An item of "Breaking News". Will appear on the Breaking News page and the front page.
A Dr Campbell of Stirling proposes to change offices at Unit 1, 12 Gayfield Square into a flat (Ref. 11/00719/FUL). The application has temporarily stalled owing to insufficient location-plan details being submitted. Architect's and contractor's banners on the railings, and a large debris-filled skip outside, suggest some kind of work may already have begun.
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Following closure yesterday at 4pm of nominations in the Scottish Parliamentary election (5 May), confirmed candidates for the two constituencies straddling Broughton (and the Lothian list) are as follows:
Edinburgh Central
Marco Biagi, Scottish National Party (SNP)
Sarah Boyack, Scottish Labour Party
Alex Cole-Hamilton, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Iain McGill, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Edinburgh Northern and Leith
Drummond Community High School and the 51st Scottish Brigade have joined forces to send almost 5,000 books to East Africa, reports Kenya Coordinator and school librarian Annie Scanlon (second right).
They will be transported in an Army supply ship with other equipment, and should arrive in Kenya by July.
Originally saved from a skip by a resourceful teacher at a decommissioned Army school in Germany, the books will be added to the stock of Drummond's two partnership secondary schools and an additional primary school.
Watch the moon at night from a boat at sea, and you may notice that its light appears to run in a glittering path straight towards you alone. You feel yourself specially favoured, honoured by this silver carpet between horizon and horizon. Turn 180º and that path is nowhere to be seen. It is a simple and somewhat chastening natural effect, but typical of how the sea can stimulate and intrigue observers: the ways it reflects and bends light, its paradoxical power and lack of solidity, its changing humours and endless capacity for interpretation.
Experience told last night as established Scottish parliamentarians dominated procedings at the Spurtle hustings for Edinburgh Northern and Leith.
Around 100 members of the public gathered to gauge 8 candidates' answers on questions about: 'privatisation' of the NHS; the future for tuition fees north and south of the border; disillusion with party politics; support for academic staff striking against pension cuts; Scotland's 'right' to North Sea oil revenues; and library closures. Perhaps inevitably – and on Budget Day in Westminster – all roads led to public finance.
Mr R. Forbes representing Bibulous Delights Ltd, the company behind the Smoke Stack Bistro, has applied for listed building consent to replace existing windows with original stone pillars and new sliding doors at 53–5 Broughton Street (Ref. 11/00606/LBC).
A new Scottish Conservative candidate has been announced for the Edinburgh Northern and Leith consituency: Sheila Low.
Spurtle understands she is an Aberdeen University Law graduate and North Queensferry resident, who stood in last year's General Election for Glenrothes.
Ms Low has been a Director in Edinburgh for the accountancy and business advice firm Baker Tilly since 2008, but her career has spanned investment management, venture capitalism, self-employment and corporate finance.
White Watch took part in the national Fire Fighters Charity Car Wash at McDonald Road Fire Station on Saturday 19 March.
Young Crew Managers Steven Doyle and Melanie Mason, and Young Firefighter Jordan Reid from the Edinburgh Phoenix Programme run by Lothian and Borders Fire and Rescue Service, helped raise about £300 for the Fire Fighters Charity.
The Urdu Society of Scotland will host its 18th annual Mushaira at McDonald Road Library later this month. Spurtle spoke to organiser Tariq Muneer – Professor of Energy Engineering at Napier University – in an effort to begin understanding this successful, but comparatively little known, cultural happening in Broughton's midst.
Agents representing Mr A. Belsham of Uxbridge have applied for listed building consent to create at 10 Picardy Place: '1. New front of building company fascia sign finished in powdercoated metal panel with black built up letters with halo illumination. 2. Roller shutter under bulkhead powdercoated in Hertz yellow RAL 1023. 3. Free standing sign post internally illuminated' (Ref. 11/00632/LBC).