The Cockburn Association, Edinburgh’s oldest heritage watchdog, has launched a Manifesto for the City in advance of next month’s Local Government Elections. You can read it in full HERE.
The 4-page document stresses a need to rebuild trust between citizens and elected representatives.
It calls for:
In a deputation to the Transport & Environment Cmte last week, the Community Councils Together for Trams Group (CCTTG) raised safety issues about the design of future public realm in Elm Row (east side, London Rd–Montgomery St) for pedestrians and cyclists.*
CCTTG (represented on Thursday by Leith Central Community Council’s Harald Tobermann and New Town & Broughton CC’s Mike Birch) describes itself as a critical friend of the Tram Project.
Dear Spurtle,
I note that the two areas with the most candidates for the upcoming Local Government Election are Wards 11 (City Centre, 13) and 12 (Leith Walk, 12). What does this say about these two polities?
It has been suggested that the number of candidates reflects the politically sensitising effect of active and well-run community councils, the number and seriousness of issues facing constituents, and a hyperlocal press alerting voters to where these problems are being discussed.
As a local resident, I sincerely hope that this will also translate into a record turnout, electing high-quality, active, independent-minded, locally focused and constructive councillors. And that the political parties have done a better job than they did in 2017 in weeding out unproductive, aggressive, sinecure-seeking candidates before they get onto the ballot paper.
Harald Tobermann
Pilrig Street
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When the United Kingdom exited the European Union on 31 January 2020, many Scots who had voted in the Referendum to remain thought the advantages of EU membership had gone forever.
Now, however, new scholarship suggests the truth for a very few Edinburgh residents may be more nuanced.
Edinburgh Council has published the final list of candidates standing in the Local Government Elections on 5 May.
For Spurtleshire, they are as follows.
Scottish Green Party - BANDEL, Jule
Scottish Conservative and Unionist - HERRING, Stuart
Scottish Family Party: Pro-Family, Pro-Marriage, Pro-Life - HOLDEN, Phil
Scottish Libertarian Party - LAIRD, Tam
Independent - MCNAMARA, Stephen
Scottish Conservative and Unionist - MITCHELL, Max
As you read this, advance copies of the April Spurtle are already drifting across Broughton like spring snowflakes on a northerly wind. Brace yourself.
Issue 316 begins with an icy editorial blast. It continues with news of a 6-month freeze, a much loved unlovely structure left out in the cold, and a frosty response to calls for consultation. Politicians beware – the hustings are coming.
On Thursday last week, a tram reached York Place for the first time since 10 February – but just to test the newly reconfigured track.
Accompanied by dozens of tram contractors, the tram took the better part of an hour to inch its way from halfway along York Place to the current end of the tram line: a large planter at the top of Broughton Street. At points along the way, contractors measured the distances from the overhead line poles and the central reservation to crucial parts of the tram.
Artisan, with dancer Freya Jeffs is performing as part of Stockbridge Music Hub. Admission free, with all donations going to the Disasters Emergency Committee for Ukraine refugee support.