Breaking news

SPIRES (Supporting People who Investigate Research Environments and Spaces) is a Heriot-Watt University based project interested in what makes an effective research space.

SPIRES aims to better understand and enhance physical, technological and social aspects of reseach, and as part of this work is now building an online community of researchers. This already includes people from industry and academia, but SPIRES is also keen to attract 'leisure' researchers – amateur historians, for example, or genealogists, or anyone with a research passion that doesn't pay.

Perhaps anticipating hordes of ravenous Broughtonians arriving en masse and scoffing all the food and light refreshments, leaving half-chewed sausage rolls and bread crusts strewn across Charlotte Square and creating a ghastly din, Edinburgh World Heritage have asked us to make a small clarification.

City of Edinburgh Council (CEC) yesterday published a report on its recent 'budget information and engagement exercise' [www.edinburgh.gov.uk/budget], the biggest such process it has ever run.

CEC claims the findings prove consultees:

Maggie Chapman, Green councillor for the Leith Walk ward, has added her voice to calls for retention of postal services at Brunswick Road (Breaking news, 9.11.11).

As well as writing to Royal Mail, she has submitted the following motion to next week's full council meeting:

CITY OF EDINBURGH COUNCIL

Snow is reported in upland areas across Scotland including the Nevis Range, Glen Coe, Glenshee, Cairngorm and the Lecht. Wintry showers are also predicted for the East Coast over coming days.

In what is predicted to be another severe winter, Broughtonians may wish to keep track of what's falling where.

A Spurtle follower has tweeted us with news of an ingenious application which tracks Twitter reports to map snow density and quality across the UK: http://uksnow.benmarsh.co.uk/.

Proof that there is no issue so serious that a simple typo in its reporting cannot reduce otherwise responsible adults to puerile sniggering is yesterday's post by Mark Lazarowicz, MP to www.hearfromyourmp.com.

We quote carefully.

City of Edinburgh's Council (CEC) designs for some local flood defences have been entered into the Planning system by their agent Arup Scotland.

Tommy Kemp, a former Broughton Court resident now in the Netherlands, has contacted Spurtle with an offer of help (Letters, 3.11.10).

In Issue 185, Ross Maclean had asked readers for assistance in finding out more about Peggy Desmond, a luminary of the stage in her heyday but now rather forgotten.

Last month we reported John Hein's campaign to retain late-posting and franked mail services on Brunswick Road (Breaking news 26.10.10).

Leith Walk ward Councillor Lang was one of several local politicians to take up Hein's case, and has now received a reply from Julie Morrison, Royal Mail's Head of External Relations (see pdf below).

Trevor Jones is a 40-year-old Canadian artist who graduated two years ago from Edinburgh University's MA in Fine Art Programme. 'He has,' says Union Gallery's Rob Dawkins, 'already forged himself a formidable reputation as an abstract painter of exceptional talent'.

Synæsthesia II, his first solo exhibition, opened on Broughton Street last night and will run until 29 November.