Porty News Episode 4

Send us Fan MailIt’s Wednesday the 3rd of February and this is the fourth bulletin from Porty News First, a couple of pieces of information from the City of Edinburgh Council! The first has to do with the brown bins we use for garden waste. As you know, households have to buy a permit costing £25 to benefit from this service and registration to join is open from now until 2pm on 16 February – and that’s the last opportunity to get the permit for this current year which, it seems, runs until the 7th of November. Apparently, garden waste collected last year was turned into over 20,000 tonnes of compost, which is used on farms, greenspaces and gardens – assuming you can get your hands on it during lockdown! tinyurl.com/105znx88 There’s also a reminder that we go to the polls in May for the Scottish Parliamentary elections. The Council is keen to stress that, if you want to vote in person, polling places will be safe – but they also wanted to remind us all that there are other ways to vote. So you can apply to vote by post or you can get someone else to vote on your behalf, otherwise known as a proxy vote. You can apply for one or t’other on the Lothian Valuation Joint Board website. https://www.lothian-vjb.gov.uk/ You may have seen that Porty Central is looking for a lawyer. It’s all to do with their hoped for change of status. They’re starting work on becoming a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation or SCIO to run the Town Hall when, in Geoff Pearson’s words “the Council agrees it should be managed by and for the community.” Portobello Central Ltd is as the name suggests currently a company, but the plan is to wind this up. Apparently the powers that be in the charities world provide a lot of guidance but the team think it might be helpful to have a lawyer, able to cast an eye over their work from time to time. And finally, the Portobello Bookshop has reminded us that it’s LGBTQ+ History Month! It will be stocking a selection of some of their favourite books from the genre, from the history of Stonewall to contemporary novels, poetry and essays. The bookshop will also be hosting, as part of the event, an online session with the novelist Niven Govinden to mark the publication of his latest book ‘Diary of a Film’. It will take place on the 23rd of this month where the author will be in conversation with Roland Gulliver, Director of the Toronto International Festival of Authors. Tickets cost £14.99 and the price includes a signed bookplate edition of the novel, which will be posted out following the event. https://theportobellobookshop.com/events/