Latest news with #Lothian
Edinburgh Live
13 hours ago
- Automotive
- Edinburgh Live
Edinburgh motorists in huge queues again due to crash near Royal Highland Show
Our community members are treated to special offers, promotions and adverts from us and our partners. You can check out at any time. More info Get the latest Edinburgh Live breaking news on WhatsApp Edinburgh motorists are facing delays once again on the second day of the Royal Highland Show due to a crash near the ground. A collision has restricted the A8 just after Ratho Station with tailbacks forming on nearby routes on the second day of the annual event. Traffic Scotland urged those using the A8 Glasgow Road eastbound to use an alternative route if possible as it is currently blocked on approach to the Royal Highland Show west car park. They said: "Royal Highland Show - Congestion Update #A8 Glasgow Road eastbound is partially blocked on approach to the RHS WEST car park. "Please use alternative route, if at all possible. Delay from #M8 Livingston to RHS is approx 17 mins." It comes after major delays were reported on the same routes on Thursday with Lothian issuing service alerts for buses serving the A8 and A89. On Friday, June 20, Scottish City Link wrote: "SERVICE UPDATE: Expect delays of up to 60 mins on services to/from Edinburgh due to the Highland Show at Ingliston. "Affected routes: 900, 902, 909, AIR. Tickets valid on all services that day. #CitylinkUpdate."
Scotsman
4 days ago
- Sport
- Scotsman
Hibs boss in 'peak condition' goal as Gray reveals training key
With close season almost over, what should players expect on return to East Mains? Sign up to our Hibs football newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to Edinburgh News, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Hibs boss David Gray has revealed the one quality he looks for in every single training session – even if it leaves some of his players complaining about workload. And the gaffer is already looking forward to the planned new indoor facility at East Mains, as the prospect of escaping the worst of the east Lothian winters opens up new possibilities for the coaching staff. The bulk of the Hibs squad report back for pre-season on Friday, with international players given extra time off. Along with the strength and conditioning experts at Hibernian Training Centre, Gray has put together a programme intended to make sure his squad peaks for that first competitive fixture of the season – a vital Europa League qualifier on July 24 . Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad If the young manager's first full season is any guide, the emphasis will be on short, sharp and occasionally brutal sessions. With little room for respite. Gray, who has picked up lessons on getting the balance right not just from his playing days but as a member of the backroom staff under Jack Ross, Shaun Maloney, Lee Johnson and then Nick Montgomery, put his own stamp on proceedings when he took over as manager last summer. His focus on working defenders hard, especially, clearly paid off – eventually – as Hibs climbed from the foot of the table to finish third in the Scottish Premiership courtesy of a spectacular rally over the second half of the campaign. Rocky Bushiri reaped benefits despite grumbles Laughing as he admitted not every member of the squad enjoyed the pace set out at HTC, Gray revealed: 'I think we do train at a really high intensity especially in the early parts of the week. And especially defenders. 'I think if you speak to Rocky (Bushiri) he'll say training is too hard at times! But I think he's massively benefited from that because he's in fantastic form. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'He's in peak condition in terms of how I've seen him since he's been at the football club. And that's down to how hard he trains. 'The harder you train, especially early in the week, makes you more ready for the game so I think the stronger you can be. Especially defenders because they're all about concentration and being as fit as you can for later moments in games. 'But we do train properly in my opinion properly, with a real intensity. Every manager sees it differently - train in different ways, have different programmes in terms of what their working week looks like. 'That's something I've adapted over the time of working with the four coaches that I've worked with, every single one of them worked in a different way. It just depends how the coach wants to train. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'I've worked differently as a player, I've done different things as a player, so I've probably put a bit of that into it as well. 'I know the demands of Scottish football, know what it's like at HTC Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday in the winter when the wind is howling. How much quality work are you going to get in? 'Then it's pouring with rain and then it's snowing two seconds later and everything that comes with that. So trying to put everything together, I think we've got quite a good blend and balance of that this year.' Gray impressed by East Mains training ground plans Hibs have completed a land swap for a prime piece of ground near the existing HTC site, with club owner Ian Gordon declaring his intent to build new facilities – including a full-sized indoor pitch – at a facility now being used by both the men's and women's first teams, as well as academy sides. With work due to begin in 2026, Gray is eager to benefit from the new set-up. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The former Scottish Cup-winning captain said: 'One thing is Ian's very keen to get moving as quickly as we can. He wants to keep investing in the club and keep moving the club forward so it will be fantastic. 'The plans that I've seen are all geared to moving the club forward again and trying to get it into the next level. It'll take time, it always does, there's all sorts of planning and organisation to go into it but the sooner - I know Ian's wanting to push this forward as quickly as he can, so it'll be massively beneficial for the club as well.'
Scotsman
5 days ago
- Politics
- Scotsman
Long-serving Edinburgh and Lothian MSP Sarah Boyack to stand down at 2026 Scottish Parliament elections
Long-serving Labour MSP Sarah Boyack has announced she will not be standing at next year's Holyrood elections. Sign up to our daily newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to Edinburgh News, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... One of the original members of the new Scottish Parliament elected in 1999, she was made Minister for Transport and Environment in the first Scottish Cabinet She was MP for Edinburgh Central from 1999 until 2011 and then a Lothian list MSP from 2011 until 2016. Lothian MSP and Scottish Labour politician Sarah Boyack Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad And although she lost her seat at the 2016 election, she returned to the parliament three years later, again as a Lothian list MSP, after Kezia Dugdale stood down. And she was re-elected in 2021. Announcing her decision to step down, Ms Boyack said it had been 'the honour of my life' to serve as an MSP for almost 25 years. And she pledged that, although she would not be a candidate, she would work tirelessly for a Labour victory next year. Before politics, Ms Boyack worked as a town planner and then became a lecturer at Heriot-Watt University. But politics and devolution were in her blood - her father Jim Boyack was prominent in the Labour Party and a leading figure in the Campaign for a Scottish Assembly. Looking back last year on 25 years of the parliament, she told the Evening News she had never harboured ambitions for high office when she stood as candidate in Edinburgh Central in 1999. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad "The ambition for me was getting elected and I was thinking maybe I could be on a committee on a topic I care about, so to go in and become a Cabinet Secretary was unexpected and very exciting." Ms Boyack is the only current MSP who served in Donald Dewar's first Cabinet. In her role, in charge of transport, environment and planning, she was responsible for passing some of the Scottish Parliament's early landmark legislation, including free bus passes for the over 60s and the establishment of Scotland's first national parks. She continued in the role under new First Minister Henry McLeish after Donald Dewar's death, but she was not reappointed to the Cabinet when Jack McConnell took over in 2001. In 2003, she became convener of the Scottish Parliament's environment and rural development committee before returning to government in 2007 as Deputy Minister for the Environment and Rural Development. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Following Labour's heavy defeat in the 2011 Holyrood election, she co-chaired a review along with Jim Murphy of the Labour party in Scotland. And in 2014 she stood for the Scottish party leadership, finishing third in a race with Jim Murphy and Neil Findlay. Since returning to the parliament in 2019, she has served in multiple roles on the Labour front bench, most recently as spokesperson for Net Zero, Energy and Just Transition. And she also launched a member's bill to establish a Future Generations Commissioner for Scotland that is currently making its way through parliament. Ms Boyack said: 'It has been the honour of my life to serve as an MSP in the Scottish Parliament. I am proud of what I have achieved, both in my time in government and in my local campaigns for issues that matter to my constituents. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'It is great to see progress being made on issues such as a new eye pavilion for Edinburgh, funding for the King's Theatre and the Filmhouse, but not least on my Member's Bill to ensure a more sustainable future for all of Scotland. 'I will also continue to support causes close to my heart from Edinburgh's housing crisis to the battle to ensure we remain one of the cultural capitals of the world. 'Although I am not standing again, I will work tirelessly in the election to achieve a Scottish Labour victory in 2026. 'I have loved my time representing this amazing community and I hope to see Anas Sarwar as First Minister champion these causes and more to achieve a more prosperous, sustainable and just Scotland.'
BBC News
10-06-2025
- Health
- BBC News
Breastfeeding buddies closes down after funding cut
A breastfeeding support service which has helped mums of newborn babies for a decade has closed down after funding was Buddies was run by the National Childbirth Trust (NCT) charity in five hospitals in Greater Glasgow and Lothian, offering peer support to mothers who wanted to Scottish government had previously funded the scheme directly but this year it said it had allowed the health boards to decide how to meet local Greater Glasgow and Clyde and NHS Lothian will no longer fund the scheme but said they remained committed to ensuring women get the breastfeeding support they need. Parents who had used the service told BBC Scotland News they were concerned that midwives and health visitors were already overstretched and would not have enough time to devote to dedicated breastfeeding mum Katie said she relied on the help of Breastfeeding Buddies when she was in hospital with her son Oliver last was born premature after a high-risk pregnancy and, at first, she found positioning him for feeding said: ''They were able to come and check that his latch was OK and just give me that bit of emotional support because it is quite a vulnerable time for a new mother."My buddy was able to check the feeding position I had him in to make sure I was OK and help me make some changes to get the best out of initiating breastfeeding.''Katie said she got a lot of practical support which gave her the confidence to begin breastfeeding in public."It's something you think is going to come so naturally to you, however it isn't always that easy, especially with him being premature," she said. New mother Sophie told BBC Scotland News the breastfeeding support service had been a lifeline when her daughter Nora was born last year.''I was quite unwell before I had Nora so she had to come a bit early which meant she was taken to intensive care for a couple of days and we didn't get off to the easiest of starts," Sophie said."'That put us on the back foot with our breastfeeding.''Sophie said the maternity wards were busy and staffing was tight and it was not until she got home that issues around breastfeeding became said that being able to go to a community group offering breastfeeding support proved crucial."Being able to go to groups with other mums and sharing your experiences and also having the expertise of the peer supporters was really key for us in helping us to continue," Sophie said. Sadia Malik is a former Breastfeeding Buddy, who volunteered to help in Edinburgh after her baby spent time in intensive she's training to become a said: "I've seen how little time the midwives have and every time you go in the wards the midwives appreciate us so much - and the parents."As a student midwife, as a mum and a volunteer, I think it's devastating to see that support is going which was so much needed in the hospital and the communities." Public Health Scotland said there is strong evidence that breastfeeding protects the health of children and said that over the past decade increasing rates among younger women and those from ethnic minorities and more deprived areas had reduced health Breastfeeding Buddies service was run by the NCT charity in five hospitals and seven community had a staff team of nine and a volunteer pool of 82 specially-trained peer supporters, split between Glasgow and last services closed on 6 June and pregnant or new mums are being advised to go online for support or contact their midwife or health visitor for help and advice. Former NCT Glasgow services manager Kirsteen Buckney said: "When we first found out that we weren't getting funded, everybody that I work with was worried about the families we support and not about ourselves losing our jobs."Statistics show that 90% of parents stop breastfeeding because they didn't have the support to continue, so without the support there that's not a choice for them anymore.''It's quite heartbreaking.''A Scottish government spokeswoman said breastfeeding rates were the highest on record, with 49% of mothers breastfeeding between six and eight weeks after birth. She said a small number of areas had previously seen support provided by third sector organisations through direct Scottish government funding, but this year a decision was taken to only provide funding to NHS boards. "This will allow them to decide how best to meet local need, in a sustainable way, over the long term," she said. NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said it understood the concern the service being discontinued may bring and it ''remains committed to supporting breastfeeding women''.NHS Lothian's director of public health Dona Milne said: "We are aware of recent changes to the funding model from Scottish government and are committed to working alongside partners to ensure that women across Lothian get the support that they need."
The Herald Scotland
06-06-2025
- Business
- The Herald Scotland
Commuting by bus from Edinburgh's suburbs is awful. Here's my solution
This week's Herald investigation into The Future of Edinburgh serves as a timely reminder of the capital's national importance. Edinburgh is the beating economic heart of the country. With one of the strongest records on Gross Value Added in the UK, Edinburgh is making the money required to fix the other struggling cities and towns around it. And a massive part of Edinburgh's economic success lies in its ability to efficiently move workers into and around the city. Read more by Andy Maciver I have lived in Edinburgh for about 40 of my 45 years, with my only absences being short stints in Glasgow and Dundee. I grew up in Currie; not much over 5 miles from the city centre, it is pretty much the dictionary definition of a suburb. Growing up, the borders of my world were close; my primary concern was getting to school, which I did on foot or by bike. However my father worked in town, and normally relied on the bus. Looking back now, that journey on the Red 44 or the Green 66 was relatively easy because we lived close to the Lanark Road, but was more of an ordeal for the majority of people in the village who lived down the hill. Currie experienced a very substantial housebuilding boom in the 1960s and 1970s but, with the Water of Leith immediately to the south of the A70 Lanark Road, all the houses were built down in the fields to the north, and expansion inevitably took place further and further away from the main road. With a 20-minute walk up a hill to the Lanark Road, and a 45 minute bus journey, we begin to see this as a very, very long five miles. It can feel shorter for those who happen to be near Curriehill Railway Station (which sits on the Shotts Line), but with only one train an hour heading into town, this is not a service designed with commuter convenience in mind. I now live inside the City Bypass, in Morningside. As was the case when I lived in Currie, I am very near the main road, so I can walk out of the door and find an array of buses awaiting me. As it happens, I tend not to use them, and instead I cycle to work in town, trying to avoid swerving into one of the new Lothian electric buses as I dodge the potholes on our truly deplorable roads. Again, though, you do not have to stray far from the main road to find yourself marooned in a location with no bus route particularly nearby. Morningside is only two miles from the West End, but for people who have, perhaps, a 15 minute walk to the bus, and then sit for 30 minutes as the bus crawls through traffic on narrow streets, it can be an awfully long two miles. Lothian Buses are up to date (Image: free) For suburbanites living away from bus stops, especially those who are elderly or immobile, the car is and will remain a necessary feature in their lives, and we need to provide them with quieter roads. To do that, we need to give commuters who choose to use the car, or to stay at home, with better options. As a mechanism for getting suburban workers to work, Edinburgh's mass transit system needs to extend beyond the bus. Time is money, and with one of Scotland's key economic problems being a lack of productivity in the workforce, efficient mass transit starts to look significantly more important than it might at first glance appear. It is time not only for Edinburgh's local authority to generate new ideas, but for the Scottish Government to help. Scotland - all of Scotland - needs Edinburgh performing to its full potential. Edinburgh, conversely, is so economically successful that it relies on workers not only from its own suburbs but from Fife, the Borders, and Mid, West and East Lothian. Driving out of Edinburgh on a weekday morning tells you what you need to know. As you breeze along the M8, up the M9 or M90 or down the A1, A7, A68, A701 or A702, you count your lucky stars that you're heading out and not sitting at 5 mph trying to come in. Travelling on four wheels cannot be Edinburgh's answer, either for those coming in or for those already living in an EH postcode. There are game-changing options which, happily, would require relatively little capital investment, and in the spirit of the Herald's efforts this week to lift the lid on some of the key discussions the capital needs to have, I will offer two. Neither involve roads; the first involves the river, and the second involves the railway. The southern side of Fife - from Dunfermline and Rosyth round the coast through Aberdour, Burntisland, Kinghorn and up to Kirkcaldy - is constantly expanding and increasingly becoming an Edinburgh commuter belt. Rail can play a role here, but only for those who live relatively close to a station, so the roads take the strain. If only we had another method of connecting Fife and Edinburgh such as, say, a body of water like a river or estuary. Ah, but we do! I am by no means the first person to moot the idea of a ferry across the Forth, but past discussion seems too often to have revolved around a beach-to-beach tourist service rather than something to integrate with the mass transit network. Read more of our Future of Edinburgh series Instead, a rapid, regular, commuter-focussed service from a new park-and-sail at Dalgety Bay (probably), directly into the tram stop at Newhaven would be an efficient, productive option for the army of workers who come from the Kingdom every day. And, not to forget those of us who inhabit the city, we live on top of a railway line called the South Suburban, currently used only for freight. If we wanted a light rail line to complement the routes driven by Lothian Buses, cutting across the south suburbs and linking Haymarket at one end and Waverley at the other, with an easy spur to the Royal Infirmary, we could not possibly design one better than what we already have. It is easy for our local and national civil servants to spend a few decades poring over hundred-page strategies which lead to consultations which lead to more strategies which lead to more consultations. But when opportunities to fix Edinburgh's commuter transport problems are already sitting before our eyes, it mightn't be a bad idea to take them. Andy Maciver is Founding Director of Message Matters, and co-host of the Holyrood Sources podcast
