Breaking news

Snapped at 8 Picardy Place. See Issue 190 (p.2).[img_assist|nid=1440|title=|desc=|link=node|align=right|width=412|height=640]

The Planning Subcommittee has agreed to vary Condition 3 of Logie Green Development Ltd's planning permission Ref. 08/01365/FUL and Condition 1 of permission Ref. 09/01969/FUL. This will allow properties at 11 Logie Green Road and 26, 28a, 29, 32, 33 Beaverbank Place to be occupied before Water of Leith flood prevention measures are completed.

Spurtle overcame various technical printing gremlins last night and is now being distributed across Broughton. As if by prior arrangement it has just begun to snow.

To remind yourself of warmer climes, turn to page 2 where you will find a competition to identify the location of this mysterious pachyderm.

The winner – the first name picked from the shoogly hat on 23 January – will enjoy a £10 book token and the admiration of peers.

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As the month of empty pockets creeps up behind us, silent but deadly like an owl with a grudge, what distractions can we find in Spurtleshire to ease the pain that is January?

Scottish Hydro and Fresh Start have come together to run a ‘present recycling’ scheme from 6 January at the Start Eco Zone in the St James Centre beside Barrhead Travel.

A continuation of their Green Christmas campaign, which has been encouraging people to minimise waste over the festive season, the idea is for people to bring unwanted or duplicate electrical gifts into the Eco Zone for redistribution to those Edinburgh residents who need them most.

Technical problems and English bank holidays have delayed distribution of the printed edition, but January's Spurtle (Issue 190) is very much alive and kicking online.

Download your copy from our Home page (click on the image in the top-right corner) or Back issues.

Unreliable Geographies by Aeneas McHaar

No. 15: Lake Eyre, Australia

28º 22' S, 137º 22' E

Not many places rival the grandeur of Broughton’s former Canonmills Loch, a more or less stagnant sink for many years situated in the frost-hollow between today’s Eyre Place, Rodney Street and Royal Crescent.

Issue 190 is just about ready, and will hit the streets of Broughton next week once they have been hosed down, cleared of revelling visitors and repopulated with flu-infested locals.

January's copy includes news about retail, domestic and dramatic developments, education, trams (lack of), dates for diaries, a prize pachyderm mystery, snow news, flood, leak and shipping latest, a review of 2010, and innumerable choice titbits of local intelligence.

When we first reported Tesco's successful application for an offsales licence at Picardy Place, we were seeking clarification on the New Town and Broughton Community Council's attitude and actions on the matter.

Holiday travel arrangements delayed their response, but we now learn that they objected on the grounds of oversupply and called for a 6pm restriction on this and any future licence.

Lucy Tanat-Jones, leader of the Broughton Street Traders Association, has now commented officially on the granting of an alcohol offsales licence to Tesco at Picardy Place (see Breaking news 22.12.10).

To some locals' surprise, she suggests an apparent Tesco magnet may actually strengthen local retail loyalties, or attract footfall to Broughton Street rather than monopolise it. This evening she described to Spurtle: