Pilton Sucks dotCom

Friends and readers. If you care to take a walk through Royston as we do regularly, you to will have seen if not had a mishap on them the ever decreasing state of the pavements and the roads. It would seem dear friends the local council have lots of spare cash for speedbumps judging by the amount they have built in Wardieburn and Royston.  Not everybody is a “boy racer.”

Indeed some of the -TRAGIC CALMING METHODS - are like mountains and you would need a landrover to get over them certainly a case of over-enthusiasim.  Is it not just as important to have safe pavements and streets free from bear trap potholes and seismic cracks in the pavements. With so many potholes around the community its amazing that no one has seriously hurt them selves but then people probably know where they are.

Edinburgh has so many potholes our rulers should get it put in the tourist guide Wecome to Edinburgh but watch were you walk and put a spare suspension kit in the back of your car-just in case.

P.S. One place that won’t be in the guide, guess where?  Yes you are right - THE WATERFRONT DEVELOPMENT - in fact the Pilton punters  might even be barred form their streets just in case the punters moving in catch the local disease the pothole syndrome.

 

PiltonSucks.com have recently been to Ainslie Park leisure centre, which as you know is on Pilton Drive.  One of our associates asked a member of staff if they knew if local people used the centre, she replied that more local people were now using it and that was good for the centre.  We were aware of the leisure card which allows use of the facilities for one pound, which we were informed were issued on a post code basis.

So the increase in usage although welcomed by PiltonSucks.com is dependant on where you live in the community and which postcode has the card at anyone time - we hope you follow this so far.  As most of the residents will know the leisure centre has far from dropped its prices in fact they have recently been increased and therefore out reach of the average Greater Pilton family.

It is our opinion that although very welcome the postcode card is a quick fix to a growing dissaftisfaction with the private club mentality which the centre seems to be creeping towards.

Healthy activities have to be encouraged and certainly amongst our community’s children. Do you the citizens think that we should only be afforded postcode health?

Sounds familiar does it not!

Pilton Sucks.com is campaiging to end bullying in the workplace and to that end we have posted a series of articles outlining this huge problem - especially as practiced in Muirhouse Social Work Department.

Conforming to one victim’s description of a convincing and practised liar with a Jekyll and Hyde personality,the adult bully is often charming. He or she is usually verbally confident and can be adept at using language to make his or her actions seem plausible. But there are several indicators that under the sweet talk all may not be well.

These include random and impulsive decision-making, an obsession with conformity and procedures an inability to distinguish the important from the trivial, an officious man and petty-mindedness.  Many bullies are emotionally or professionally insecure, but this will rarely show. What will come across is arrogance an constant denial of any wrong-doing

More than 90 per cent of reported cases are caused by a serial bully. Bullying is not just a matter of taking a dislike to someone, it is a more deep-rooted psychological problem that means the bully moves easily from victim to victim. 

Open Letter to Peter Gabbitas 

Mr. Peter Gabbitas
Director of Health and Social Care
City of Edinburgh Council

Dear Sir,

We at PiltonSucks.Com are campaigning for an end to bullying.  We have already highlighted the plight of the MUIRHOUSE TWO where no investigation of any real substance has taken place, but just a series of cover-ups to protect the bully who is still in post in Muirhouse Social Work Centre.

We are also calling for a full independent inquiry into the goings on in M.S.W.C and why the powers that be seem to be sitting on their hands confident in the thought that they have managed to cover up for the bully while trying to rubbish the two victims of this awful mess.  We have this week spoken to a member of staff at M.S.W.C who confirms our allegations of bullying this member of staff also confirmed the name of this bully. The staff member has told us that they overheard and seen verbal abuse being directed at one of the MUIRHOUSE TWO and had spoken about it with a colleague, this person went on to tell us that they had been upset by what they had heard, but such is the culture of fear that exists in M.S.W.C they were too frightened to come forward but insists bullying had and was still going on.

Today we ask you Mr. Gabbitas, in this open letter, to step in and take immediate action and start to clean this mess up.

We at PiltonSucks.com will continue to highlight and campaign against bullying. The buck stops with you sir do not be fooled into believing all is well.  It certainly is not and it is in your remit to take action. We urge action now before this tragedy takes another spiral downwards.           

PiltonSucks.com   

Readers will remember that Mr Gabbitas got the job over what councillors thought was a better candidate last year.  For more information: http://www.scotsman.com/?id=342212005                

Readers and friends, at last it would seem that the courts have seen sense and awarded a victim of bullying 20,000 pounds. Gwent county Council made the award out of court to avoid liability and costs.

So over to you Edinburgh what are you going to do about your bullying problem. PiltonSucks.com has already highlighted the torment of the MUIRHOUSE TWO and as we have already stated the social work dept. both in Muirhouse and at Shrubhill are covering up what is going on.

But beware, the law is catching up with you so it would be in your own interests to deal with this bullying problem. As we have already said, a former employee of Muirhouse social work dept has come forward to speak to PiltonSucks.com to tell us of the terrible way he was treated by the Muirhouse bully, how long do the social work dept think they can get away with covering up the truth about the extent of the bullying problem.

With bullying now being openly accepted as a crime by the courts we at PiltonSucks.com are convinced that Muirhouse social work department are guilty by cover up and mis-information. Bullying is a disease in our society which has to be removed, the courts now agree so there may just be light at the end of the tunnel.

Friends and readers our green spaces are quickly dissapearing to be replaced by housing mostly private mostly out of reach for the average punter in the greater pilton community. The enviromental problems are plainly obvious as is the running down of the existing community. Now our rulers have a good excuse for not investing in the existing stock, blame the tenants who voted no in the recent ballot that took place on stock transfer.

We are now facing the reality of a concrete jungle, only part of the jungle will be substancially richer than the other. In their obscene haste to sell any part of land that our rulers can get away with they forget that as human beings and not just voting fodder we need to be able to see and breath in greenery.

We at PiltonSucks.com are saddened that our rulers have no vision when it comes to green space just a desire to make money and dam what anyone else has to say, in fact completly dissmissed and written off as trouble makers.

You in the near future may reap what you sow or in this case what you allow to be built, so stop and think for a moment and see what you are allowing to happen, green replaced by grey for the sake of greed

Friends and readers. We at PiltonSucks.com have been contacted by a former employee of the Muirhouse social work department who has told us that he too was bullied and harrased by the same person who is currently being protected by the social work department.

This person told us that they were in despair at how they were treated and felt the only course of action was to leave. They also told us they were more than willing to come forward if an investigation takes place.

PiltonSucks.com now urges anybody, past or present, who has been a victim of this bully to come forward and make themselves known to us. We will, if you wish, protect your identity and pass the information to the investigation team if and when this takes place. We believe this bully to be a serial bully and there will be more victims who have suffered at his hands. Do not be afraid to come forward in many ways it is your duty to expose this horrible little man and put a permanant stop to his behaviour.

PiltonSucks.com pleads that Lord Provost Lesley Hinds will get involved as both the Muirhouse Six Circle and the Muirhouse social work department are, or in the Six Circles case, were in the ward she was elected to represent. Let us see what lies she is told.

If Councillor Hinds wishes she can contact us and we will furnish her with the names and details of the MUIRHOUSE TWO. We are also happy to give her the details of the former employee who has contacted us. If Councillor Hinds does not wish to take up our offer she could ask in the community, we are realiably informed that one of the MUIRHOUSE TWO is well known and respected in the community.

Well friends and readers, PiltonSucks.com would like to offer a challenge to any member of the community. There are no particular ground rules, you can phone a friend you can hold a public meeting and ask the audience you could even be daring enough to question your elected member at his or her surgeries.

The challenge is simply this, who will be the first person to spot an affordable house on the new waterfront development.  Of course you would not expect the challenge to be that easy, although you have we believe, more chance of landing on the moon.  That aside there is a supplementry question.  If or when you spot this very elusive affordable home you have to guess how much it will cost,easy is it not?

We at PiltonSucks.com are so confident that no-one will be able to win this challenge we are putting up this fabulous once only offer.

One month from today if no-one has spotted and costed an affordable home PiltonSucks.com will ask our elected members to resign all at once Messers Fitzpatrick, Maginnis and Hinds.  Oh and of course, Mr. Communities Minister and moral coward Chisholm.

PiltonSucks.com are reasonable people we will give you a clue in your hunt for this prized treasure.

We were promised 23% of homes built would be affordable, should not be too hard to find one then should it?

 

Friends and readers it is almost the end of an era, as Granton primary school is to be closed and the land sold off for, would you believe even more rabbit hutches passed off as houses. The schools educational standards under the stewardship of head teacher Mr. Burns have been excellent but that cuts no ice with our local councillor Elizabeth Maginnis who along with her cronies have decided that out with the old and in with the pasturised and sanitised new.

PiltonSucks.com like many other residents fail to see why this school has to close and re-open on Granton Hill.  Surely it could not be to impress the new residents who will be moving into those splendid new homes being built on the waterfront.

But alas as you can guess the truth of the matter is clear, get rid of the school because it is in the way of so called progress, sell off the land to the highest bidder (which of course has already been Pre-decided) and fob off the punters with a third rate building built and leased to our rulers by private enterprise.

So readers PiltonSucks.com asks quite reasonably so what about the kids education?  Surely the peoples party has the interest of working class kids at heart or have they become an embarrasment to Labour as they suck up to private enterprise, only to happy to forget abut who put them in their position in the first place.

Pilton sucks.com offers a thought you may wish to take on board, while those elected members are busy shutting down your community and selling off anything they can, where does that leave the local punter?   Answer, up the creek without the paddle.  So friends and readers what next in the greater Pilton auction where the shout can be clearly heard -EVERYTHING MUST GO! 

 

Friends and readers a new dawn is approaching us with a new purpose built community centre in the grounds of royston school. Sounds good does it not but let us dig a little deeper and what is revealed is not quite so exiciting and dynamic.

Some time ago a survey went out into the community asking them about their preferences regarding a new centre. A clear majority of surveys returned suggested a demolition and rebuild on the same site in pilton drive north. So far so good ah but wait on this did not happen what the residents were first offered by our rulers was a community wing used mainly for meeting places for outside organisations thereby geting rid of the old centre and all its baggage and replacing it with something that would exclude the community.

It is worth mentioning that public money had been used for a feisability study, pilton sucks believes it to have been around 9000 pounds to tell the community what it already knew.Two scale models were also produced and at a public meeting option b was chosen.

Somewhere along the line major changes were made without any consultation with the community and the end product as mentioned was a community wing. So a debate started which at times became quite heated as emotions ran quite high,but instead of looking to our rulers to explain themselves as to why they were selling us out a depression fell across the community feeling once again they had been let down.

But fear not after a long and somewhat heated debate the community has its new centre complete with a sports hall of comparable size, all’s well that ends well - not quite.

It would now seem, according to one source that after being promised a new centre, once again the community is about to let down again because we are now told that there is a million pound shortfall. This is completely unaceptable - promises were made they must be kept! Our local rulers seem to be to pre-occupied with forelock tugging to the land speculators of the waterfront development, they seem to have forgotten that it is the people who put them there, it is the people who will remove them.

The desperation to grab the land on which the community centre stands and sell it to their developer friends is reaching fever pitch.  What even more shoe box like houses to be built surely not but it would seem thats what will happen, as our rulers are tucked up in bed even more tightly with the speculators than before, so the community is really just an irritant getting in the way of progress

Progress my friends! We at PiltonSucks.com think not.

We have a suggestion to make and the elections are next year. Why not punish our rulers at the ballot box they will take it for granted at being re-elected as one party member let slip to us. This is safe labour territory we will walk in. Oh will they be complacent indeed.

We at PiltonSucks.com have followed events in greater Pilton for some considerable time and in particular our attention has been attracted to an activist who has been suggesting it is time for a community candidate to step forward and plug the gap. We suggest this person stands and puts back some dignity into a community which has had its self-respect and dignity slowly stripped away over the years.

Be in no doubt readers, the community of greater Pilton needs political change as a matter of urgency to save what is left of the community’s heart and soul.  So act now be ready to take up the baton and run with it.  It is your community it is not the property of some past its sell by date political party, but the living breathing embodiment of its residents. 

The proposed new centre is an opportunity to grab the initiative and let our rulers know that it is the residents of Royston Wardieburn who will demand nothing less than a community centre for all the residents and encourage everyone all over the community to use and support it. This new centre is long overdue, do not let our rulers sell us short.