Coastal community waits for promised windfall from battery storage plant
Plus: Extra buses and help for Leith four weeks after fire; and Art Walk Weekends for Porty
Welcome to your midweek edition of The Inquirer.
Sometimes we publish a long read that really resonates with many of you. One of those pieces was Sarah McArthur’s beautiful interview with artist Jacqueline Donachie who is creating the memorial to Dame Muriel Spark in Princes Street Gardens.
“I have just read your piece on Muriel. It is beautifully written with excellent observations,” said Ann. “It is such a thoughtful piece and you have clearly researched it well. I am definitely going to subscribe to the Edinburgh Inquirer now. Thanks for opening my eyes to it.”
“Thank you for writing such a well thought out and thorough piece,” said Juliet. “I so enjoyed reading it and I have to say it is quite rare these days to find such a well considered work in journalism.”
If you missed Sarah’s piece last week, you can catch up with it here: ‘Capturing the fun and capriciousness of a woman who never left home without her party shoes in a bag’
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Some of you will remember the local concerns we reported on around plans for a huge battery storage plant just 80 metres from homes in Cockenzie, East Lothian.
Eighteen months later, Sarah McArthur has been back to gauge how feelings might have changed in the community as works is underway on the controversial facility next to the former Cockenzie Power Station site. Things are not going as smoothly as many had hoped.
You can read Sarah’s latest report below, after your usual news update and some other parish notices.
Your Edinburgh Briefing
MORE BUSES AND HELP FOR LEITH: Council leader Jane Meagher says the £5m fire recovery fund announced for Edinburgh yesterday will pay for extra bus services to help ease traffic disruption during the Festivals. It will also pay for a support package for stricken businesses who have seen their takings hammered by all the disruption.
‘On track to reopen’: Deputy First Minister Jenny Gilruth confirmed Princes Street is on course to reopen in “the next two, two-and-a-half weeks”, in line with the council’s previous estimate. However, that timetable remains contingent on decent (non-windy) weather allowing work to progress.
Bus route changes: In the meantime, Lothian Buses has announced further changes to the bus diversions put in place following the fire, mainly taking diverted services off George Street and through the Old Town in an effort to keep the city moving during the Festivals.
Too little, too late? Deputy First Minister Jenny Gilruth defended the Scottish Government against accusations of a slow response as she announced the recovery fund during a visit to the fire site. However, Labour’s Meagher contrasted the size of the fund with the £10m provided in the wake of Glasgow’s Union Street fire, suggesting political bias towards SNP-supporting Glasgow might be behind the decision.
WAKE UP IN PARIS? Transport Scotland has set up a working group to explore the feasibility of establishing direct Caledonian Sleeper services from Edinburgh to European destinations. The move follows an election campaign commitment by the government. However, Liz Lloyd, Nicola Sturgeon’s former chief of staff, has cautioned the idea was previously torpedoed by capacity issues at London’s Euston Station.
PM HEARS CANCER PLEA: Prime Minister Andy Burnham has responded to an impassioned plea from Commonwealth Games swimmer Archie Goodburn for more money to be invested in brain cancer treatment and research. He has offered to meet the Edinburgh swimmer in-person to discuss the issue.
JOSH GOES AGAIN: Josh Kerr is setting his sights on the 1500m world record after following up his mile world record with a thrilling gold at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. His astonishing achievements have got some commentators asking if the Edinburgh runner is actually Scotland’s greatest athlete of all-time? We don’t know, but we can’t wait to vote for him in the BBC Sports Personality of the Year - assuming the former World Champion makes the shortlist this time!
ACCUSED IN COURT: A former boxing champion from Afghanistan has appeared in court in Greece charged with murdering Edinburgh woman Lisa (also known as Elizabeth-Jane) Ross. Sharif Ahmadzai, who had been living homeless in the city. is charged with stealing more than £8,000 from her bank using her stolen cards and disposing of her body in a suitcase. Members of Ms Ross’s church, City on a Hill in Gorgie, have paid tribute to her “big passion” for the missionary work she was carrying out in Greece.
SWITCHING AGAIN: Edinburgh and Lothians East Labour MSP Irshad Ahmed has had a change of heart after publicly backing Michael Marra to be the party’s next Scottish leader, then deleting his social media post and backing Joe Fagan instead. Colleagues have been quick to point out it is not the first time the former SNP and Alba candidate has switched sides.
GRAFFITI RUSH: The pristine look of North Bridge didn’t last long after eight years of renovation work was completed at the end of last week. At least six graffiti tags were reported within days and the council has promised swift action. A beefed-up team tackling graffiti is being funded by the city’s new Visitor Levy.
GALLERIES STRIKE: National Galleries staff are going on strike over cuts they claim could lead to collections being shut off to visitors. The Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union claims changes to rotas for gallery attendants mean it is “inevitable” rooms and floors will have to be shut. They plan to walk out on Friday evening to coincide with the opening of a new exhibition by photographer Catherine Opie at The Mound. The Galleries said staffing levels in its security and engagement teams had increased by 165 on last year, adding: “No one has lost their job and service delivery is unaffected.”
TAXING FOR FESTIVALS: The Visitor Levy is costing the Edinburgh International Festival £50,000 a year to accommodate performers and support staff, director Nicola Benedetti has warned. While she supports the Levy in principle, the question of extra support for the Festivals “needs to be addressed”, she said, especially following the Television Festival’s decision to quit Edinburgh for more affordable Manchester.
The eagle-eyed among you will have spotted there is no Will Quinn here today. The truth is Will is far too busy dashing from Fringe venue to Fringe venue - he’s already got a whole slew of preview shows under his belt - to write his usual Pick of the Cultural Pops. Besides, who could possibly pick five cultural highlights for the coming week in Edinburgh in August.
Don’t worry, stick with us. There is plenty to come from Will in the days and weeks ahead, as he brings you regular despatches on what you shouldn’t miss at this year’s Festivals.
One person he won’t be bumping into at the Fringe is the Prime Minister, who has pulled out of a planned appearance. Burnham had been due to take part in an “In Conversation” show at The Stand - the comedy club co-founded by former Scottish Labour General Secretary-turned-SNP MP Tommy Sheppard - on 19 August.
The PM passed up the opportunity to blame his withdrawal, following his elevation to Downing Street, on “unforeseen circumstances”. We haven’t yet been able to clarify whether his decision was influenced by the fact the airport tram still won’t be able to reach the doorstep of The Stand on York Place by then.
Art Walk festival returns to Porty with new weekends format
Exhibitions, walks and events to showcase seaside community’s creative spark this autumn
Dozens of artists will once again turn Portobello into a town-wide art gallery as the popular Art Walk festival returns with a new format this autumn.
Artist-led walking tours and exhibitions in homes, shops and community spaces will take place across two weekends in September. This year’s festival is arranged around six walking routes and 70 artists presenting their work across 53 locations on 5-6 and 12-13 September.
The theme is Shift and Flow and highlights include artists Minnie Scott and Sally Price presenting new works at Home Sales and Lettings, on the High Street, and the Portobello Bookshop respectively.
There will also be a Cressida Trail community project, inspired by artist Lauren Fox’s 2015 creation of a tidal octopus emerging out of the water of the Firth of Forth. Local schools and residents are being invited to create and display their own octopus drawings and share them on Instagram with the hashtag #cressidatrail
The full Art Walk Weekends programme is available here and you can read more about the history of the Art Walk festival in The arts festival beating the odds by the seaside.
Coastal community waits for promised windfall from battery storage plant
The regeneration around the Cockenzie Power Station site is not going as smoothly as hoped
by Sarah McArthur
A lot has happened in the 18 months since we reported on controversial plans for a large battery storage facility on a greenfield site next to the former Cockenzie coal-fired power station.
The demolition of the landmark power station on the seafront at Cockenzie in 2015 was supposed to create a once-in-a-generation regeneration opportunity for the coastal community.
At the time of our last report, East Lothian Council had recommended the battery storage facility for approval by the Scottish government, but local community councils and other campaign groups were strongly against it. The main objections in the local community were to the location of the site: on agricultural land rather than the neighbouring brownfield, and in very close proximity to homes leading to concerns for light and noise pollution and most seriously the increased fire risk.
A year and a half later, the battery storage site has been approved and construction is well underway. Oftentimes, public opinion on new developments mellows over time as people adapt to the idea of new homes, roads or energy infrastructure in their area, and as community benefit funds start to have an impact. So has the opposition to the Cockenzie battery facility waned?
“It’s gotten worse if anything,” says Ben Morse, chair of Cockenzie and Port Seton Community Council.
Works at the battery storage site started in February 2026 - in that time Morse describes a series of errors which have left the developers, Gresham House, far from good favour with locals. Morse says that contractors arrived without any prior communication and, despite months of discussions with the local access officer, fenced off a public path. Later a section of trees was mistakenly and needlessly cut down - only four months later an arboriculturalist was finally brought on site to advise on remediating the ecosystem. “We haven’t had great communication on all that - those two things alone are a really bad start, and it’s not really improved from there,” says Morse.
Morse also describes discussions with the project manager from Gresham House about complaints made by those living in close proximity to the site (the closest homes are 80 metres from the site). Residents have complained about diesel smells in their homes - this is apparently due to diesel generators which are running drainage pumps on the site, due to the site contractors not having access to the drainage for the new access road which is under construction. Morse says that Gresham House have refused to stop the diesel generators, arguing their hands are tied by lack of access to nearby road drainage, and saying the descriptions by locals must be exaggerated.
