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Today is National Poetry Day. To celebrate, we present this topical response to various shortcomings in refuse collection and the limited roll-out of containerisation

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Patience is wearing thin around Hopetoun Crescent Garden, where residents continue to allege anti-social behaviour by a few visitors and some users of both the guesthouse at No. 17 and the Missionaries of Charity at No. 18.

Littering, fouling, intimidation, abusive language, physical bullying of disabled passers-by, and threats to individuals and private property are among the problems reported.

Much has been made lately of piffling problems affecting Apple Maps – the computer giant's new cartographic system issued as standard on its latest hand-held devices such as iphones, ipods and ipads.

Irritating nitpickers have noticed occasional lack of detail, distorted satellite images, and wrongly located placenames.

No such fiasco would have befallen Spurtleshire, we hoped, but decided to check.

New Town residents want City of Edinburgh Council (CEC) officials to take traffic problems more seriously.

October's Spurtle is ripening on the metaphorical horse chestnut tree of news and will drop soon onto an expectant north-central Edinburgh.

Issue 211 is packed with local intelligence: we have the latest on diversions and dumps, gallivanting athletes and their celebrations, education, chihuahua aversion and erotic musical wind instruments.

Television celebrities appear this month, along with rooftop determination, wiggliness, tweeters and Broughton Street's long lost chemical laboratories.

A long-standing parking dispute between Powderhall and Hopetoun residents, developers and the City of Edinburgh Council (CEC) does not appear much closer to being resolved. However, some of the issues have at least been clarified in a recent report to the Transport, Infrastructure and Environment Committee (see pdf at foot of page).

'It has become common practice in the case of many developments that it is implied to purchasers that road parking spaces are for their exclusive use,' reads the CEC document. But such exclusive use is not and never has been the reality.
 

Temporary traffic lights will be installed at the Albany/Broughton Street junction this weekend, resulting in Broughton Street's closure from 8am on Saturday to 7pm on Sunday.

During this period, traffic will divert  through Dublin Street  from Albany Street and via East London Street from Broughton Street heading  southwards. The lights will be activated at some stage next week.

The Hungry for Justice conference we participated in earlier this month at Aberdeen University was really interesting for the S5 and S6 students who attended, writes Drummond CHS’s Ailish McGuinness.

For example, we learnt that every hour 300 children die of hunger, one in three child deaths are caused by malnutrition, and half of children under the age of 5 in developing countries are undernourished.

Leith Central Community Council  (LCCC) met on Monday 24 September. Stormy night: warm welcome, Leith Walk on the agenda. Ella Taylor-Smith reports.

The coming improvement works on Leith Walk, Constitution Street and Picardy Place were the main topic of the meeting. City Centre and Leith Neighbourhood Manager Ian Buchanan had come along from City of Edinburgh Council (CEC) to give an update and answer questions – even if he had to say he didn’t know.

A man has died after fire broke out in a flat in Powderhall Rigg this morning.

The alarm was raised at 9.50am, and around 40 firefighters in 5 appliances arrived to find the 3rd/4th-floor property already well ablaze. A height platform, heavy rescue tender and incident support unit also attended.

As neighbours were evacuated, 4 firefighters entered the flat using breathing equipment and one line of hose. The unfortunate occupant was removed and pronounced dead at the scene shortly afterwards.

A fire investigation team has now begun inquiries into how the fire started.