Rising SNP star makes history as first ethnic minority woman leader

Plus: Memorial appeal for homeless man who died on streets and business plea on Low Emission Zone

May 06, 2024

The SNP have chosen Simita Kumar as leader of their city council group in a landmark step for equality in the Capital’s politics.

The 36-year-old councillor is both the first person from an ethnic minority to lead a political group on the city council and the first woman to lead the city’s SNP group.

Originally from the Fiji Islands, Kumar moved to Scotland at the age of 17 and has worked in public health and social care, including at the Sick Kids, alongside her council duties. She is the only one of the 63 city councillors to come from an ethnic minority.

She said: “I hope to inspire and pave the way for more diverse voices in our political landscape.”

Cllr Kumar will lead the biggest political group on the council after being elected by the party’s 18 city councillors. The SNP are in opposition after being ditched by their former coalition partners Labour who are running a minority administration with the support of the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives.

Rising star: First elected in 2022, as the councillor for Southside/Newington, she has also been selected as a prospective MP, and will fight the Edinburgh South seat against Labour’s Ian Murray at the upcoming General Election.

Environmental agenda: Cllr Kumar belongs to the left of her party, and has been a supporter of tight regulation of short-term lets and action on active travel, the environment and social inequalities, as well as campaigning to protect services for schools pupils with additional support needs. As most political leaders do, she has pledged to work “collegiately” with other parties, following acrimonious cross-party relations on the council in recent years.

Rugby daft: She is a big rugby fan, particularly of rugby sevens, and recently took up wild swimming in the North Sea.

YOUR EDINBURGH BRIEFING

REBUS RELAUNCH: Does he look familiar? Too young and too good-looking? Inspector Rebus might not look like the disheveled figure we have grown used to when he returns to our screens in Rebus, but with screenwriter Gregory Burke - the writer behind the brilliant theatre hit Black Watch - reimagining Ian Rankin’s creation the drama is unlikely to disappoint. New images released by the BBC to promote its imminent release show Outlander and The Replacement star Richard Rankin as the quintessential Edinburgh detective. All episodes will be available on BBC iPlayer from 6am on Friday, 17 May, with episode one airing on BBC Scotland that evening and on BBC One the following night.

‘WEE JIMMY’ MEMORIAL: The community in Corstorphine are raising money for a memorial bench and church service for homeless Danny McClean - known affectionately as Wee Jimmy - who died while living rough on Glasgow Road. A memorial service will be held at St Thomas’s Church on 20 May at 7pm and locals who looked after him with warm clothes and hot food and drink have launched a crowdfunder to pay for installing a bench in his honour.

APPROACH ROAD CLOSES: A section of West Approach Road is to close for a month, from today until Friday, June 7, to allow for repairs to four bridges. The two-lane section of the road between Roseburn Street and the Dundee Street flyover will be closed - the section from Dundee Street to Lothian Road will remain open - with diversions in place.

…AND WAVERLEY BRIDGE REOPENS TO BUSES: Waverley Bridge to temporarily reopen to buses after four years to accommodate development work on the nearby Jenners building. Bus stops will be moved from South St David Street under a traffic order which comes into effect on 24 June for up to two years.

NAZI ‘SPIED ON MINERS’: A Nazi death squad commander who was allowed to build a new life in Midlothian reportedly spied on militant miners for the British security services. Suspected war criminal Anton Gecas worked as a manager at Bilston Glen Colliery in the 1980s after leading an SS-affiliated regiment in Lithuania during the Second World War said to have killed 50,000 Jews, communists and resistance fighters. Newly declassified files reported by The Times say he was installed as an anti-communist informant within the National Coal Board for the intelligence services.

MINISTER FOR HOUSING? John Swinney is facing calls to create a Cabinet post for a housing minister after his expected swearing in as the new First Minister. Homeless charity Shelter says the move is important if Scotland is to take meaningful action to tackle the growing affordable housing crisis in Edinburgh and other parts of the country. There is speculation Swinney may include the role in a new, slimmed down Cabinet.

FRINGE ‘BEING DILUTED’: Comedian Ivo Graham is the latest to raise concerns about the Fringe’s accommodation cost crisis, saying many comics are now doing shorter runs in Edinburgh as a result. “Last year’s Fringe was possibly my favourite I’ve done, but it’s all being diluted a bit,” he told inews. “It’s something people are very concerned about and would like to see more done.”

DOOR OPENING: The Fringe is not the only arts festival which the city council has helped to find a long-term home, with the Hidden Door festival being handed a 10-year lease on an office space in Lauriston Place. Fittingly for the volunteer-led charity which specialises in bringing empty spaces to life it is moving into an office which has been sitting empty. The award-winning festival has been a revelation since launching in 2014, staging an eclectic mix of arts events in vacant buildings across the city. See That’s Entertainment below for details of its 10th anniversary event this weekend.

FLORAL GLORY: The world-renowned flower show Fleurs de Villes is returning to Edinburgh where it will feature floral tributes to Rabbie Burns, Annie Lennox, Charles Rennie Mackintosh and John Byrne among others. The organisers of the spectacular shows which are staged from New York to Sydney will debut its Artiste show at the Royal Botanic Garden from 31 May to 9 June.

DONATION IN THE BAG: Homelessness charity Cyrenians is to receive £120,000 from the John Lewis Partnership Foundation in Edinburgh to fund its work supporting disadvantaged young people into college. The money was raised through the sale of carrier bags to customers at the city branch of the department store.

DELAYED FAST TRAINS: Four-hour Edinburgh to London train services designed to entice passengers from air travel to rail have been put back until next year, amid wrangling over timetables, The Times report.

THE BUSINESS

Protect our night-time economy plea as LEZ due to kick off

Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce has appealed to the city council to take steps to support the city centre’s businesses – in particularly hospitality businesses and the night-time economy – when the Low Emission Zone is introduced next month.

The scheme goes live on June 1, with non-compliant vehicles which enter the LEZ incurring fines starting at £60, as the council seeks to cut congestion, improve air quality and move towards its target of a net zero city.

The Chamber’s plea follows the introduction of a LEZ in Glasgow, which the hospitality industry maintains has been hugely damaging to the night-time economy with many businesses closing.

Transport Convener Cllr Scott Arthur said: “Our information campaign started two years ago to give people time to get ready, and to make sure they avoid penalties once enforcement begins. Indeed, compliance is already on the rise. Many vehicles are already compliant – over 95% of petrol vehicles already comply with LEZ emission standards. Lothian Buses’ fleet is 100% compliant, and Edinburgh taxis and PHCs (private hire cars) will be by the 1 June.”

A spokesperson for the Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce said that while continuing to seek further improvement in air quality is important for good public health there are other aspects of learning. “In particular, sufficient public and taxi transport must be available for those enjoying or working in Edinburgh’s very important city centre night-time economy, which supports tens of thousands of jobs.

“This has been a particularly difficult issue in Glasgow, and the city council here must ensure that we do not see a similar outcome in Edinburgh. The hospitality industry has been through an extraordinarily difficult time - and is still suffering and fragile in its recovery - and the LEZ must not create additional difficulties.“

The statement added: “While it is encouraging to see that the city’s public transport - and its taxi operators - are likely to be entirely compliant by the scheme’s launch, it is also still the case that many small businesses, particularly those who make multiple trips into the city centre and use vans, need to be supported through awareness and signposting to funding to become compliant.”

PURE OXYGEN LAUNCHED: Edinburgh-based PURE Spa & Beauty is launching access to a natural healing process used by sporting stars including Michael Phelps, Le Bron James and Christiano Ronaldo.

In partnership with fellow Scottish brand, 02Worx, PURE Spa is launching Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy in 16 of its spa locations across the United Kingdom including those in Edinburgh. The treatment involves breathing between 90 - 95% pure oxygen in a pressurised environment to speed up the body’s natural healing process.

Becky Lumsden, PURE Founder and CEO is thrilled to partner with another Scottish wellness business on the rollout: “I’m thrilled we can now offer Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy at 16 of our spa locations in the UK so our clients can feel all of the incredible benefits of PURE Oxygen.”

GROWTH BATTERY POWERED: Bathgate-based Invinity Energy System is to expand its footprint, with the opening of a new manufacturing site creating up to 41 new jobs following a round of fundraising.

The UK Infrastructure Bank made a £25m direct equity investment into the maker of vanadium flow batteries, to support the commercial development of longer-duration energy storage, as the cornerstone of fundraising which generated £56m which is subject to the approval of the company’s shareholders at a general meeting to be held later this month.

INTEREST IN BANK VIEW: The Bank of England will make an announcement on interest rates on Thursday, with the smart money expecting more signal than action on any potential cut. The Bank is expected to keep rates at a 16-year high of 5.25 per cent, and pundits will instead be looking for clues on whether policymakers see June or August as an opportunity to begin cutting borrowing costs.

The bank decision will be followed on Friday by gross domestic product data that is predicted to show the UK economy left its 2023 shallow recession in the first quarter.

THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT

HIDDEN DOOR: The Hidden Door festival is going underground to celebrate its 10th birthday with a weekend of music and arts in the St James Quarter car park. The festival that brings art to life in the city’s forgotten spaces is staging two nights of music, visual art and much more in the shopping centre’s huge Basement 3 car park on 10-11 May. Highlights include Maranta’s acclaimed ‘art-electronica’ show Microsteria and the work of 18 artists and collectives that have appeared at previous Hidden Door festivals.

ALL SHOOK UP: Starring not one, not two, but three winners of the Elvis impersonators’ equivalent of the Champions League - the Elvis Presley Enterprises’ Ultimate Elvis Tribute Artist Contest - this tribute show is billed as “the world’s biggest, best and most successful”. Direct from the US - where else? - The Elvis Tribute Artist World Tour comes to the Playhouse on Tuesday, 14 May.

FOLK FILM: As Tradfest brings top class folk music to the Capital throughout the week, there is no better time for the Folk Film Gathering to be doing the same thing on the big screen. From a masterpiece of Ukrainian art house film, accompanied by Edinburgh’s Ukrainian Choir, to musicians from Finland to Sutherland, there is an eclectic programme to choose from at the Cameo Picturehouse and Scottish Storytelling Centre.

BOOK NOW FOR… Maggie and Me has already sold out the opening night of its run at the Traverse from the 12-15 June. Adapted from Damian Barr’s award-winning coming-of-age and coming out memoir, the play is already being tipped at the National Theatre of Scotland’s next big hit.

QUICK BITES

GOLDEN CHOPSTICKS: Edinburgh’s multi-cuisine restaurant Cosmo - famed for its all-you-can-eat buffet – has been named the Best Restaurant in Scotland at the Golden Chopsticks Award, which recognises outstanding East and South East Asian cuisine.

SIX OF THE BEST: The team behind the Six by Nico chain has announced the opening of two brand-new Edinburgh restaurants in a £2 million investment – a new Six by Nico and a Somewhere by Nico. The openings are due to take place in June and the new venues will be located next to one another in the former Foundry 39 building on Queensferry Street.