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Nov 5, 2024 | 
scottishbeacon.com | Broughton Spurtle
By Broughton SpurtleFew would bat an eye at the proposal to install solar panels in St Stephen’s Church, if only their HQ wasn’t a Catagory-A listed building. Playfair’s 1828 building is a New Town landmark to which the eye is drawn from vantage points across the city. The additions would be made to the octagonal roof behind and below the clock tower. Staran Architects Ltd produce photomontages of the likely appearance from all points of the compass.
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Aug 6, 2024 | 
scottishbeacon.com | Broughton Spurtle |Devon McCole |Greater Govanhill
The Edinburgh Nature Network is a joint initiative between the Scottish Wildlife Trust and Edinburgh Council. It describes itself as ‘a long-term strategic approach to manage, restore and enhance the urban landscape. It highlights opportunities to take action across the city, using natural solutions to address the threats of biodiversity loss and climate change.
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Jun 5, 2024 | 
scottishbeacon.com | Devon McCole |Alan McIntosh |Broughton Spurtle
“The guy who started it all off had seen the state of the Millburn Church in Renton, which was an A-listed building, the state of disrepair it had gotten into because nobody had done anything with it and didn’t want Kilmaronock to go the same way.” Mary Sweetland, is part of a group who saved the historic Kilmaronock Church, nestled along the historic route connecting Balloch and Stirling.
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Jun 5, 2024 | 
scottishbeacon.com | Alan McIntosh |Broughton Spurtle
Broughton Primary and Higher Grade School opened in November 1896 to much acclaim and excitement. Controversy attended lavish spending in such a (then) comparatively rustic setting. Critics asked why state-of-the-art facilities, including a heated swimming pool in the basement, should be located here when the grinding poverty and overcrowded conditions of schoolchildren in the Old Town were so obviously in need of attention.
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Mar 27, 2024 | 
scottishbeacon.com | Broughton Spurtle
Which visitors to Orkney should be paying a locally administered tax for staying here and which visitors shouldn’t? That’s what was up for discussion at the Scottish Parliament’s Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee on Tuesday 12 March. The Visitor Levy Bill has passed stage 1 and stage 2 in the Scottish Parliament where it was being scrutinised by MSPs of all parties at committee stage. It is at this point that amendments can be introduced. You can read more about the Bill here.
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Mar 7, 2024 | 
scottishbeacon.com | Broughton Spurtle
The popularity of sustainable shopping has surged in recent years, with the second-hand clothing market growing by 149 percent in the UK from 2016 to 2022. The familiar high street charity shops have been joined by new second-hand stores which provide a tailored shopping experience to specific target markets while still being beneficial to the environment. One expanding market for preloved fashion is childrenswear.
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Mar 5, 2024 | 
scottishbeacon.com | Broughton Spurtle |Fiona Grahame
Scottish Water plans to upgrade 51 combined sewage outfalls (CSOs) along the Water of Leith. It will position 27 screens to reduce visible sewage-related debris in the river and position 34 ‘event monitors on assets’. Scottish Water will implement these solutions to ‘unacceptable visual impacts’ (and another 108 such instances across Scotland) by 2027.
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Nov 1, 2023 | 
scottishbeacon.com | Gregor McMurtrie |Alan McIntosh |Broughton Spurtle
The latest “Mearns Voices” podcast from local writing group “Mearns Writers” is now available online, just in time for Hallowe’en. The podcast brings a selection of work from the Aberdeenshire-based writing group. The new episode features a Doric ghost story written and performed by Alistair Lawrie. “The Wind” is a sinister tale of a young man returning to an East Coast fishing town during an ungodly storm. Not unlike Stonehaven during Storm Babet, perhaps?
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Nov 1, 2023 | 
scottishbeacon.com | Alan McIntosh |Broughton Spurtle |Brian Palmer
Phase 1 of Edinburgh Council’s review of 46 community councils’ governance arrangements and boundaries began last month and consultation will continue until 18 Dec. This is the first statutory review since 2019, and its eventual recommendations will aim to reflect population and development changes across the capital and identify ways in which community councils could be more representative and better run. Increased budgets would help but aren’t on offer.
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Oct 2, 2023 | 
scottishbeacon.com | Alan McIntosh |Broughton Spurtle
Most schools in Orkney were closed for three days, the 26th, 27th and 28th of September, as school staff members of the trade union UNISON took industrial action after rejecting the latest pay offer from Local Authority organisation COSLA. From early years to secondary, schools closed their doors to children and young people as the three days of strike action took place. UNISON Orkney Local Services Branch is Orkney’s largest trade union branch, with over 600 members.
