Breaking news

A new report, due to go before the Transport, Infrastructure and Environment Committee on Thursday next week, says lessons have been learned from this summer's floods in Edinburgh.

City of Edinburgh's Coalition partners are delivering on a promise made after May's election by setting up an Empty Homes Task Force.

The proportion of unoccupied homes in the capital has decreased from 2.4 per cent in 2008 to 2 per cent in 2011 (below the 2.8% Scottish average), but in December 2011 there were still nearly 1,500 privately owned homes here which had been unoccupied for more than 6 months, 967 of them for more than a year. All this at a time when many (particularly young) people in the city are struggling to find an affordable place to live.

Are you interested in learning more about blogging? Do you live in the Inverleith Neighbourhood Partnership area? (Look at this map, you may be surprised.) Are you attracted to the idea of learning about blogging from experts for free?

The drift bottle and message currently hitting the headlines for breaking the Guinness World Record as the ‘Oldest message in a bottle’ is of special Broughton interest, writes local retired marine scientist Jim Adams.

New plans for a hotel at A-listed 1-3,5 Baxter's Place were revealed last night at a meeting of the New Town and Broughton Community Council.

Lynne Harkes's wonderfully well-observed 'bee's-eye views' of flowers and petals caught our attention back in March when she exhibited at Bon Papillon on Howe Street (Breaking news, 13.3.12).

Now she's back again, with a new exhibition at the Dundas Street Gallery (6 Dundas Street) from 6–16 September.

An exhibition at Whitespace Gallery this month looks at the work of Edinburgh-based Sax Shaw, a leading light amongst Scottish artists of the 20th century.

Shaw's career encompassed watercolour painting, tapestry and stained glass as his predominant media. However, he also turned his hand to theatrical design, church furnishings and vestsments, murals, mosaics and other decorative arts.

Drummond Community High School’s partnership with Muthambi Boys and Girls Schools in Kenya received a huge boost this summer with the visit of four senior students and three staff from Drummond, writes Partnership coordinator Annie Scanlon. A lot of hard work and support from local organisations (including the Spurtle) resulted in this 10-day visit.
 

A new exhibition will begin soon at Bon Papillon, which means you have just 5 days in which to admire the extraordinary paintings of Rachel McKean there until 7 September.

McKean – a gifted cellist with an interest in art restoration – is from Edinburgh and is in the last year of her MA Hons in Fine Art.

September's soar-away Broughton Spurtle is sitting in boxes, like a caged Scarlet Ibis, waiting for its moment to escape.

In the new issue you'll find news on huge local holes, a planning stushie in the World Heritage Site, two bids for independence and a warning against.