It's time to Thinktastic!

Apologies once again for the lengthy delay since the last post; so much to do, so little time!
What's been happening down North Edinburgh way? Well, another NEN's out on the streets ('multi-tasking' last week; I was even on deliveries!). Our main story this month is the uncertain future of Royston School. The local primary is earmarked for closure next summer and over recent weeks there have been a number of deputations and consultation meetings; all well attended, all highly-charged but well behaved. The parents have acquitted themselves well and have put forward strong arguments for keeping the school open. No-one could doubt their passion for their school. There is a mighty problem, however. The city council's budget problems have been well documented and Education leader Marilyne MacLaren has had the unenviable job of explaining the rationale behind the closure proposals: in a nutshell, cuts to the Children and Families departmental budget of £14 million for each of the next three years. Ouch ...
Royston's real problem is it's geography: location, location, location. Both of Royston's near neighbours - Forthview and Granton - have spare capacity. It could have been Granton on the hit list, but Granton's nearest neighbour further to the east, Wardie, is a very popular school does not have any spare places. And that - alongside the fact that Forthview is a PPP school with binding contracts for 20 odd years - is the real problem for Royston. Nothing to do with attainment or teaching standards, it's simply a school in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Politicians don't do things that make them unpopular. There isn't a politician of any persuasion who would willingly choose to close a school. It's deeply unpopular, it's long remembered and it costs you votes. It's one of the more unwelcome choices politicians sometimes have to make. Opening new buildings, attending receptions, making speeches at celebratory events - yes, absolutely; voting to close schools ... different ball game entirely.
Tough choices. For administration councillors it's a cold hard welcome to power and to holding the city's purse strings. It's much easier for Opposition parties, of course - oppositions oppose, that's their job. So it seems we're all set for a December showdown, and the very real likelihood of a casting vote by the Lord Provost. Merry Christmas, Royston? We'll see ...

There were some cheerier stories in this month's NEN, though. Oaklands School staged their very own performance of 'Strictly Come Dancing', complete with judges and the voice of the BBC's Alan Dedicot, and it was absolutely brilliant. So much so that a STV film crew stayed for the whole performance - these guys are always chasing tight deadlines so the fact that they stayed to support the whole show speaks volumes.
And members of PROP Stress Centre launched a new tool in the fight to tackle smoking. 'Smoke Signals' is a new resource pack that will be used by smoking cessation workers to encourage discussion around the things that make people smoke. It was a very successful launch - although it deserved wider coverage - and I hope it's a success.
Further afield in Stockbridge (new part of our 'patch') a great-granny had her head shaved by celeb hairdresser Charlie Miller to support a cancer charity. The evening - which included a charity fashion show - was a great success and raised over £4000. Brilliant. Finished up in Hector's, a popular Stockbridge pub. Haven't been there for many years (we spent ages trying to remember all of it's previous names!) but we'll go back there soon.
Back in Stockbridge last weekend for a meal with Granton Information Centre staff. Venue this time was a wee Tex-Mex restaurant tucked away under a Chinese - great food, reasonably priced and a very good night. We'll go back there too.

Oddest event of the month was a 'Thinktastic' event at Easter Road, organised to think up ways of making Neighbourhood Partnerships more exciting - tough challenge! I attended the recent Inverleith Neighbourhood Partnership meeting at the Botanics and 'exciting' was not the first word to come to mind ... anyway, the first part of the day was to get all the 'negative vibes' out of the way. Seminar participants were asked to list all the negative things that stop you being creative - you know 'Haven't Got time', 'It's The Council's Fault','Nobody Listens', 'It's No' My Job', etc, etc.
Strangely enough my group really warmed to this task and quickly filled two sheets of flipchart paper. Sadly this exercise was brought to an end too soon - pity, as we were just warming up and really getting into the swing of it!
We moved on to a session where we were asked to think like nine year olds - that age of idealism where everything is possible. We were asked to come up with headlines that we would like to see in the 'Evening News' as written by children. I came up with 'Scott Monument turned into giant Helter Skelter for holidays' and I will wait in anticipation of my dream being realised. Sadly, I think it is even less - but only slightly less - likely to happen than Neighbourhood Partnerships becoming exciting in the near future!

The 'Thinktastic' event was held at Easter Road, and on the park there things have been almost 'thinktastic', too over the last few weeks - there has been some really nice football and it's refreshing to see a Hibs team set out to attack and go for goals. Hibs being Hibs, though, you can't expect two performances of the same quality back to back. Frustrating, exciting, mesmerising and infuriating - all in the space of 90 minutes sometimes! Knocked oot of the CIS Cup by a team they comfortably beat only three days before - that's the Hibs for you. And yet we're still sitting hird in the SPL - imagine if we could introduce some consistency! That would indeed be 'thinktastic' - but again unlikely ...
Meanwhile Brian and I are locked together in our BBC Scotland Predictor mini-league; joint top although admittedly there are only two of us in the League ... in the 'big' league we are jointly sitting around 4000th. In Jingln' Geordies Fantasy Football Caroline is still well up there - her players are picking up lots of points with very irritating regularity. Mine, as you've probably guessed, are not.

Entertainment highlight of the last few week's was 'The Steamie', which we saw at The King's. It's been a long time since I saw the play on television and the stage production was as fresh and as funny as I remembered. Great to be back in the theatre again and I have got tickets for 'Kes' at the same venue later this month. Should be good.

The community council nomination period has come and gone, and for Drylaw Telford it's been the election that never was. Only eight people put themselves forward in our patch, similar numbers to most of our neighbours. I must admit I'm disappointed with the response and I'd expected more interest, but there you are. I think we'll need to organise a 'Thinktastic!' session to get the members suitably motivated ... our annual general meeting will be held on 28 October.

And finally, our Westminster politicians are back at work after a well-earned break. Among their correspondence is a letter from the Standards Commissioner - the expenses saga has resurfaced. Thinktastic, Honourable Members!

The latest snap is autumn sun through the trees at Inverleith. The Botanics' West Gate finally reopened last week and the gardens were very busy on Sunday. It's still a magic place to be in autumn, though, despite the crowds ...