National Spring Clean 2010.

We know, it's not even Christmas. However, Keep Scotland Beautiful (KSB) have already opened registration for National Spring Clean 2010. Last April 60,000 people volunteered accross Scotland to take part in the campaign, clearing a truly stupendous amount of litter from Scotlands public spaces. Greener Leith helped to organise two clean-up events in 2009, in Pilrig Park and along the walkway from Easter Road to Seaflield.

We'll certainly be planning a community clean up event to coincide with National Spring Clean month. Our question to Leithers is this: Which area should we choose?

More information on the National Spring Clean 2010 campaign is available on the Keep Scotland Beautiful website. The website features pages for different types of group; as well as information about what you need to organise your clean up, competition and offer details, case studies from last year and an online map of registered events. If you want to register your own event, KSB will even send you a clean-up kit nearer the time to help get you started.

Holyrood enquiry seeks your views on active travel

At Holyrood, The Transport, Infrastructure and Climate Change Committee is holding an inquiry into walking and cycling in Scotland. Whilst Greener Leith has already submitted the results of our We Love Leith Travel Survey to the committee for their consideration, individuals - such as you - can also give evidence.

The questions that the enquiry are asking are:

Question 1	What more can be done to encourage people to change their travelling habits and walk and cycle more?
Question 2	Is enough progress being made in developing and delivering improvements in the uptake of walking and cycling?
Question 3	If not, what are the barriers to progress? (for example, lack of policy development, lack of political leadership, lack of funding/investment, the lack of prominence given to active travel in transport policy development, project planning and construction etc.)
Question 4	Why do walking and cycling policies set out in national, regional and local transport plans not result in a greater modal share for walking and cycling?
Question 5	What further action is required by the Scottish Government, local authorities and other bodies to ensure that significant progress is made in the development and implementation of walking and cycling, particularly if transport is to make a greater and more meaningful contribution to the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions?
Question 6	What can Scotland learn from good practice/successful implementation in other countries?

You don't need to answer all of them if you don't want to, and the parliament will accept a submission by email. More information here:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/s3/committees/ticc/inquiries/ActiveTravelViews.htm

Cycling: It's not scary

Our We Love Leith travel coaches are not as scary as these people...There may be lots of scary things out and about on Halloween, but Greener Leith is determined to show people that cycling isn't frightening by inviting everyone to a "Cycling: It's not scary" event on the 31st of October, 2009.

As part of our We Love Leith campaign, we've given local volunteers the chance to get free accredited cycle leader, and bike maintenance training. Now the first volunteers have completed this training we're ready to run our first bike event. "Cycling: It's not scary," will be an easy, short cycle ride from the The Shore to the new Botanic Gardens Visitor centre - and we'll bring you back to The Shore again if you wish.

We plan to meet in the square opposite the Mal Maison hotel at 12pm, where we'll make sure that we give everyone a chance to practice their cycle skills (imagine a short 'cycle proficiency' course for grown-ups), and a free bike check before we leave. The route will be mainly on traffic free off road cycle paths, or low traffic roads. Everyone who takes part will get a free 'We Love Leith' travel map, and of course, there may even be a few We Love Leith bike bells on the go to.

Whilst you can simply turn up on the day, if you would like to come then we'd be grateful if you could let us know by contacting us.

Also, if you do come please bring with you:

• A bike!
• A responsible adult if you're over 18.
• Waterproofs, and warm gloves. (Lycra, or other kinds of fancy dress isn't required).
• A bike helmet.
• Bike lights - it may be dark by the time we get back.

Please also note that it is your responsibility to let us know if you have a medical condition that you think you, or someone you will be responsible for, may be affected by the ride. This could include, for example, diabetes, asthma, or a heart condition. You can simply tell the cycle leaders about any medical condition on the day, or you can tell us before hand, in confidence, using this contact form.

The bike ride will go ahead unless the weather is really bad. 

And lastly, for those of you who are over 18, we might take a little visit to Sofi's Bar afterwards - as there might be some really scary things in there.

Leith joins the Kitchen Canny Challenge

To get to your kitchen, the humble apple often makes a journey of several thousand miles after being grown, watered and harvested. It’s then packaged, chilled, and transported to the supermarket and then your home. But this common part of Scottish householders’ diets also contributes to the £70 million worth of fresh, edible fruit thrown away every year.

In direct response, Leith is joining communities across the Lothians and Borders by taking part in the Changeworks Kitchen Canny project. Over the next year, the project will be working with 3000 households overall to look at practical ways to cut down on the food they waste.

Greener Leith, the local organisation working with Changeworks, is now looking for local households to get involved. By trying out the Kitchen Canny action kit, households will get a real snapshot of the food they waste and lots of practical ideas on how to reduce it.

"Changeworks have produced a fantastic action kit that is easy and fun to use. I've no doubt that it will help anyone who takes part to cut the amount of food they waste, save cash and maybe even learn some new cooking tips.” says Alastair Tibbitt of Greener Leith.

Apart from throwing money down the drain (£430 a year in every household according to WRAP), all that food waste also ends up in landfill - and when it decomposes it produces methane, a gas that contibutes to climate change.

Anna Derricourt from Changeworks has seen a great response from householders currently taking part in the Lothians, “Already people are saying that it’s been really eye-opening because they didn’t know how much they were really throwing away and how easy it is to really make an impact.”

To get your free action kit or find out more go to www.changeworks.org.uk/kitchencanny or visit Greener Leith at the Changeworks office, 36 Newhaven Road.

Trees company

Some time ago, Greener Leith ran The Leith Links Ask, which asked local residents to vote for three proposals that would improve Leith Links. At the time, some people were surprised that proposals to plant 'mini-nature reserves', wildflowers and establish a 'Leith Gardens' came in high on the results list. 

It's therefore interesting to see that Leithers attitudes to their parks aren't so different from people who live in the rest of the city. The City of Edinburgh Council have just released the results of their 'Parks Survey' that sought, amongst other things, to identify what people value about their parks. Here's the list of things that people said they thought were 'very important' or 'quite important':

Aspect	%
Trees and woodlands	96%
Nature reserves	94%
Presence of wildlife	93%
Grassed areas	92%
Public toilets	77%
Facilities for young people	76%
Sports facilities	74%
Signage	74%
Educational activities	72%
Formal planting	68%
Allotments	65%
History of parks information	59%
Events in parks	57%

These figures are based on the views of just over 1000 residents from all over Edinburgh. It would seem that Leithers are not the only people to value green space, wildlife and trees. As we've noted previously however, it is unfortunate that Leithers have access to a lower amount of green space than other parts of Edinburgh, and the parks, and the play facilities we do have are not of the same quality as elsewhere. 

Interestingly, the report also highlights the fact that the older people get, the less likely they are to agree with the statement, "Edinburgh's parks meet my needs." Does this mean that more thought needs to be given to making parks enjoyable and accessible for older people too? The report suggests another possible reason for this trend -  is it because older people have higher expectations of maintenance than younger folk. If this is the case, perhaps this is a case where we should listen to our elders?

You can download the whole Parks Survey Report here.

Local residents call to cut traffic on the Shore

It's been almost a month since we organised Car Free Day on the Shore, and sadly it's taken us this long to get some usable film footage out of our camera. On the day, we spoke to George Johnson, who is the chair of a newly formed group in the area - The Friends of the Water of Leith. He kindly agreed to go on camera and share with us his groups thoughts about the traffic on the Shore. 

Do you agree with the Friends of the Water Of Leith? Or do you have other ideas that would help people to walk, cycle and take public transport more? We're asking everyone to vote in our Future Travel Action Plan here: http://www.weloveleith.com/future-travel-plan/

If you can't play the video, you should be able to watch it here.

Path Improvements On The Way?

Greener Leith has been working for months to persuade anyone who'll listen to us that the current barrier on the traffic free path from Easter Road to Hawkhill Avenue and Lochend Park needs to be removed. As you can see from the picture below, the barrier is designed as an extremely tight chicane, and it prevents cyclists, wheelchair users, and people with buggies from using the path altogether. 

It also looks really horrible.

You can see in the photograph, that the path surface deteriorates to mud for about 20 metres, before it joins a cobbled lane. So we're delighted to hear that, (subject to the approval of around £17,000 worth of funding from the Housing and Built Environment Sub Group of the Leith Neighbourhood Partnership)  the ugly barrier is set to be replaced with a new chicane that will allow most wheeled objects through,  and also that the muddy section of path will also be improved and brought up to the same standard as the rest of the footway.

This one improvement will make it possible to walk with a buggy, push a wheelchair or cycle all the way to Lochend Park, and both Meadowbank and Easter Road stadiums from the foot of Easter Road - with very little contact with motorised traffic.

We're particularly pleased about this improvement, as it supports our 'We Love Leith' campaign that seeks to inspire Leithers to choose a greener way to travel. Simple improvements like this make it even easier, not to mention more appealing, to walk and cycle. To date, hundreds of Leithers have so far made a We Love Leith pledge, and many are keen to walk, or cycle more with their kids to school. The removal of this barrier will make it possible for many more people to walk or cycle all the way from Lochend and Restalrig to Leith Academy without going on a busy road.

Redbraes Hydro Feasibility Study Confirmed

Greener Leith is pleased to announce that Community Energy Scotland have awarded funding to support a coalition of Edinburgh based community groups, including Greener Leith, to conduct detailed feasibility studies on developing hydro electricity generation on four sites along the Water of Leith.

The Redbraes weir was identified by previous research commissioned by the City of Edinburgh council, as one of 15 sites along the river, where microhydro may be feasible. This study suggested that a 'reverse archimedes screw' might be the best way to generate power from the Redbraes weir. This would be similar (but smaller) to the one in this video clip below, on the River Dart in Devon.

This latest funding award, worth about £6000 to the Leith area, will see the site assessed to see whether a microhydro scheme would in fact be feasible, both from a practical and financial perspective.  It will therefore look at issues like:

• The best technologies to use.
• Who owns the land.
• The impact on wildlife and flooding, and what could be done to reduce this.
• Estimating how much electricity, and money, the installation would generate each year.
• How it would be connected to the national grid and the costs of doing this.
• Installation, insurance and maintenance costs.

Although the site has the lowest capacity of the four sites being assessed in detail, we hope that it will nevertheless prove to be a viable project.

On its own, the project will never power the whole of Leith - but we do hope that it will provide a small income stream from selling renewable energy into the grid. If this is the case, our intention would be to establish a community managed company to invest any income from the project into helping residents nearby to cut their carbon footprint. The project could also play an exciting role as a demonstration and educational resource as well, with a possibility of linking with the Redbraes community garden (where volunteers have just won the 'Best Community Garden' award in this years Beautiful Edinburgh in Bloom competition). It would be visible from the public footpaths on the West bank of the river too.

Historically, the Water of Leith has been heavily modified along it's entire length, and the weirs were originally built to power mills during the industrial revolution. Therefore it seems fitting to try to bring these weirs back into use, providing a clean, green power source for local residents, using the best of modern technology.

If the project is workable, there is in an incredible amount of fundraising, and project development work to do - but at the moment we're optimistic about working with local residents groups like the Redbraes Residents Association to take the project to the next stage.

The other sites that will be investigated in detail as part of the same funding bid are Harperrig reservoir (Kirknewton Community Development Trust), Harlaw reservoir (Balerno Village Trust), and the larger of the two weirs in Dean village (Dean Village Association).

A ‘swap shop’ for Leith that can do great things for charity too!

Simon Pailin is one the people behind JumbleAID. We thought it was a fantastic idea, so we asked him to write a guest post for our blog to explain how it works. Here it is:

By Simon Pailin – JumbleAID.com

Greener Leith are doing a fantastic job for the local community and as a guest blogger I’d like to introduce JumbleAID to you all to see if it ticks the right boxes to help with your cause.

JumbleAID is a new ‘FREE to use’ fundraising website that enables anyone with an unwanted item to find a new home for it, thus keeping it out of landfill, and, in the process, converting it into valuable funds for their chosen charity.

JumbleAID’s mission is to ‘Keep stuff out of landfill and help charities at the same time’. It was born out of frustration with the throwaway society and a genuine wish to unlock the second and third hand value of unwanted stuff for the good of the community.

Although JumbleAID is a national organisation it can be used very effectively on a local level because of the clever searching facilities it has within the site.

JumbleAID creates a community that is all about giving and care for the environment and because nobody can list an item for personal or commercial gain and also because no item is taken totally for free, it cuts out any profiteering and opportunism found within sites such as ebay, Freecycle and Freegle.

How does it work?

Very similar to the ebay process, funds are raised by ‘Gifting’ unwanted stuff online and people make a donation in return for the items. The whole process is administered through the Jumble aid site and all money is securely collected and distributed to charities by Charities Trust – a not-for-profit charity specialising in the collection and distribution of charity funds. Their fees are fixed at a flat 4% to cover transaction charges and Gift Aid administration (the Gift Aid process has been approved by HMRC).

Not a penny of any donation goes to JumbleAID. JumbleAID sustains itself through advertising revenues on the site and selected sponsorship agreements.

So how could JumbleAID be used by the people of Leith?

As a community everyone within the Leith district who shares the views of and aims of Greener Leith could use JumbleAID to find new homes for unwanted stuff – it could be anything from a TV to a truck-load of top soil, from an old computer to a unwanted Christmas gift. There’s a new home out there for just about anything!

The person who gifts the item selects the charity to benefit (so it could be Greener Leith who you select to benefit, if you want to raise money to improve your local neighbourhood) - or a national charity such as Marie Curie Cancer Care. The choice is down to the "gifter."

When it comes to searching for stuff on the site you can select items near to any postcode so that it keeps the JumbleMILES down and keeps the items within the community. You can also search by different supported charities.

The word is starting to spread

The site is now starting to gain awareness through PR, social networking, search engine optimisation and ‘Group Schemes’ where an organisation uses the site to involve their members in community fundraising.

Promotion is starting to build with over 300 charities having contacted the site to register their interest and founding charity partners starting to spread the word in a whole range of communications.

The site is also developing a growing following with Local Authorities who, as advocates, are starting to recommend JumbleAID to the communities they serve as a worthwhile and responsible way of finding new homes for unwanted stuff and keeping it out of landfill.

Please have a look at the site and let us know what you all think and start listing your unwanted stuff today – it may well help someone in your community tomorrow!

Contact: Simon Pailin – JumbleAID Email simon@jumbleaid.com Tel 01422 820787

If you've got stuff you'd like to get rid of why not become a 'gifter' on JumbleAID and help Greener Leith in the process? To get started you need to register on the JumbleAID website at www.jumbleaid.com. When you go through the registration process, be sure to select Greener Leith as a favourite charity. Please also join the Greener Leith group using the code: JA0020 as this will allow us all to see how much money we've raised. If this all seems to technical we may be able to post unwanted items to JumbleAID for you. Please do get in touch if you'd like our help. 

Events in parks: who decides?

In the Meadows area local residents have been voicing their concerns over the use of the Meadows as an events venue for years, and this has now culminated in calls for council officers to develop a city wide Parks Events Strategy. Greener Leith, along with other community groups in the city, have recently been invited by the Friends of the Meadows and Bruntsfield Links to contribute towards a statement they're preparing to give to the officials involved. Apparently this document is set to be considered by councillors in November.

It would seem that a great deal of debate has been focussed on setting firm numbers on the duration, scale and the frequency of events in parks. The Greener Leith committee considered these issues and felt it that it was in fact very difficult to come up with hard a fast rules over what should and should not be permitted.

We are of no doubt that some parks are 'over used,' and for people who live close to over used parks then it is easy to understand the perception that commercial operators are able to clean-up on profits, whilst creating noise, mess and damage to the park, that the local residents have to live with - often for months later. 

Nevertheless, there are also parks that would benefit from greater use, and more events. Locally we've seen both sides of this equation. This year, for example, the news that the Mela would return to Pilrig park, generated a degree of concern from local residents over the potential for traffic, litter, noise and long term damage to the park. Changes were made by the organisers to accomodate these concerns, and it would seem little lasting damage resulted, this year at least.

On the other hand, Friends of Parks groups, such as the Friends of Montgomery Street Park are helping to bring their local pocket parks to life by organising events that encourage people into their local park, and perhaps to make more use of it longer term. In fact, the Friends of Montgomery Street park masterplan for improving their park includes more hard standing to make it easier to hold even more events in the park.

Each park is different, with different pressures, and different uses. Therefore, rather than a strategy that establishes hard and fast rules over the number, frequency or duration of events, we propose that responsibility for managing events in parks beyond a certain size is simply devolved to the various local Neighbourhood Partnerships.

If each Neighbourhood partnership had the power to veto events, or impose management conditions on particular events going ahead, then this could provide local democractic oversight over the events that take place in an area. Afterall, neighbourhood partnerships have all the right people around the table - local councillors, local community councillors, representatives from the emergency services, local businesses and local voluntary organisations. Why not give them the power to decide?