Tripping up Trump

Tripping Up Trump is a fresh energised movement standing up for the local people and environment threatened by Donald Trump’s development in Aberdeenshire.

This real life story is no longer just about whether you agree or not with the controversial golf and housing complex. This is now about the human rights of the local people threatened by Donald Trump’s aggressive use of power. Trump is pushing to use compulsory purchase to clear local people from their land, not for a school, or a hospital, but for his profit.

Worse still, Trump received outlined planning permission on the grounds that he had all the land he needed. This is why Tripping Up Trump stands strong, demanding that Donald Trump doesn’t abuse the law and locals affected by his controversial golf course.

Say NO to compulsory purchase and sign their petition!

Like the Caltongate Clearances its a case of homes not hotels, our homes are not on a monopoly board for the rich and greedy.

Photo below shows SOOT campaigners setting up their demonstration outside City of Edinburgh Council City Chambers on the Royal Mile on the morning of the 15th June 2006 before the planning committee met for the third time to consider the revised Masterplan The Forum attended and gave a deputation calling for a council and community led plan.

Film & Discussion Fri 19th 7pm

This years Old Town Festival is about`Home` with the stories of the Old Town`s unique houses and buildings, and the people who have made the Old Town their place.

SOOT have organised 4 events in the programme, all of which are FREE and all take place at the Scottish Storytelling Centre

Friday 19th June 7pm (90mins)

A screening of the film Smoke and Mirrors, a documentary, made in partnership with ‘Edinburgh Against Stock Transfer’ campaign group, documents their successful challenge to The City of Edinburgh Council’s plan to privatise all 23,000 of the city’s council homes. It considers the impact of gentrification programmes on working-class communities, and shows how a well-organised grass-roots, community-based struggle can challenge and defeat deeply unpopular policy decisions.

The screening will be followed by a discussion with the film maker Neil Gray.

See here for background on successful campaign

Re-Bridge The Gap Campaign

A new campaign to bring back the connection above from the Old Town to the New Town over Waverley Station was launched this week by a Canongate resident, never stop do we?? Its in the stonework we think.

In the campaign`s words - "Re-Bridge the Gap is a campaign group formed to secure the re-instatement of the important and historic link between the Old Town and Leith Walk. This is a historic link that existed for hundreds of years before British Rail closed it in the mid-1950s. For most of its history, it was the primary route from Edinburgh to Leith in the form of a street outside Edinburgh's eastern boundary called Leith Wynd. Due to the City Improvement Act of 1867, Leith Wynd was replaced with Cranston Street, which at the time ran all the way from the top of the Canongate to Calton Road. During the redevelopment of Waverley Station in the 1890s, objections to closing the northern section were so strong that Parliament required a pedestrian route be created and maintained by the railway company, to ensure the link between the Old Town and Calton Road was not lost. To satisfy this legal requirement, a footbridge was built from Jeffrey Street, across the roof of Waverley Station, to Calton Road."

See more and take action before the 15th of May at the campaign`s website here

The Canongate is going to be covered in SOOT once again here