Porty Podcast

Send us Fan Mail There was excitement in the air around the former Bellfield Church. Action Porty's application to the Scottish Land Fund has been successful! The Land Fund Committee has approved a grant of £647,500 which includes some £570,000 towards the purchase of the church and halls. The final part of the Community Right to Buy process will involve a ballot of Portobello residents. The...

Send us Fan Mail The 5-a-side football pitches in Portobello are under threat. It came as something of a shock both to users and to the local community when it emerged that the eight pitch site had been put up for sale. There hadn't been any consultation about this and the announcement came out of the blue. So a number of campaigns have been started to stop the sale - at least for the time be...

Send us Fan Mail Everyone who tends an orchard is looking for a bumper crop. Those involved with the Portobello Community Orchard are no different. And to make sure their wishes are granted, they've started a tradition of singing - or wassailing - to the trees at the start of the season in January. Today was wassailing day!

Send us Fan Mail When should children start dance classes? Well, at the Lothian Dance academy, the school rolls are now open to girls as young a 2! The academy has been in Portobello for many years and, for some families, it's almost an institution - the mothers who were pupils in the past are now sending their own offspring along today. The youngsters are very much part of the community. The...

Send us Fan Mail The Citizens Advice Bureaux are the places people turn to when they've a problem. The one in Portobello sees up to 80 people a week - that's about 4,000 people a year wanting help! Some of them might get help using the website - citizensadvice.org.uk/scotland - but the door is open if that doesn't work. The Porty Bureau offers drop-in sessions two mornings a week, o...

Send us Fan Mail The MSP Claudia Beamish was in Portobello on Monday night, consulting local people about her bill to ban onshore fracking. It was a well-attended meeting, strongly backed by 'Our Forth' - a Porty-based group which has already successfully campaigned against coal gasification.

Send us Fan Mail It's become one of the best music bars in Edinburgh. Every day, there are musicians - professional as well as local amateurs - performing, sometimes into the witching hour. There are jam sessions, new bands and family sing-a-long gatherings on a Sunday. But there's more to the Dalriada than just the music. It's used by all sorts of groups - from the monthly Dalriada...

Send us Fan Mail A somewhat serious episode this week. There was a talk at Porty Communicators last week which highlighted the blight of food poverty. There were many shocking statistics, not least that the DWP refer more people to food banks than anyone else! There is what they call a 'Basics Bank' in the area - 'basics' because it doesn't just distribute food but toiletr...

Send us Fan Mail It was lovely to hear that a local business in Portobello had won an award. The Skylark on the High Street is officially one of the best pubs in Scotland. It was one of six named in The Skinny Food & Drink Survey. Even better, they were voted for by the readers of the magazine. So what's the secret if its success?

Send us Fan Mail Happy New Year. We're starting 2017 with a competition. All the answers can be found by listening to the episode. It's about the Bellfield Brewery, set up by a couple of Portobello residents to satisfy a need for a beer that people with a gluten allergy or wheat intolerance could drink. It took a lot of research, testing out various alternatives to the usual ingredients...

Send us Fan Mail Christmas, for many, is a time for reflection, not just conspicuous consumption. With that in mind, we have handed the bandwidth for this, the last Porty Podcast of 2016, to the faith leaders in our community. The four of them - Sophia Marriage of St Mark's Episcopalian Church, Andy Scarcliffe of Portobello Baptist Church, Stewart Weaver of Portobello and Joppa Parish Church...

Send us Fan Mail Tommy Sheppard was elected in the SNP landslide in 2015, much to his surprise. He has taken his new responsibilities seriously and his contributions in the Commons have had their impact. He took the decision right from the start to make sure he listened to the voice of local people, with the heart of the constituency in Portobello and Craigmillar - indeed, his main constituency of...

Send us Fan Mail One of the great things about Portobello is the way people make use of the great big water feature right on our doorstep. There's sailing, kayaking and rowing - all under the banner of the Portobello Sailing and Kayaking Club or PSKC. The rowing section - RowPorty - is the only one which is a year round activity. It was one of the first members of the Scottish Coastal Rowing...

Send us Fan Mail The new Portobello High School was officially opened a few days ago, although the learners and staff have been in since October. It's an attractive, modern, very well equipped building that everyone seems to enjoy using. The school however is about more than a place of learning for young people. It is also designed to be a hub for the community with all sorts of activities ta...

Send us Fan Mail What is your greatest fear? One of the most common is speaking in public! There’s a global organisation called Toastmasters International which can help, mainly with public speaking. It’s a voluntary organisation, one of whose prime goals is to help people become much more confident when they stand up in front of an audience. There's a new branch in Portobello – Porty Communi...

Send us Fan Mail There’s been a significant change in the policing of Portobello – north east Edinburgh as a whole. It’s officially called Operation Rigoletto. What it means in practice has been putting boots back on the ground, having community police officers on the beat, speaking to the public and making sure that everyone in the community knows who their local officers are and are therefore wi...

Send us Fan Mail It’s that time of year again – oh no it isn’t – oh yes it is! It’s the time of year when otherwise sane and respectable people don loud, garish, outlandish costumes, tell bawdy jokes and entertain children and adults alike with traditional tales such as Cinderella, Aladdin or Puss in Boots. The Porty Panto is back again opening on Thursday the 9th of December. So what hero is the...

Send us Fan Mail Behind an anonymous bright yellow door lies the world of Tribe Porty. The brainchild of Dani Trudeau, an American who has lived in Portobello for many years, it's an eclectic blend of education for new families, personal development and a business support community for a wide variety of freelance creatives.

Send us Fan Mail Along at the Western edge of Portobello, Breadshare is a social enterprise determined to change our attitudes to food – to bread in particular. The business was started in the Borders about six years ago by two Australians – Deborah Riddell and Geoff Crowe – but they moved to Portobello to be closer to the Edinburgh market. Their business model is interesting – profit doesn’t real...

Send us Fan Mail For the last 21 years, Maureen Child has represented Portobello – and Craigmillar – on the City of Edinburgh Council. It’s been a challenging experience, especially now when increasing pressures are being placed on local authorities thanks to reduced budgets and reforms to what they can do. It’s been a hallmark of her time that Maureen’s been content to steer from behind, letting...

Send us Fan Mail Christmas is coming - and the Portobello Christmas Street Fest will take place on the 1st of December. Here, organisers, June Robertson and Bob Jefferson, explain what's on offer.

Send us Fan Mail The people of Portobello have achieved a Scottish first – the first urban community buy-out granted by the Scottish Government. Bellfield Church is a landmark building, dating back to the start of the 19th century. When the Church of Scotland decided to merge three of the parishes in the area, it was closed as a place of worship. But the community wanted to turn the building and i...