Breaking news

Calum Cashley – the 4th-placed, SNP candidate in the General Election – today contacted Spurtle with his reaction.

'I won! By far the best description from the Spurtle hustings – "Suited and tied, like a bear at a wedding"!

'I congratulate Mark Lazarowicz on his victory, and most candidates on fighting a clean campaign. I was disappointed to see the Lib Dem campaign telling lies about others – especially the lie about Mark being involved in the MPs' expenses scandal when he had actually been cleared. Anyone that desperate to be elected shouldn't be trusted with our votes.

Spurtle today received the 23 April response of the New Town and Broughton Community Council (NTBCC) to Hackland & Dore's pre-planning application notification for 130 McDonald Rd. Readers can see it in the pdf below.

Both NTBCC and Leith Central Community Council (LCCC) were consulted over the potential development at their mutual border. But at this stage, NTBCC have opted to respond in greater detail. Whilst expressing admiration for some aspects of the proposal (it is the best seen for the site so far), NTBCC's Planning Convenor John Knight expresses reservations over:

Sceptics have been casting doubt in recent weeks on John Lewis’s ability to stay open during dismantlement of  New St Andrew’s House next year. They have argued that even if conventional noise  and disruption caused by the project did not force temporary closure, the risk of exposing the public to airborne asbestos surely would.

In May 2009, Abercromby Place, Heriot Row and Nelson St doubled as 1960s London during filming of the French espionage caper Imogène McCarthery (see Issue 172).

The movie was released earlier this month in France, and now promotional clips are online at www.youtube.com. Blink and you’ll miss it, but Abercromby Place is definitely there (as is William Street). Old College, Neidpath Castle and the road to Talla reservoir also feature.

John Hein, the Liberal candidate for Edinburgh North and Leith, who came sixth in last week's General Election, contacted Spurtle today with characteristic outspokenness.

'I'd like to thank those who voted for me. However, the electors of Edinburgh North and Leith now clearly have the MP they deserve!

'Liberals and Liberal and Radical Associations have always been locked in battle with a Tory Party representing privilege, wealth and elitist authority – since before 1857 and the formation of The
National Liberal Federation.

Keen to attract custom from all quarters of the carnivorous electorate, Crombie's of Broughton Street have been marketing their delicious-sounding 'Scottish Election Sausage'.

Gone now, alas, but Spurtle relishes the prospect of a Coalition Haggis: broken pledges, minced aspirations, unpalatable cuts and normally unthinkable compromises, all wrapped in the stomach of national interest.

Bon appetit!

Coco - the Drummond Place Maine Coon missing since 28 April – has been found safe and well.

She was twice spotted on Sunday night, and finally recovered at around 9pm from a doorway near the Dublin Street junction. Somewhat dishevelled and a lot slimmer, Coco was meowing piteously in what sounds like a transparent effort to deflect criticism.

Coco's owner says 'We have no idea where she has been for the last 11 days, but we are just so glad that she has turned up.

'Everyone was so kind in our search, and we are really grateful to them all.'

Readers will probably have heard about controversial plans for a huge new Biomass plant in Leith.

People who are against the plans may well wonder how they can begin to represent their views competently on technical issues in a complicated planning system. Help is at hand.

Leith Neighbourhood Partnership have arranged with Planning Aid for Scotland to provide Energy Planning Training free for Leith residents. You don't have to be a community councillor, you just have to live in Leith.

The training will take place over a full day on Sat. 5 June 2010, and comprise:

The Scottish Government issues guidelines to developers about the proportion of any residential development to be reserved as social housing. It is a way of encouraging mixed communities in places where people really want to live.

However, the Government acknowledges that, in some exceptional circumstances, developers should be allowed to build such ‘affordable’ housing off site.

Kevin Lang – the Liberal-Democrat, second-placed candidate for Edinburgh North and Leith – told Spurtle:

'I am of course disappointed not to have won this time round.