8 NEWS
No time to waste
Leith concert a tuneful fundraiser for Crisis Centre
By STAFF REPORTERFROM 1 NOVEMBER until the end of
February, Asda will serve everyone aged
60 and over soup, a roll and unlimited tea
and coffee for just £1 in any of Asda’s 205
cafés. The retailer first launched Winter
Warmers in November 2022 for two
months in a bid to support older
customers who were badly affected by
rising costs, with 65 to 74-year-olds
experiencing a £163 year-on-year drop in
disposable income in August 2022. More
than 650,000 £1 soup meals were served,
and the retailer has extended the deal
until 28 February in 2023.
The offer is available all day, every day
and will run alongside the Kids Eat for £
offer which continues to be hugely
popular, with more than 2.6 million
meals served since its launch in June
2022, and more than 180,000 in the last
four weeks alone.
The latest figures from Asda’s income
tracker reveal that 40% of the lowest
earning households are still experiencing
negative disposable income in
September, meaning that their income
does not cover what they need to spend
on bills and other essentials.
Kris Comerford, Asda’s Chief
Commercial Officer said: “We know
winter is set to be incredibly hard for
thousands of pensioners as they
continue to worry about how to keep
themselves warm in the face of rising
living costs and on a fixed income.
“Last year we served over 650,
meals to the over 60s in two months,
by bringing the initiative back for 2023
and extending it until February we
hope it will prove just as impactful
across the winter months for those
who need it most.”Eat for £1 at any
of Asda’s cafés
Have your say now on consultation on Holyrood Park strategic plan
By KIRSTY LEWINPROFESSOR JOHAN Rockström gave the 44th
TB Macaulay lecture in Edinburgh in the
majestic McEwan Hall. His lecture was about
some of his most internationally recognised
work - the Planetary Boundaries. The latest
iteration of this work, by an international team
of scientists, shows that there are nine
boundaries required for planetary resilience and
six of the nine are already being crossed. These
include climate stability, biodiversity and the
quality of our water and air. Crossing boundaries
carries severe consequences for us and nature.
We already have devasting floods, droughts,
forest fires and intensifying storms across the
world. Rockström explained that there will be no
safe landing on climate if we don’t act now to
bring the other planetary boundaries into a safe
space, too.
The professor’s overarching question affects us
all. What is the safe operating space for
humanity’s future on earth, and what are the
sustainable transformations that can take us
there? Given the robust scientific evidence of
where we are now, these questions feel both
terrifying and overwhelming. The only way
I can deal with them is considering them at a
local level.
It was with this in mind that I sat down to
read Historic Environment Scotland’s current
consultation on its strategic plan for Holyrood
Park. I was pleased to see that some of the major
issues covered in Professor Rockström’s lecture
are addressed at park scale. These include
managing the park in a way that makes a
positive contribution to both reducing
dangerous emissions and developing resilience
to the changing climate. For example, a lot more
carbon can be locked up in the soil and
vegetation to reduce emissions going into the
atmosphere through better management.
Improving surface water management can
also help safeguard the city. And significant
improvements can be made to the ecology
of the park to support diverse habitats for plants
and wildlife.
Other important aspects are the objectives to
create an inclusive park and to make active travel
the main travel mode to the park and through it.
Moving away from prioritising cars in spaces
like this is part of how we decarbonise the city,
by creating the space and confidence for many
people to take up less polluting travel modes.
All of us enjoy spending time in green spaceswith wildlife that are not dominated by
traffic and associated noise and pollution.
And all of us benefit from being able to walk,
wheel or cycle safely and comfortably without
having to worry about hazardous junctions or
close-passing drivers.
To achieve this in the park in an inclusive way
means ensuring that those disabled people who
currently rely on private cars to enjoy the park
have genuine accessible alternatives. The existing
status quo in Holyrood Park is inequitable, and
closing the road to motor vehicle traffic will
immediately open the paved and accessible
space to be used by people on mobility scooters,
children on bikes, and people pushing prams. It
is vital that disabled people are involved in
rapidly designing and facilitating sustainable
options for a truly inclusive park. One initiative
that can support inclusive access is Cycling
Without Age Scotland’s trishaws (photo above).
Low-carbon, community-led, inclusive transport
options like these can be part of the change
around the park. It is just one example of what
communities can do when the road space is
open for people walking, wheeling and cycling.
Professor Rockström’s messages to us wereclear. Humans have become the single most
influential species on the planet. We are living
now through the turbulence of our impacts with
devastating consequences on people,
biodiversity, and the natural processes that we
need to sustain us. We are reaching tipping
points that are irreversible.
Holyrood Park, with its massive presence in
Edinburgh, could become a beacon of what real
sustainability looks and feels like at the local
level. Please respond to the consultation and call
on Historic Environment Scotland to speed up
the implementation of these measures. There is
no time to waste.Read about the Planetary Boundaries here:
http://www.stockholmresilience.org/research/
planetary-boundaries.htmlRead Historic
Environment
Scotland’s document
here and respond
to the consultation
by activating the
QR code.LOCAL BAND CHIL plan a charity
gig in December for The Crisis
Centre which supports 2,000 people
in the city each year who are
experiencing emotional distress and
thoughts of self-harm or suicide. The
facility is run by charity, Penumbra
Mental Health and the teamoperates 24/7, 365 days a year.
The event is on 1 December at
Leith Dockers Club. Doors at 6pm.
Nick Bell, Centre Manager, said:
“It’s always great to have this kind of
support in the local community and
we couldn’t be more grateful to Jack
and the rest of CHIL for what they’redoing. The Crisis Centre has been in
the city for 15 years and each year
the number of people we support
and who phone in for advice
increases. Tickets are £10 and can be
booked by email laura.brownlie@
penumbra.org.uk.”
CHIL lead singer, Jack Hunter said:“We think support for mental health
is critical, especially in our current
climate. CHIL have experience of
these kinds of issues within our
families and friend groups. Some of
us have worked in the social sector
and were aware of the great work of
the Edinburgh Crisis Centre.”Reece Munro