bear Café' (right): a familiar Canonmills scene here fragmented, refracted and reassembled as collage, monoprint and wax. 

For all its apparent disjointedness, there is a solidity about its blues and blacks and central door recess which is particularly satisfying. 

KEEN GREENS SAY YEA TO RAE

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Edinburgh Greens yesterday selected their candidate to stand in the Ward 12 (Leith Walk) by-election on 10 September.

She is Susan Rae, who lives in the area and has experience of local government.

The Greens are keen to maintain their former six-strong presence on the Council, and believe that the single transferable vote system used in the forthcoming contest makes this a real possibility.

After her nomination, Rae commented:

CLICK AND COLLECT AND COLLECT

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Months ago, Mrs Left-Handed Tea Drinker sent me on a mission. 

She entrusted me with the task of buying our Little Left-Handed Tea Drinker Nephew a birthday present. I had strict instructions to get a specific item: some generic children’s action toy that was apparently his favourite and from which I was not to deviate.

After a quick Internet search, the only place I could find that sold it was the dreaded John Lewis. 

BROUGHTON STREET CLOSURE PROVES BIT OF A TRIAL

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The closure of Broughton Street between York Place and Albany Street is scheduled to continue until midnight on 17 July.  

Work began on 4 July as contractors for Scottish Power opened what resembled a series of random trenches in search of ancient civilisations. Broughton Street Lane and York Lane are also both closed at their eastern ends.

Rumours among shopkeepers on the street include one story that all the sewers are being replaced. This is incorrect.

LEITH WALK COMINGS AND GOINGS

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Edinburgh Labour Party last night chose Marion Donaldson to stand in the City of Edinburgh Council by-election for Leith Walk (Ward 12) on 10 September.

Donaldson (pictured centre, below) is already well known in the neighbourhood, both as a resident and as a member of the Leith Central Community Council.

Commenting after her selection, she referred to her experience as the team leader for a local Food Bank:

PSYCHOGEOGRAPHIES 11

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DRYDEN STREET, TERRACE, GAIT  

Dusk’s belated tryst with the summered street. Lamplight exhaled onto listless setts, shadows soothed into quietude. Behind a lambent veil, the fathomless black and torpid whites of the night Unbounded.

The metropolis as mirror of the Manifold, a micro-cosmos of bright and dark matter. In the north Edinburgh constellation, a rare binary system: the New Town and Leith, neighbouring worlds with a common centre of mass.

UNACCEPTABLE BATLEYS NOISE AND DISTURBANCE BLOCKED

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Batleys’ half-baked proposal to extend opening hours at their 30 McDonald Place cash and carry have been refused (Ref. 15/02378/FUL).

As reported here on 2 June, they wanted to operate between 8.30am and 5.00pm on Sundays from 2 August to 7 September. 

They said this was to help customers cater for increased business over the Festival period.

Locals saw it as an attempted erosion of their one-day-a-week’s peace and quiet.

BIN A LONG NIGHT

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They may have been drunk. They may have been anti-social.  

But those responsible for tipping over two fully laden communal bins on McDonald Road last night were at least fit.

Those things weigh a ton, and irritated local residents are unable to right them without help.

Spurtle contacted Waste Services and the Neighbourhood Partnership earlier this afternoon. Hopefully order will be restored soon.

BIG IDEAS IN SMALL SPACES

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The inaugural Edinburgh Police Box Festival continues today with a variety of more or less odd micro-happenings across the city. 

For a map of all venues, see foot of page. Here, we look at what’s on offer in Spurtleshire.

First stop was the newly revamped olive-green Canonmills PB yesterday afternoon, where owner Moira Ross was sipping fizz and chatting to passers-by.