Category Archives: PEDAL

PEDAL has received a Climate Challenge Fund award for a pro­ject which includes devel­op­ment of the orch­ard, plus oth­er food ini­ti­at­ives as well as the intro­duc­tion of energy sav­ing meas­ures for Portobello res­id­ents. The announce­ment of the new Climate Challenge Fund pro­jects was made on Wednesday , 31 March [list of all pro­jects fun­ded in this round are avail­able here].  As part of the announce­ment the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Environment, Richard Lochhead, met up with mem­bers of PEDAL as well as oth­er recip­i­ents of fund­ing at a recep­tion at the King’s Manor hotel.  The event was atten­ded by rep­res­ent­at­ives of Keep Scotland Beautiful, who will admin­is­ter the grants, and Robin Harper MSP, who is also the pro­spect­ive par­lia­ment­ary can­did­ate for the the Green Party for the Westminster con­stitu­ency of Edinburgh East.

The party pro­ceeded to the orch­ard just as it was start­ing to snow but luck­ily some of the Scottish Government rep­res­ent­at­ives had come armed with their wel­lies!  Access to the site was made easi­er in the inclement weath­er by the newly installed path and PEDAL rep­res­ent­at­ives explained our plans for the orch­ard, as well as the energy part of the pro­ject.  A brief photo shoot of the min­is­ter, the MSP and the groups con­cluded the vis­it.  The min­is­ter then had to rush off to see the flood dam­age in Musselburgh, where the River Esk had burst its banks due to the incess­ant rain over the last 24 hours or so — a timely remind­er of the urgent need to tackle cli­mate change perhaps?