The Edinburgh Minute ⏰ Weekend edition 7 - 9 June 2024
Leith Festival begins, Roseburn Path tram debate, local bike buses on the airwaves, Taylor Swift weather reports + get 30% off subscription to The Ferret
🌤️ Good morning Edinburgh. If you’re going to the Indie News Week event at the Grassmarket Project later today, see you there! Here’s Friday’s Edinburgh Minute, followed by the weekend guide for paying subscribers.
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💃 Thanks to Weather Forecaster Jo Farrow, who has shared this Taylor Swift-specific weather report:
“Taylor Swift weather, good news and bad. Plenty of fine, bright weather for each evening but it's not going to be warm. Singing and dancing will help but around Murrayfield it will feel chilly. There is a small (20%) chance of a heavy rain shower.”
⮑ The outlook in Jo’s forecast is also shared by Sean Batty:
⮑ The singer arrived in town yesterday at the Caledonian Hotel on Lothian Road, reported Bev Lyons in the Daily Record. If you want more photos of hundreds of fans queuing at Murrayfield already, STV News has them. Camping at the very front of the queue is 19-year-old Ellie Poule from Oxford, who spoke to her local paper about her queuing tactics.
⮑ The Reel Time Pipe Band entertained fans outside the stadium. - Forth 1.
⮑ And thanks to reader Ian who shared this selection of shop windows in Corstorphine near the stadium.
🏟️ The company staging Taylor Swift’s concerts, AEG, is also behind plans for the new 8,500-capacity indoor arena at Edinburgh Park. Councillors will vote next week on whether to approve the planned venue, reports Brian Ferguson in The Scotsman.
⮑ You can see the arena plans among the papers for next Wednesday’s council Development Management Sub-Committee, here. Also on the agenda: new flats next to Meadowbank Stadium, student flats in Ashley Place and Sciennes and a replacement building for Newcraighall Primary School.
🏨 A multi-million pound plan for a 350-bed hotel at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre has suffered a setback after a contractor pulled out of the scheme. - Jamie Saunderson, Evening News.
🚲 The Roseburn Path tram line extension plan is ‘the only option’, according to former council transport leader Lesley Hinds. She told Wednesday’s Spokes public meeting that the council’s other options were ‘undeliverable’. Speaking against the Roseburn Path plan, campaigners warned it would be ‘devastating for residents, wildlife and climate change’. - Ian Swanson reports from the meeting for the Evening News.
⮑ An estimated 185 people attended, with some turned away due to the capacity of the venue, Augustine United Church on George IV Bridge. - Spokes shared its coverage here.
⮑ Statements from all the meeting’s speakers are in Phyllis Stephen’s coverage in The Edinburgh Reporter.
🏥 NHS Lothian has been issued with seven enforcement notices by fire chiefs after safety tests at the Royal Infirmary. - Kris Gourlay, Edinburgh Live.
🏗️ Glencairn Properties secured planning permission for its student flats plan in Fountainbridge. - Gary Flockhart, Evening News.
👩🏫 A politician has criticised parents in Edinburgh for ‘gaming’ the system by flooding councils with requests for state school places to scare them into opposing VAT on public school fees. A private Facebook group with more than 2,000 members has advice for parents on how to to oppose the policy, reports Nicola Woolcock in The Times.
🍾 The two-floor Revolution pub and club on Chambers Street will be closing permanently in August. - Gary Flockhart, Evening News.
⚽️ The ‘Friday Night Lights’ community youth project at Leith Community Sports Hub has been expanded after police said it ‘contributed to a 25% reduction in antisocial behaviour’. The sport-focused project, set up to help prevent disadvantaged kids from being targeted by criminal gangs, is now being offered to youngsters in Niddrie and Gorgie. - Local Democracy Reporter, Donald Turvill, Midlothian View.
🍻 The Edinburgh-based Gig Buddies with Thera Trust have been chosen as a new beneficiary for Pilot Beer’s ‘Drinklusion’ fund. The Leith brewery launched the Drinklusion fund in 2018, donating 2p from each can of beer sold to charity initiatives. - Thanks to the Gig Buddies team for sharing more info here.
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📌 Local bike-bus organiser Jarlath Flynn was a guest on BBC’s most recent Out of Doors programme. Bike buses aim to be a safer way for kids to cycle to school. Jarlath took the show’s presenters on a ride while it picked up pupils along the way, who were also interviewed with their parents about the benefits of cycling to school. You can hear them at 36mins in and at 1hr 19mins. Asked ‘is this a middle class thing,’ he said: “At the moment, yes. But in less-privileged areas the parents don’t always have bikes. For some it’s just not feasible. At the moment we’ve got seven schools up and running with four in the pipeline. So word is spreading slowly. It’s just a citizen project but with the help and blessing of the police and council.”
🛝 Here’s this week’s Gayle’s Guide of family-friendly things to do in Edinburgh, including Leith Links Gala Day, Lego at the Botanics, Victoria Park Picnic and more.
📆 More things to do this weekend:
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