The Edinburgh Minute ⏰ Thursday 4 July 2024
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🌤️ Good morning Edinburgh. It’s polling day! Please vote if you haven’t already. Take a friend, ask them to bring a friend! Vote!
Here’s Thursday’s Edinburgh Minute.
🗳️ We all have one job today: Vote!
✏️ Polling stations are open from 7am to 10pm.
📍 Find your local polling station here, your local candidates here and remember to bring photo ID. Accepted forms of ID are listed here.
📮 The council’s emergency postal voting information is here.
📈 Now for the second-most important thing you’ll vote on today:
📲 There will be a few local journalists reporting live from the count at the Highland Hall of the Royal Highland Centre, Ingliston, where the box opening, count and declarations will all take place in front of the media.
⮑ Lauren Gilmour will be sending results for the Press Association and Tweeting here.
⮑ Edinburgh’s Local Democracy Reporter Donald Turvill will be there too and ‘Tweeting within an inch of my life’, he told me.
🤓 If you just can’t get enough and want to nerd-out even more on how the count in Edinburgh will work, the council has published the full process here.
🕐 If you need a bit more information on what’s expected to happen when on Thursday night into Friday morning, here are The Guardian’s hour-by-hour timings. Based on initial estimates, which the Guardian emphasises are estimates, only about eight results will be in by 1am on Friday.
⮑ The exit poll results will go live at 10pm. Channel 4 News explains the exit poll here.
⮑ I’ll include as much as I can in Friday’s 7am newsletter as usual.
📝 There’s a growing swell of quality local journalism happening here on Substack. Leading the way is Mill Media, which is four years old and currently operating in four cities: Manchester, Sheffield, Liverpool and Birmingham. Now they’ve got Scotland in their sights. Next to launch on their radar: Glasgow! They’re currently hiring for a staff writer in Glasgow; you can find out more and apply here.
🏨 A new £100 million hotel at 104-108 Princes Street has been approved by councillors. The seven-floor Ruby hotel will turn three adjoining properties into a 347 room hotel and a large retail unit. It's set to be ready to open in the middle of 2026, reports Kevin Quinn in the Evening News.
🗣️ Investigators are appealing for witnesses with connections to Donaldson’s School for Deaf Children, as part of the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry. - Robert Armour, Third Force News.
🎂 Edinburgh-based 2020 Bake Off winner Peter Sawkins handed King Charles and Queen Camilla a cake he had baked yesterday at Edinburgh Castle. - He shared these clips.
⮑ Anti-monarchy activists from Republic Edinburgh protested outside St Giles’ Cathedral while the Royals visited.
⚽️ Hearts have invited fans to join in a march as part of the club’s 150th anniversary celebrations. The13 July procession will be start at Haymarket War Memorial Memorial before the pre-season friendly with Leyton Orient. - Nigel Duncan, The Edinburgh Reporter.
🔥 The Powderhall Bronze foundry that made the Elm Row pigeons and Wojtek the bear statue in Princes Street Gardens has launched a new foundry tour. - Neil Johnstone, Evening News.
♻️ ‘Why I have a nagging fear another bin strikes dispute will blight Edinburgh's festivals’ - Brian Ferguson, The Scotsman.
🪩 Among the local creative industry jobs in this week’s Culture Minute:
Freelance Content Producer for this year’s Edinburgh International Book Festival.
One-year paid Operations Assistant Intern at Fruitmarket.
Curriculum Quality and Transformation Lead at the new Edinburgh Futures Institute building on Lauriston Place.
Senior Sales Assistant at Assai Records on Grindlay Street.
Musicians for Big Noise Wester Hailes.
Find more details and all of this week’s local culture news here.
📌 Edinburgh Minute Community Noticeboard
⮑ Got a weekend event to share? Get in touch using this form.
📌 “The summer edition of of the Portobello Reporter is now out. The Portobello Reporter is a community newspaper that keeps the residents of Portobello and district informed of local events little covered elsewhere.” - Thanks to ‘Tim, Porty resident & Minute Fan’ for sharing this!
📌 “The Hilda Houseplant Hospital is Crowdfunding! When our houseplants are happier and healthier - so are we, we want to finish renovating the unit at 128 Newhaven Road and we need your help to create the UK's first Houseplant Hospital.” - Rosanna Costelle, Founder, Hilda.
📌 “Exclusive Dining Experience - Fhior x Conor Toomey Saturday 13th & Sunday 14th July. The Fhior team and Conor will collaborate on a six-course menu from the open kitchen of Fhior’s private dining room.” - Thanks to the Soundbite PR team for sharing this.
📌 “The Sprint World Orienteering Championships 2024 take place from 12-16th July in Edinburgh. This festival of orienteering will attract 350 elite athletes and thousands of spectators to see the best in the world weave through the city’s historical attractions. There are free family friendly activities around the city - orienteering mazes, fun races and all the action on the big screens.” - Find more details here.
📮 Is that it? Something missing? Share your local news and events here.
📈 The most-visited links from the last newsletter:
OK, OK… here are the real top-3 links:
⏰ Thank you for reading daily edition number 406. This newsletter remains independent, free unless you want to pay, ad-free and proudly subscriber supported thanks to paying subscribers and 12,080+ free subscribers, sending 464,000+ visits to other local news sources since launch. The Minute is written between 5am and 7am every day and wouldn’t exist without paying subscribers. Please subscribe to keep this newsletter going. I can’t do it without your support. Thanks! (PS please vote)