On the road with the city's fly-tipping team
Picking up after the rubbish dumpers who cost the city £2 million a year
Welcome to your midweek edition of The Inquirer.
For today’s long read, David Forysth hit the streets with one of the teams faced with the unenviable task of cleaning up behind Edinburgh’s fly-tippers.
It is a significant problem which costs around £2 million a year to deal with and has the feel of being an endless, uphill task. More on that after your usual news and cultural roundups.
Earlier this week, our paying members enjoyed an exclusive interview with the man who has been charged with calculating the full value of the Fringe to Scotland. If you missed Will Quinn’s interview with Professor Murray Pittock about the often unseen benefits of the Fringe, the challenges of chasing hard cultural data and the difference it can make, you can catch up here, Putting a price on the Fringe.
Your Edinburgh Briefing
MORE OPEN GARDENS? The owners of Edinburgh’s private gardens could be offered council help with maintenance in return for opening them up to greater public use. The idea is being proposed by Scottish Greens city councillor Dan Heap as a way of increasing access to green space. (You can read more about the city’s private gardens in Sarah McArthur’s long read We call it a private garden, but it is our back garden)
MORE GEORGE ST BARS: Three neighbouring shops units on George Street look set to become new food and drink venues. The former Hollister and House of Tweed stores would become the Caledonian Bar and Brasserie, while Amor Cashmere nextdoor would become the Edina whisky rooms, under two separate plans lodged with the city council.
HISTORIC OVERHAUL: A review of the work culture and practices at Historic Environment Scotland (HES) - the Edinburgh-based quango that oversees Edinburgh Castle and other historic properties - has recommended wide-ranging changes. Former Dundee City Council chief executive David Martin has made 30 recommendations including a streamlining senior management with the number of directors cut from eight to five. The review followed staff complaints of a “toxic” working culture.
COUNCIL BYELECTIONS: New SNP MSPs Simita Kumar and Kate Campbell have resigned their seats on the city council in a move which triggers two by-elections in the Southside/Newington and Portobello/Craigmillar wards in September. The Lib Dems’ Sanne Dijkstra-Downie and the Greens’ Kayleigh Kinross-O’Neill are expected to serve the remainder of their term at the local authority and stand down at the council elections in May next year.
ALL REFUELED: Fuel shortages which caused delays for passengers at Edinburgh Airport at the weekend were a result of short-term staffing issues with drivers, rather than wider geopolitical events, The BBC reports. The problem has been resolved and services have been running as normal this week.
LAVENDER MENACE: Today is your last chance to back the Save Lavender Menace appeal to keep Edinburgh’s pioneering queer book archive open. The appeal closes tonight after raising more than £34,000, and is on course to be able to pay staff for at least nine months while it continues to work on plans to secure its longer term future.
Pick of the (Cultural) Pops
Greetings, Pop Pickers!
We’ve enjoyed a lovely, if temporary, heatwave, and now it’s back to the brollies. But don’t let the grey skies fool you - the barometer might be plummeting, but the chart is absolutely red-hot this week! We have a sensational lineup of heavy-hitters, dark thrillers, and world-class symphonics battling it out for the top spots, and the competition is fiercely close.
Let’s count them down...
Honourable Mentions: The RSA, Kraftwerk & A Summerhall Revival
It is getting fiercely competitive at the edges of the chart. The RSA 200th Anniversary Exhibition (Royal Scottish Academy, open now until June 14th) holds its place in the mentions - not because its world-class standard has slipped, but purely because we have to make room for time-limited new arrivals. Over in the music world, electronic titans Kraftwerk (Edinburgh Playhouse, June 9th) bring their legendary multimedia tour to town, though it was solidly sold out the last time I checked. Finally, I’m keeping an eye on a quiet theatrical revival over at Summerhall; they are hosting Neil LaBute’s Autobahn (Friday and Saturday) before local treasures Strange Town mount their own mini-festival on June 13th and 14th. More on this as I find out!
New in at Number 5 is... RSNO: Elgar’s Cello Concerto (Usher Hall, Friday) Stepping up from last week’s near-misses is an evening of serious symphonic clout. The RSNO has drafted in the superb Kian Soltani to tackle Elgar’s defining, emotionally heavy cello concerto. When you pair an orchestra of this calibre with a soloist renowned for his depth of feeling, the result is bound to be a deeply compelling night of classical music.
Staying at Number 4 is... Sweat (Royal Lyceum Theatre, until June 13th)
Lynn Nottage’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play Sweat holds its ground. I couldn’t make it to the initial Glasgow opening of this Citizens Theatre co-production, but the whisper network among my fellow critics has remained nothing short of glowing - even in private, which is saying something! Directed by Joanna Bowman, it charts the unravelling friendships of factory workers facing job losses in Rust Belt Pennsylvania. With a superb creative team and cast, it is a taut, devastating look at class, loyalty, and survival.
New in at Number 3 is... Dracula (Festival Theatre, June 12th – 14th)
This is shaping up to be one of the hottest tickets in town. BIG Live’s dark, atmospheric ballet reimagining of the classic vampire myth arrives fresh from a sold-out run in London. Choreographed by Joel Burke, it features a powerhouse international cast drawn from heavy-hitters like the Mariinsky and English National Ballet. Set to a thundering classical score of Bach, Rachmaninov, and Mozart, reviews from its previous stops have rightly praised its rich storytelling and breathtaking performances. Given the sheer scale on display, it promises a spectacular night out.
Dropping to Number 2 is... The Marriage of Figaro (Festival Theatre, until Saturday)
Slipping slightly from the top spot is Scottish Opera’s staging of Mozart’s comic peak. Having now taken my seat, I found it to be a gorgeous production, even if it proved a little less perfect than I had originally expected. Still, Sir Thomas Allen’s directorial hand is clear, finding the breathless physical comedy without losing the sharp class warfare layered beneath Simon Higlett’s stunning period sets. The decision to sing it in English might upset the purists, but I really wouldn’t worry about them. With Dane Lam and Susannah Wapshott taking up the baton, it remains an intoxicating, effervescent triumph. On pedigree alone, it is hard to look past it.
Moving to Number 1 is... The Edinburgh International Children’s Festival (Various Venues, until Sunday)
Having fully immersed myself in the early days of this year’s programming, I have been absolutely floored by the sheer ambition on display. It is endlessly frustrating how often the wider arts world patronises youth-oriented productions, because the curators at Imaginate have delivered a slate of shows that easily rival anything aimed at the grown-ups. The quality across the board is breathtaking. Highlights so far include Marc Brew’s Boys Don’t Dance - which executes a thrilling choreographic collision of an 80s music video, a BMW, and a wheelchair - and the gently captivating comedic brilliance of In Time, which currently stands as my absolute favourite of an exceptionally strong pack. If you want to see genuinely uncompromising, wildly inventive storytelling that refuses to talk down to its audience, you need to grab a ticket immediately.
And that’s your Top 5! So pack up your brollies, cross your fingers for a sudden return of the sunshine, and brace yourselves for the inevitable threat of a bizarre June blizzard. Whatever the skies pull next, my notebook is packed, my pen is inked, and I’ll be right back out there on the aisle seats, figuring out exactly which tickets are worth your hard-earned cash.
How does the top five sit with you this week? Think I’ve entirely lost the plot with the rankings, or are you ready to jump into the comments and tell me just how right I am? Let’s have it out below!
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On the road with the city’s fly-tipping team
Picking up after the rubbish dumpers who cost the city £2 million a year
by David Forsyth
The two men looked at each other, exchanged a glance and quietly shook heads. We were less than an hour into their shift, picking up illegally and thoughtlessly discarded mattresses and worn-out sofas and we’d already picked up enough fly-tipped junk to furnish a small flat.
Fly-tipping is not an issue confined to rural landscapes. It’s a major issue in urban Edinburgh too, costing millions, blighting streets, and diverting hard-pressed public resources.
The team who deal with it carry out an important, often literally thankless, but Sisyphean task. Seemingly endless, the 21st century equivalent of being condemned to spend eternity rolling a huge boulder endlessly up a mountain, with no final apparent resolution. Unlike arrogant King Sisyphus, we’ve not brought this upon ourselves by angering the Gods of Ancient Greece.
Sadly, it’s because too many of us are simply not prepared to dispose of our unwanted rubbish through the many legal means available. Taking it free to a legal recycling centre or booking a low-cost bulky item uplift both come to mind. For many of those on benefits, the uplift can be free.
