The Edinburgh Reporter October 2021

2 NEWS
Letters to the editor
Bin ill thought out hub plans
Editorial
HAVING A MONTHLY deadline is part of
the production of a newspaper and in our
spread this month we have shared stories of
other independent news titles just like The
Edinburgh Reporter.
The news websites and papers we feature
in our middle pages are either independently
owned or social enterprises - so-called not
for profit organisations. What they have
in common is that around a third of the
people running them spend more than
40 hours each week producing the news
for their readers.
At a recent conference held by
Independent Community News Network - of
which we are a founding member - the
numbers quoted were impressive. There are
125 independent titles who are members
of the industry body producing 22 million
page views each year. While most titles are
geographically based, as we are, there
are others which base themselves on a
particular topic.
PANDEMIC NEWS
A group set up by The Scottish Government is
currently examining ways of supporting
independent titles - perhaps by allowing
statutory advertising to be published there
and not just placed with the bigger dailies. I
have long advocated for this and hope this
time it will be successful.
Independent titles have produced tens of
thousands of articles about Covid-19 in the
last 19 months, but with little government
support. It is important to try and address
what is commonly referred to in that neat
phrase the “democratic deficit” - meaning
that not everyone has access to online and
may miss out on reliable information as
a result.
That is one of the reasons why The
Edinburgh Reporter newspaper exists - and I
am particularly proud that we have managed
to produce a newspaper every month in spite
of a marked decrease in advertising support.
Local businesses have had a very uncertain
year and it is no surprise to us that advertising
has possibly been the last thing on their
minds. We appreciate all of our advertisers
and hope that you can help them to help us
by offering any support.
Phyllis Stephen, Editor
Dear Madam,
The City of Edinburgh Council is to place hubs
of communal waste bins throughout the
heritage streets of the New Town. These hubs
will replace all the current waste collection
schemes, including the gull-proof bags (GPB)
and the communal landfill bins, along with red
and blue recycling boxes.
Each hub comprising 6 or 7 bins, will be
located within 50 metres of homes, which
means there will be a large number of them.
Elsewhere in Edinburgh, communal bins are
regularly abused, trade waste is dumped in and
around them, they are emptied carelessly and
many get damaged and not repaired, and they
are subject to graffiti tagging.
The council should be ashamed. This is not
what I would expect to see in the capital city of
a first-world nation. I am appalled that the
council believes this type of waste management
scheme is appropriate for any street in the city,
let alone the World Heritage, Georgian,
New Town streets. What would visitors think
when they come to see this iconic architecture
and have to put up with the sight of council
refuse dumps cluttering the 200 year-old
cobbled streets?
The council assert that the bin hubs will
increase recycling, but Freedom of Information
Covid - the numbers
THE NUMBER of cases
recently exceeded all previous
records with a high of 7,113
cases in Scotland on 29
August. On that date the
number of cases reported in
Lothian was 1,110, but an even
higher figure of 1,129 cases
was reached on 12 September.
The Scottish Government says
the variant of concern is now
Delta - more transmissible
than the Alpha variant. But the
government also said that
vaccines “still offer good
protection against new
infections”.
The reproduction or R
number (the average number
of secondary infections
produced by a single infected
GET IN
TOUCH
TODAY!
responses do not provide the evidence to
support their arguments.
The council abandoned the current schemes,
without planning permission, with no
consultation with residents or heritage
organisations, and without undertaking a
transparent environmental and social impact
assessment. In my view, the council members
have acted beyond any reasonable mandate and
unilaterally selected a scheme based purely on
cost - in other words, the lowest cost solution to
provide basic services regardless of the views of
stakeholders. Indeed, I have confirmation from
one councillor that cost was the primary driver.
I am deeply concerned that degrading the
beauty of the New Town, will further relegate
Edinburgh to a city with a reputation for scruffy,
person) was below 1 between
January and the middle of
May, and again for a period
between 9 June and 21 July,
but it then crept up to around
1.3 at the end of August.
The number of PCR tests
conducted in the past 19
months or so has now
exceeded 10 million at the
three regional hubs set up
around Scotland including one
at Lauriston Place in
Edinburgh. These also include
the four nations network of
Lighthouse labs, partner
laboratories and testing sites.
And the Scottish Ambulance
service has conducted more
than one million tests at
mobile testing units.
BRINGING THE NEWS TO YOU
THE EDINBURGH Reporter is
distributed through a network of
city businesses such as
supermarkets and Leith and
Stockbridge Markets on the first
weekend of the month. The paper is
also available from Summerhall, The
Scottish Storytelling Centre and
Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, Velvet
Easel Gallery in Portobello and at the
LifeCare Café in Stockbridge and the
Watershed Café on the canal.
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squalid streets, blighted by ugly bins, often
broken and overflowing, and surrounded with
trade waste and dumped household items. The
name ‘Auld Reekie’ is likely to be highly apt
once again.
The New Town and Broughton Community
Council is running a campaign to stop the bin
hubs and save the GPB scheme, which has
worked well for several years. For those of us
who are proud of our city, and do not want to
see it further deteriorate due to irresponsible
actions by a council that does not consult or
listen to its customers, I encourage others
sharing my concern to visit their website.
www.ntbcc.org.uk/bin-action/
Simon Price
Edinburgh EH3
And if you have any suggestions
as to places where we could
distribute our paper then please let
us know.
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About us...
We write about news relating to the Edinburgh area. If you
have any news, or if you would like to submit an article or
photograph for publication then please contact us
Editor: Phyllis Stephen
Designer: Felipe Perez
Photos: Martin P McAdam
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