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Charity spaces for New York Marathon
By DONALD TURVILL
Local Democracy ReporterA CONSULTATION about making
Edinburgh’s Spaces for People measures
permanent will be restarted following
“errors” by the council – costing thousands
of pounds and meaning the process will
take a further six months.
The blunder – which the council
admitted was an “unfortunate setback”- has come as a result of mistakes in active
travel plans advertised to the public
including inaccurate information on bus
lanes and yellow lines.
Transport Convener Cllr Scott Arthur
blamed contractors hired by the council for
the job and said the episode demonstrated
the need to “reduce our reliance on
external consultants”.
He argued that positives would come
out of the fiasco, including giving local
residents “extra time to tell us what they
think of these measures”.
Cllr Ross McKenzie said there was “no
positive spin” to put on the situation and
added another six months of consultation
is “the last thing we need”.
Cllr Jason Rust, Conservatives, who
raised residents’ concerns about the
advertising of ETROs, said: “The Council is
taking ‘experimental’ to a new level.
“It was alerted to serious concerns about
the ETRO process some months ago and
it’s therefore welcome that it has belatedly
taken action. However, the proof will be if
the Council actually take heed of the
responses and listen to local people.”
Spaces for People
consultation to
be restarted
By STAFF REPORTERAN EDINBURGH charity is
offering coveted spaces for
November’s New York
Marathon.
A Scots charity founder is
taking on his biggest
challenge yet, limbering up
to run the New York
Marathon and is looking for
contenders to join him.
Garreth Wood, who along
with his wife Nicola, set up
Edinburgh-based Kids
Operating Room, a charity
which installs paediatricsurgeries in low and
middle-income countries
around the world. Garreth
aims to fundraise to provide
more children with
lifesaving surgery.
The charity has access to
a number of spaces for the
Big Apple run - which can
arrange both flights and
accommodation and hope
that Scots will take up the
coveted places for the event
on 5 November.
Participants are being
asked to fundraise a
minimum of £1000 for KidsOperating Room to claim a
space. The New York
marathon is the biggest
marathon in the world with
just over 50,000 spaces
available – but with twice as
many applicants – so entries
are highly sought after. Kids
Operating Room is one of
the few UK charities who are
able to offer a space. The
marathon is likely to sell out
quickly so entrants are
encouraged to apply ASAP.
Kids Operating Room’s
founder Garreth Wood said:
“This is my first evermarathon and I can’t think
of a better place to do it.
I hope that some supportive
Scots might be up for
joining in and running
past some of the world’s
greatest landmarks,
improving children’s lives
with every mile.”If you would like a Kids
Operating Room place
for the New York Marathon
then please email
[email protected]
or visit http://www.KidsOR.org
for more information.Garreth WoodBy PHYLLIS STEPHEN
THE EDINBURGH International Festival did
not initially make an official announcement, but
there is to be no firework display from
Edinburgh Castle to end the three week long
cultural event. There was no mention of any
fireworks at either of the two launch events.
Organisers have confirmed that there is no
sponsor for the pyrotechnics and so it will not
happen this year. The last time there were
fireworks in August was in 2019, and any during
the pandemic were cancelled due to restrictions.
The pandemic also put paid to fireworks to
music for the 75th year's celebrations in 2022.
Since the display began in 1982 around 400,
fireworks were used in each display sponsored
by the Bank of Scotland and then Virgin Money.
When the display was first put on crowds of
up to 250,000 lined the streets around Princes
Street and George Street to get a view of the
spectacular display.
An EIF spokeswoman said: "The International
Festival won't be staging the fireworks this year.
"The fireworks have always been dependent
on a major sponsor, and we do not have one to
support the event this year.
"We will be speaking with the other August
festivals and The City of Edinburgh Council
to see what form a large-scale closing event
might take in the future, that would replace
the fireworks."
On the final weekend there will be recorded
music piped into Charlotte Square Garden. This
is described by the festival as a "musical oasis".
When we spoke to Festival Director Nicola
Benedetti earlier in the week she explained
more about it.
It seems a little surprising to use this garden
again which was used by The Edinburgh
International Book Festival for so many years.
And the International Festival plan on using
recorded music when the month will have been
full of live events.When asked, Ms Benedetti explained: “I
think the idea for us is just a little bit more of a
casual and social interaction with music. So
things that you can happen upon. For some
people, the notion of sitting still for an hour or
two hours, that’s not for everyone. So we want
to be able to still make the greatest of art
available for those who would like it in more of
a sort of fluid environment.”
Last year live music from the Philadelphia
Orchestra was streamed to the Ross Bandstand
at the end of August but the fireworks to music
will be absent
There is an opening celebration which will be
held in Princes Street Gardens free to all with a
celebration of professional and community
music-making from Scottish artists
And as part of the EIF a capsule programme
curated by the Edinburgh International Film
Festival will be screened showing the work of
local and global filmmakers. Full programme
will be announced in June.Festival
to lose
its spark
No fireworks sponsor
for this year’s EIF
Martin P McAdam