Environment

Professor Cliff Hague, Chairman of the Cockburn Association, delivered the heritage watchdog’s annual lecture last night on Zoom.

His theme was the Frankenstein’s monster that is festivalisation – in particular, Edinburgh’s monstrous creation that has grown too big for the laboratory and now threatens to ruin the very apparatus that gave it birth.

Well, that was this viewer’s expectation. Instead, what emerged was a calm, forensic account of how the Festivals and Fringe emerged in the city and grew to their current proportions.

In July last year, Spurtle responded to recent downpours by examining the current and long-term efficacy of Edinburgh’s £43M Water of Leith Flood Prevention Scheme (FPS).

As part of that, we reported the conclusion of the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA):

THERE'S ALWAYS CLEANING FLUID, BUT IS IT THE SOLUTION?

Councillors on the Culture & Communities Cmte last month approved a Report on Edinburgh Council’s Graffiti Strategy.

The Report comes at a time when anecdotal evidence suggests graffiti – or at least the repetitive territorial marks known as ‘tags’ as opposed to ‘street-art’ – have become more prevalent across the city.

Better Broughton is a new informal group set up by local residents to campaign for improvements to the corridor between Canonmills and the top of Leith Street.

Over recent months, the grounds of Drummond Tennis Club by East Scotland Street Lane have been energised and transformed by long-term member and general groundsman John Foxwell.

The approach-lane behind Bellevue Crescent has been completely cleared of rampant nettles, and an exciting flower/shrub bed is envisaged.

By the east of the pavilion, a veritable Wimbledon lawn has been established for loungers and picnickers.

COUNCIL HASN’T BLOWN £840K ON ONE QUESTIONNAIRE

On Wednesday, Spurtle reported the launch earlier in the week of a Council-backed questionnaire on the future use and maintenance of Edinburgh’s green spaces.

Our correspondent constructively criticised the survey’s lack of depth, its conflation of spaces, muddled phrasing, and technical shortcomings that make it diifficult and unreliable to use.

SURVEYS BEG MORE QUESTIONS THAN THEY ASK

City of Edinburgh Council has launched a new three-part consultation on how to enhance, protect, and care for the city’s parks and greenspaces over the next 30 years.

The Thriving Green Spaces Project is a partnership between the Council’s Parks, Greenspaces and Cemeteries Service and Greenspace Scotland, Scottish Wildlife Trust, Edinburgh and Lothians Greenspace Trust, Edinburgh University, and the Edinburgh Green Spaces Forum.

The Royal Botanic Garden will reopen to the public on Wednesday 1 July.

But be aware. If you want to visit the oasis in Inverleith, you’ll need to book a free time slot online before you turn up. You can do so HERE.

The pre-booking requirement applies to everyone, including members, carers, children, and babies (up to 8 people per booking) between 10am and 5pm (last entry at 4.45pm).

Yesterday we reported the mysterious overnight felling of a tree in Warriston Playing Fields.

When Eildon Street residents woke yesterday morning, they found that a tree on the boundary between their road and Warriston Playing Fields had been cut down in the night.

This seems to have been no officially sanctioned felling, or a random slash in the dark by a drunken teenager.

The substantial elder was systematically taken down with a hand saw in secret between 11pm and 7am.

One neighbour, who described the act of vandalism as ‘horrific’, told Spurtle, ‘Locals are fuming and children are devastated as it was a great climbing tree and they used it as a den.’