Breaking news

Inverleith Park, Victoria Park, Hopetoun Crescent Gardens and London Road Gardens have retained their coveted Green Flag awards this summer, alongside 20 others in the capital to be so recognised.

Albany Street residents and businesspeople have responded angrily to diverted traffic running through the New Town.

Several have now begun contacting the Council and political representatives for help.

The Gallery on the Corner (34 Northumberland Street) seeks five new trainees to work eight hours a week on a temporary one-year contract.

Successful applicants will undertake training and work experience, learning ‘the processes involved in developing commercial arts and crafts products as well as developing communication and customer service skills in a retail environment’.

In some ways a map is one of the least useful tools for finding one's way about a city.

Notwithstanding whatever qualities of internal consistency it may have, a map does not – cannot – chart exactly what is there on the ground. Instead, it more or less accurately depicts a series of assumptions about what matters. It figures one version of the past in the subjective present. It offers a  line of argument about what counts today and what may do so in the future.

The 17 designers exhibiting works at Whitespace this month were each randomly allotted a photograph by another member of the group. The picture had to show a place in Edinburgh which the original photographer loved, and the receiver had then to respond to it in some way.

Not everybody liked the image they had to reflect upon. Aoife White, for example, was less than thrilled with an image of modern graffiti in the foreground with Calton Hill monuments behind:

Contrary to some self-appointed experts' predictions, Edinburgh did not grind to a halt this morning. There was no gridlock.

Spurtle observed the York Place diversions from 7.30–9.00am, and for the most part vehicles were travelling steadily across the city.

Council officials we spoke to were grateful for lighter-than-usual levels of rush-hour traffic, and certainly Spurtle saw little evidence of the additional 1,300 westbound vehicles travelling through the New Town which we had been told to expect.

Here's what we did find:

Locals will have a chance to make their voices heard, and exert a little pressure, at two public events next week to discuss improvements for Leith Walk and Constitution Street.

Works scheduled for this September include road resurfacing and upgrading of public utilities, plus footway and environmental improvements. You can see the proposals at www.edinburgh.gov.uk from 16 July onwards.

'The streets of London are paved with gold!' cried Dick Whittington, a delusional but socially mobile 14th-century pauper-turned-mayor.

Bilfinger Berger, the manufacturers of large holes (which allegedly come with optional tramlines on top), reckon that the streets of Edinburgh are paved with red faces and red tape, lots of it.

Courgettes are well and truly in season at the moment, and can be spotted springing up everywhere.

Below is an explanation of the map we reproduced and queried in Breaking news (10.7.12). It was originally written by Alf Orriell of the Edinburgh Trams Coordination Team, and was, we assume, intended to accompany his 'schematic' emailed across the city (see foot of page).

However, it did not. Today it was sent again (as if nothing had not happened) but with an additional point by Mr Orriell written on 11 July.