Porty News Episode 8

Send us Fan MailIt’s Tuesday the 9th of February. Welcome to this edition of Porty News. It seems that the Spaces for People scheme is now causing issues in Duddingston - in particular, the plans for Duddingston Road. The team running the project met up with the 4 local councillors and agreed to organise a residents’ meeting to discuss the concerns some residents have. Some of these include the idea that the scheme doesn’t really make sense here as it’s not part of a bigger network and cyclists don’t use the road much; that local residents can’t park in front of their house anymore, in particular blue badge holders especially as their driveways are too narrow to get in or out of their car from a wheelchair; that there’s more speeding on the road; and a number of other issues. The meeting will be held via Microsoft Teams tomorrow evening at 7pm. Those affected should have received an email which included the relevant meeting link.  Mid and East Lothian Chamber is based right next to the campus of Edinburgh College on Milton Road. It’s been drawing members attention to something called the Scottish Marine & Outdoor Tourism Restart Fund (catchy title) which was set up to support the marine, boating and outdoor adventure sectors, all of which have been significantly affected by the pandemic and are faced with seasonal re-commissioning and re-start costs ahead of the coming season. The fund is worth £2.5 million and was developed with Wild Scotland and Sail Scotland. It’s being delivered by VisitScotland on behalf of the Scottish Government. The only problem is that I have only just heard about this and applications are only open until 5pm tonight – so I would hope that those involved in the sector will already have heard about it! There’s a link in the transcript as usual. (Pic: ©PSKC) https://bit.ly/2LvNUAB Some of you may have noticed in Cllr Maureen Child’s latest update a reference to ‘20 minute neighbourhoods’. She points out that the concept is behind the development of space planning for the future of cities like Edinburgh – and that we have the makings of this in Portobello already.  So what are ‘20 minute neighbourhoods’? Well, according to the document she refers us to (again the full version can be found by following the link in the transcript) the aim is “to actively work towards all places becoming more connected and people living more locally in order to support everybody’s choices to enable wellbeing for our people and our planet.” https://bit.ly/2Nb1t9a Finally, I have seen a lot of comment online about the number of people in Portobello, myself included, who have received their appointments for the Co-Vid jag… at the Royal Highland Centre in Ingliston. We’ve heard of people who don’t drive being sent there – and those with serious mobility issues – and OK, Handicabs, as we heard on Thursday, are offering a free service to get people there. But we remain puzzled at why others, those over 70 it seems, are getting their injections nearby at the drive-through at Queen Margaret University. I’m just shy of 70 – so why do folk like me have to make a 25 mile round trip instead of going locally – which would have be how it would work in a ‘20 minute neighbourhood’, wouldn’t it?! Anyway, rant over. More tomorrow.