Saturday 4th February is Portobello Market day! Come along to find all your regular stalls selling mouth-watering locally-produced and seasonal food, and local and upcycled crafts.
Where: Brighton Park, Brighton Place, Portobello, Edinburgh, EH15 1LJ
When: 9.30am — 1.30pm
A full list of stallholders for 4th February is available here.
When: 7pm Tuesday 28th February 2012
Where: The Scottish Café, The Mound, Edinburgh
Join Slow Food Scotland for an evening of food, film and conversation to celebrate our great Scottish food traditions.
In collaboration with Regional Screen Scotland, SFS are hosting the inaugural screening in Edinburgh of Meals on Reels, a series of films and extracts from the collection of Scottish Screen Archive at the National Library of Scotland. It’s a nostalgic look at food and drink products showcasing bygone products, methods of production and advertising before, during and after WW2. Divided into a ‘menu’ of footage, it features everything from Arbroath Smokies, Dundee Peh and Black Pudding to Dunlop Cheese, Lofty Peak cake and, of course, whisky.
Catherine Brown, Scotland’s most celebrated food writer, will be speaking on the evening, sharing her insights about Scotland’s food traditions.
You will be welcomed with a glass of wine and, before settling down for the screening and discussion, there’ll be a supper featuring products inspired by the film:
The cost is £25 per person.
For any enquiries, and to book, please contact Fiona Richmond on fionarichmond_836 [at] hotmail [dot] com or 07762 772014.
Please advise of any dietary requirements.
PEDAL has produced a guide to saving energy at home, written by energy experts and available on-line and in paper copy. The booklet answers some frequently asked questions and suggests a range of ways you can make your home more energy efficient – from using energy saving products to changing the way you run your home, and from installing insulation to generating your own renewable energy.
There are lots of tips with checklists in this booklet for you to record what you’ve looked at and done. We’ve included actions that are appropriate for older houses and tenements, as well as newly built ones.
You can download a copy here - PEDAL Energy Saving Booklet
Printed copies are available from:
A huge thank you to all who voted for us on Energyshare.com – we won, beating competition from nearly 1,000 other community renewables projects from around the UK! And thanks also to those who passed the message round their networks encouraging others to vote.
The prize is funding to complete feasibility and site investigation work for a community-owned wind turbine on land at Seafield Waste Water Treatment Works. The funding is very welcome but just as valuable is the demonstration of massive support from local people for the project.
With best wishes,
PEDAL and Greener Leith
Posted in Energy, Wind Turbine
This is an exciting opportunity to play a key role in growing the local food and craft economy in Portobello by overseeing the promotion of Portobello’s monthly market, and ensuring it’s growth and sustainability into the future. The role is varied in nature and would suit someone with skills and experience in marketing, retail, basic book-keeping, administration and working with volunteers. Candidates should also have a passion for local / organic food and sustainable development.
The successful candidate will be contracted on a self-employed basis.
Hours of work: 14 hours per month
Wage: £100 (gross) per month on a self-employed basis, plus 15% share of profits (after running costs) paid monthly.
Download the job description with person specification below:
To be considered for this contract, please submit your CV and a covering letter explaining why you want this role and what skills and experience you would bring to it, to:
Neil Woodward Company Secretary PEDAL – Portobello Transition Town 23A Bath Street Edinburgh EH14 1TJAlternatively you can send them by e-mail to market [at] pedal-porty [dot] org [dot] uk
Applications should be received no later than 5pm on Thursday 22nd December.
You should be available for interview on Friday 13th January 2012 and able to start work immediately in order to co-ordinate the market on Saturday 4th February 2012.
Two films over two weeks re-launching the Transition film evenings (note different times and venues);
*Please keep an eye out for this monthly regular event starting Jan 2012*
Mon 5th Dec. 6pm : Pedal-powered cinema!! with Occupy Edinburgh and Powerpod
Venue : Occupy, St Andrew Square
Screening : Money As Debt
Please come ready to cycle power the film keeping you warm at the same time!!
Money as Debt is a short animated documentary by Paul Grignon about the monetary systems practised through modern banking. The film presents the process of money creation by banks and warns of the economic system itself being the root causes of monetary instability.
see: http://www.moneyasdebt.net
* If anyone can bring their bike along to help power the film, we’d appreciate more bikes (with flat surfaced tires)!! Please let Roland know on ; rolandplayle [at] yahoo [dot] com
Mon 12th Dec. 7.30pm
Venue : Brass Monkey pub, 14 Drummond St.
Screening : Age of Stupid
Age of Stupid – film/documentary narrated by an archivist in 2050, looking back and asking ‘Why didn’t we save ourselves when we had the chance? Director Franny Armstrong (McLibel) used the “crowd-funding” model to finance the film, and then spent four years following seven real people’s stories from around the world to be interweaved: an Indian entrepreneur struggling to start a new low-cost airline, a Shell employee in New Orleans who rescued more than 100 people during Hurricane Katrina, an 82-year-old French mountain guide watching his beloved glaciers melt, two Iraqi refugee children searching for their elder brother, a young woman living in desperate poverty in Nigeria’s richest oil area and a windfarm developer in Britain battling those who don’t want his turbines to spoil their view.
! Help needed !
We need some help promoting and flyering this event which will be a regular monthly gathering from Jan 2012. If you can take some flyers / posters away to put in public places, we’d be grateful for any support. Likewise anyone who can spend an hour or two taking a stroll around your local shops, cafes and libraries to put up posters, will be much loved by many !
Posted in carbon reduction, events, Local Economy, Volunteering
A short plea by video from volunteer and turbine project stalwart Chas Booth on why you should vote for the Porty & Leith Community Wind Energy Project:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zGKjgL6fjI
Chas was speaking from the Energyshare final voting event in London today.
Thanks for representing, Chas!
You can vote for us (before 5PM) at www.energyshare.com/voting
Posted in Energy, Wind Turbine
Today, Rob Gibson, MSP for Caithness, Sutherland and Ross (Scottish National Party) placed the following motion in the Scottish Parliament:
Motion S4M-01448 — Rob Gibson (Caithness, Sutherland and Ross) (Scottish National Party) : Vote, Vote, Vote for Strathpeffer, Portobello and Leith
That the Parliament congratulates Strathpeffer Community Centre in Ross-shire and Portobello and Leith Community Wind Energy Project in Edinburgh for making it through to the final round of voting in the Energyshare.com contest to receive funding toward completion of their community renewables and energy saving projects; notes that they are the only Scottish projects to make it through to the final round and congratulates them on what it sees as their drive and tenacity in pursuing their projects to this stage; notes that they have chosen St Andrew’s Day, Scotland’s national day, to launch a campaign for Scots to support their two projects; notes that both projects have engaged with the local community in the promotion of renewable energy and energy saving; considers that community-owned renewables and energy saving can make an important contribution to tackling climate change and reducing fuel bills, and encourages all those who support community-owned renewables and energy saving to register their support for these projects on the energyshare.com website by 3 December 2011.
Supported by: Sandra White, Annabelle Ewing, Angus MacDonald, David Torrance, John Finnie, Dennis Robertson
You can also view this motion on the Scottish Parliament website.
Posted in Energy, Wind Turbine
Two Scottish community renewable energy projects have teamed up to
make a St. Andrew’s Day appeal for support. The two projects – one
from Edinburgh and the other from Strathpeffer in the Highlands – have
chosen Scotland’s national day to appeal for online votes to help them
win funding from the Energyshare fund.
River Cottage and Scottish Gas are putting power in the hands of the
people from across Scotland by encouraging them to vote in their
Energyshare Fund, a new green initiative giving the public a say on
where hundreds of thousands of pounds should be spent to help local
community energy projects.
The energyshare fund will enable communities to generate renewable
energy which will create an income stream to support a variety of
community activities.
Strathpeffer Community Centre in Ross-shire and Portobello & Leith
Community Wind Energy Project in Edinburgh are two locally run
community projects from Scotland who have made it through to the last
19 schemes (out of nearly 1000) in a bid to win the funding.
Portobello & Leith Community Wind Energy Project would see a
community-owned wind turbine built at Seafield in Edinburgh. In 2010,
PEDAL – Portobello Transition Town and Greener Leith, started working
together to explore the feasibility of a wind turbine on land at
Seafield Waste Water Treatment Works in Edinburgh. If successful, this
will be the first community-owned large scale wind project in a UK
city.
Charlotte Encombe, Chair of Greener Leith said: “Portobello & Leith
Community Wind Energy Project has the potential to make a big
difference to carbon emissions and generate substantial funding for
the next 25 years for local sustainable development projects which in
the current economic climate simply would not be considered
affordable. If we are successful, the funding will be a big step
towards reality for a project that could reduce CO2 emissions from
electricity generation by between 400 and 2000 tonnes per year over
the lifetime of the installation. We’d like as many Scots as possible
to show their support on this St. Andrew’s Day and vote for Portobello
& Leith Community Wind Energy Project by visiting
energyshare.com/voting.
Eva Schonveld, Chair of PEDAL – Portobello Transition Town said: “We
are delighted to have got this far in the Energyshare competition, but
if we are to turn our renewable vision into reality, we really need
Scots the world over to support our project on St. Andrew’s Day.”
Locally run, Strathpeffer Community Centre is open to all the
community. Despite being only 10 years old, the centre is not energy
efficient. The centre wants to be more efficient and reduce costs so
that the money the charity raises can go on activities for the
community and not on keeping the centre heated. They are concentrating
on installing practical energy saving measures including automatic
entrance doors, motion sensing light switches and loft insulation.
Clara Hickey, Strathpeffer Community Centre Manager said: “We are
delighted to be in the final nineteen community groups selected by
Scottish Gas and River Cottage to win the energyshare prize. We are
calling on people from across Scotland to vote for us as our project
is based on the practical things we can do to the centre to make it
more efficient and so save money on our electricity bill, small
changes will mean a lot to us and our community. We have had a great
deal of support from our village but need the whole of Scotland to now
get behind us and vote for us. We hope as many people cast their vote
for Strathpeffer by visiting energyshare.com/voting.”
River Cottage’s Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall said:“We have already seen
at energyshare.com communities who through either saving money on
their energy bills or creating income though energy generation have
reinvigorated key community facilities. The funding available is not
simply about turbines or solar PV, it’s about enabling people to make
their communities more sustainable – both environmentally and
economically.”
Gearoid Lane, Managing Director of British Gas New Markets, said:
“We’re seeing a genuine groundswell of interest around the country
from communities wanting to generate their own clean, green energy.
Energyshare is the first initiative of its kind that allows people to
have their say in how communities save and generate their own energy.”
There will be four recipients of funding, decided entirely by the
public via a vote that is taking place at energyshare.com/voting.
There are three categories: small, medium and large and people can
vote once in each category.
Strathpeffer is within the small category and Portobello and Leith
Community Wind Energy Project is within the medium category. They are
the only groups that have reached this final stage from Scotland.So
they hope to gain as much local support as they can in addition to
inspiring others across Britain with their exciting plans.
The public vote opened on 15 November and the winners will be
announced on 3rd December.
Anyone voting can become a winner too — River Cottage is giving away 5
books every day to voters. Plus, for the energyshare Group who gets
the most supporters voting, they can scoop a £1,000 cash prize.
Get involved now at energyshare.com/voting
Posted in Energy, Wind Turbine
This Saturday, 3rd December, is Portobello Market day! In addition to our regular stalls selling mouth-watering locally-produced and seasonal food, and local and upcycled crafts, this month we’ll have:
And at the PEDAL stall we’ll be launching our new energy saving advice booklet to help you keep cosy this winter while saving money and energy. Snap up your free copy while stocks last!
Where: Brighton Park, Brighton Place, Portobello
When: 9.30am — 1.30pm
A full list of stallholders for 3rd December is available from our market page.
